Summary: Andrea arranges a meeting between Rick and the Governor so they can work things out. They discuss things and subtly threaten each other. Daryl and Martinez interact outside the room. At the prison, Merle wants to show up to kill the Governor bur Glenn refuses to do it. The Governor offers a peace with Rick if he gives him Michonne. Rick says he will think on it and the two parties part. The Governor has no intention of letting Rick survive but pretends all is fine with Andrea. Rick is aware of the Governor's intentions and refuses to give him Michonne.
The Good: The episode opened up nicely. The silent sequence of Rick and Daryl searching around some mystery location was interesting and tense. I was never quite sure what they were looking for and that made me invested in the scene. The Governor walking out of the shadows at the end was nice and his mannerisms were fun. The interactions between Rick and The Governor were good for the most part. The odd line is really good and I like that they have been allowed to build a more personal rivalry. It helps that David Morrisey and Andrew Lincoln are both excellent in this episode, adding to the chemistry of the scenes. Furthermore, I thought that The Governor's request of Michonne made sense with his character, and even better was him deciding to kill Rick anyways after he gets Michonne. It was consistent with what he has done this season. Rick not buying into The Governor's deal was also a good development and it made sense. The interactions between Daryl/Martinez/Hershel/Milton were all good fun. They worked as nice little character bonding moments to showcase the four characters. Daryl and Martinez sharing a cigarette as the two main henchmen worked as an emotional scene. The Bad: The episode is fine on paper but it does nothing for me on screen. The scenes between Rick and The Governor try to be Tarantino-esque but they fail. The issue is that the scenes lack suspense and the whole gun-under-the-table dynamic doesn't work at all. This is because it's blatantly obvious that Rick and The Governor aren't going to die in this scene. They will both survive and the show does nothing to make you think otherwise. The dialogue is usually what really makes these scenes stand out, but it's so ordinary here. There ends up being no drama and very little of actual substance happening. The show is capable of pulling off scenes like this (look at "Nebraska" from season 2), but this wasn't done well enough. The bigger issue is that there is literally nothing else going on in this episode. As a whole, this episode is useless to the actual story. Nothing is accomplished. The two factions start the episode at war, and then they end it off at war. Nothing changes. The episode is pointless. I'm willing to accept a bottle episode without any plot progression, but it must include the appropriate emotions and character significance to work. A few scenes of characters talking/arguing does not accomplish this. The slow pacing doesn't help either. This episode drags a lot and there isn't anything of interest that actually gripped me or had me sucked into what I was watching after the opening sequence. Slow pacing isn't always bad, but there must be some emotion that is being examined with this pace. Hell look at "Clear", that episode didn't have plot progression and was also a slower episode, but it was terrific. This one is the total opposite. I liked that Rick got a new conflict about whether to give up Michonne to survive or not. Unfortunately it leads nowhere and became a complete waste. Instead of seeing Rick grapple with this decision, he jumps to the obvious decision that it's meaningless to do so since the Governor will kill them all anyways. Because of this, it seems pointless to bring up the Michonne conflict if it isn't going to be explored in any way. And that's a shame because it had potential to be an interesting conflict. Glenn and Maggie having sex was odd. The scene was shot strangely and I was annoyed by them just abandoning their job. If everyone dies because the Woodbury people attack, it's all their fault for deciding to have sex for some reason. The Unknown: It's obvious that the deal won't go through, but I'll ask the question anyways. Will Rick sacrifice Michonne for his people? Best Moment: Daryl and Martinez having a smoke was nice. Character of the Episode: The Governor. Conclusion: This was poor. It was slow, dull, meaningless and devoid of tension. This was probably the most forgettable episode of the show so far. Score: 47
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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