It was a very different episode of The Walking Dead this week. It focuses entirely on The Governor, and what happened to him after the Woodbury incident. It felt a bit out of the blue, but it actually worked. Considering he was lurking in the bushes at the end of last week, it makes sense that it’s time to find out where he’s been.
The Governor, Martinez, and Shumpert escaped into the woods after The Governor massacred a bunch of their own people. They are camping in the woods, but The Governor awakes one morning to find Martinez and Shumpert gone. Looks like he is finally on his own. And I don’t feel one bit sorry for him.
The Governor was wandering for months, even sporting a scraggly, not too impressive beard. He finds a family holed up in an apartment. They are weary of him at first and let him stay in one of the other apartments for the night, but take his gun. It’s two sisters, their father, and a young daughter. I immediately feared that The Governor would kill two women, a child, and a dying elderly man.
For whatever reason, people find the Governor endearing. Maybe it’s the lack of human contact, but everyone seems to fall for him. His one night stay turns into helping the family in all sorts of ways. He goes into another apartment to get a backgammon game for the girl and her grandfather. He finds a gun in that apartment, so I’m assuming evil is to come.
The girl’s mother convinces The Governor (he told them his name was Brian) to go to a nearby old folks’ home to get some more oxygen tanks for her father who has lung cancer. He gets a couple of tanks, but not before almost getting caught by quite a few walkers in the building. While Lily is patching up his wounds, he strikes up a friendship with her daughter Megan.
The Governor is teaching Megan how to play chess when her grandfather dies. He knows that the man will turn, but is unable to get them out of the room before he does. The zombified man almost gets his daughter, but The Governor bashes his head in with a fire extinguisher. Megan is now afraid of the Governor, because to her he just killed her grandfather.
He tries to leave, but Lily tells him that he’s stuck with them now, and she wants to leave the apartment and try and go somewhere else. They drive off and set up a makeshift camp. The Governor and Lily end up sleeping together, proving once again that beggars can’t be choosers. The truck won’t start, so they are forced to walk and find another car.
They come across a bunch of walkers, and need to make a break for it. Oh, and Lily’s sister inexplicably fell down a minute earlier, so she’s limping badly. Megan for some reason is not running. The Governor is begging her to run, and she runs right into his arms. I guess in adversity she had found forgiveness.
As they are running away, The Governor (carrying Megan) falls into a hole. The kicker? It’s got walkers in it. The Governor manages to kill all the walkers, and promises Megan he won’t let anything happen to her. They look up and see Martinez pointing a gun at them.
You could basically recap the bare bones of this episode in about 3 sentences, but I still really enjoyed it. It was nice to meet some new people, and just not have to deal with the other storyline for one week. It looks like next will be all or partially focused on Martinez’ new settlement, and The Governor, so it may be another week with Rick, Carl, or the others.
