Last week’s episode of The Walking Dead,
“Live Bait,” saw the return of the most notorious villain in the franchise,
David Morrissey’s the Governor. After his season three meltdown, he’s been out,
wandering the zombie-infested wastes, trying to find himself, and you think,
after he falls in with a family, that maybe, just maybe he’s finally changed.
At the end of the episode, the Governor and his brood encounters Martinez (Jose
Pablo Cantillo), his old buddy from Woodbury, and the question is left hanging,
is he really any different? It’s like the dilemma that faces every recovering
addict, when old faces and old triggers surround you, can you stay strong in
your convictions? Read on to find out how he reacts in tonight’s episode, “Dead
Weight.”
Initially, things look like they’re going to be fine. The
Governor and his new pseudo family are settling in nicely, Martinez is going
along with the illusion that the Governor is now “Brian,” and in general it
looks like maybe they’ve found a new place to call home. You can tell that the
Governor isn’t entirely comfortable with the situation, and Mitch (Kirk
Acevedo) gives him shit at every turn—“I can’t tell if he’s winking or blinking”—but
it could be worse. This idyllic peace, as you well know, cannot and will not
last, and things unravel in short order.
Food is in short supply, and though things in the camp are
good, the surrounding lands aren’t all that peachy. On a supply run, the
Governor and the boys find a collection of headless bodies tied down, with
signs that say things like “liar” and “rapist” nailed to their chests. A short
time later, they find a cabin, inside are a collection of severed, and very
much still bitey heads, as well as the zombified wife and child of the former
inhabitant. Interesting. Who do we know that collected zombie heads and kept
undead family members around well past their expiration dates?
When they come across another camp, smaller, weaker, not as
well armed, but stocked to the gills with supplies, instead of rousting them
for their stuff, like the Governor of old, the guys leave them be. Later they
see the camp again, this time in ruins. Mitch is pissed that they missed their
chance to jack the camp, but Brian doesn’t chime in on the matter.
After a few heart-to-hearts with Martinez, you start to suspect
that perhaps, somewhere deep down, the Governor really has changed. It quickly
becomes clear, however, that may not be the case when Martinez offers him part
of the throne of this new kingdom. Mid drunken golf game—who know you could
still whack a bucket of balls after the end of the world—the Governor clubs his
old friend over the head and drags him into a pit full of zombies. A simple no
would have sufficed.
Martinez’s offer is too tempting, he can’t face something
that enticing every day, so after he offs his buddy, he tries to leave, a plan
that fails miserably. When escape is taken away, he only has one choice, and
that is to become what he once was in order to keep his new family safe. As he
says to Mitch, you don’t have to worry about doing the right or wrong thing,
because they’ll be doing the only thing. In his mind, by
his, admittedly warped, logic, violently usurping the power over this new
group, is the only way.
This scenario offers a parallel glimpse at how he came to
rule over Woodbury. He never wanted the power, he never wanted the
responsibility, but in his way, he did the only thing he thought that he could
to protect what he cared about. Sure, he’s a mass-murdering psychopath, but
even he has reasons and motivation for doing what he does. From his
perspective, his decisions are completely rational.
When a walker wanders into camp, and it is clear that they
won’t be able to stay where they are for much longer, they talk about the need
to find a “better place.” As he peruses a map, you can’t help but wonder if the
place he has in mind is the prison where Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and company have
been laying their head.
None of this is unexpected. The Walking
Dead spent too much time setting the Governor up as a villain to be
able to flip the switch over the course of a single episode. It isn’t that
easy. You know the show wanted you to believe, that they
intended you to believe, but it takes more than a moment to
sell that, and you never do buy in. The sentiment and emotion never ring true,
and the whole episode has a fake, saccharine feel to it.
Just in case you didn’t get the point that he’s fully back
to his old ways, the Governor pays a visit to the dead guy he murdered then
dumped in the lake. Now the weighed down, and very hungry, zombie struggles to
reach the surface just a few inches away. This guy has a serious fetish for
zombies in water. That look on his face is the same one he had so many times in
season three, just before he went and did something mean to someone.
The moment you wondered if the Governor meant the prison,
you know it isn’t even a question, and that is exactly what he meant. “Dead
Weight” ends right where you first saw him two episodes ago, standing outside
the prison. This time around you get a little bit more. Earlier his intentions
weren’t clear—okay, they were if you’ve ever paid attention to The
Walking Dead, but they weren’t supposed to be,
subtlety has never been a strong suit, after all—but when he draws his gun and
takes aim at Michonne (Danai Gurira), his purpose is crystal clear.
And if you somehow, some way, still had questions about what
he plans to do, the sneak peek at next week’s mid-season finale, “Too Far
Gone,” removes any last remaining shadow of a doubt. They take all this trouble
to set up what is intended to be a cliffhanger, and then shoot it straight to
hell. There isn’t even a commercial break between the show and the teaser.
“Dead Weight” is the first episode of this season that
really feels like nothing more than filler. Before this the episodes had been,
not great, but consistent week to week. In reality, one wasted episode out of
seven isn’t bad compared to previous seasons. It’s certainly a much better
ratio than in season three, where at least every other episode was total
garbage, but it is an unfortunate waste of time. By all indications, next
week’s finale is set up to be totally bonkers, but how many times have we seen
a scenario where that should have been the case, but the
series let you down?
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