'Walk With Me' - The Walking Dead, Season Three

The Walking Dead

Season Three

Episode Three

'Walk With Me' - 7.0

Slow, yes, but also a bit of an info dump. 

The third season's x-episode presented a whole new world for two of our heroes to play around with, as well as a possible new human villain with a thirst for... guns, or something. 

Anyone who reads about this show online has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of 'The Governor', a human antagonist who rules his little safe haven known as 'Woodbury' with a seemingly kind hand, only to be working a seedy agenda underneath it all. I'm not overly familiar with the comics, so I can't say how accurately David Morrissey plays the literary version, but the character we see tonight has a very admirable and threatening level of both sincerity (even if it is insincere) and malice. 

I don't think any viewer can be expected to see the Governor as a good guy when we meet; his method of bringing in Michonne (who is finally named tonight) and Andrea was less than comforting, even if he didn't actually choose how they were handled. Turns out it was actually a downed helicopter that saved the ailing Andrea, as it allowed the two girls converge with the Woodbury gang and be apprehended by the Governor's troops.

It would be remiss of me not to mention one particular plot point from 'Walk With Me': Merle's back. Yes, Daryl's brother who was handcuffed to a pipe on an Atlanta rooftop and forced to saw off his own hand comes across his old co-survivor hanging out in the wilderness. Turns out the redneck had been swept up the Governor's group and given shelter and medical care, much like what Andrea receives when she arrives in Woodbury. We learn that it may have come at a cost though; Merle appears entirely subordinate to, even frightened of, his new leader, even though this isn't really explored. He just does everything that is asked of him, which doesn't fit too well with the Merle we remember from season one. It has been like eight months of hell though.

Michonne didn't leave that big an impression on me, however her treatment of her two walkers was shocking. When they started making too much noise when the Governor's troops roll up at the crash, she grabs her katana and decapitates the two of them with no hesitation, though we see later that they aren't actually killed. They're just two heads now though, and that's just disturbing. Who is this Michonne though? She refuses to reveal who the walkers once were, she has absolute trust issues and she doesn't even seem to like Andrea that much. Hopefully she transcends the troubled, quiet and tough girl persona that the show has already carved out for her and becomes a real and relatable adaption of her illustrated counterpart.

The downed helicopter leaves an injured pilot in the hands of the Governor, and from his word they are able to locate a small military convoy, which our new villain approaches while waving a white flag. Once he's close enough and has their attention, he and his men storm the troops with a shower of machine gun bullets, taking the ammo and vehicles all for themselves, then informing the normal people back at Woodbury that the men had been dead by the time they arrived. 

He also has a scientist, for some reason. It's known that he is trying to rebuild 'civilisation', though what the implications of this are is beyond me. Why does that involve regressing to the basic instincts of everyone-for-themselves? Surely a group of cooperative soldiers would be highly useful in defending Woodbury from an inevitable zombie ambush. There is something else going on here and I can't quite discern what it is yet. Does it have something to do with his room full of re-animated heads in aquariums? What was that?

So many questions! But that's good! I love to be intrigued by television, it is one of the most useful emotions to evoke, as it forces us to return to the show to work out the truth. Think Lost, though we rarely tune into a show just for a mystery. Again, think Lost, which could count on a stellar ensemble cast playing beautifully realised characters, and then think ‘the Event’, which attempted to depend on its mystery without granting us any worthwhile players in the plot. The Walking Dead didn't have any great mysteries, and it still doesn't. All we have are the questions; Who is the Governor? What is his plan, and how does it involve Woodbury? Why does he have a scientist? Of course, this lucky show also has amazing characters to question with us, though I noted that the absences of all but two of the main characters was barely felt. I guess these people are wonderfully realistic, but so much so that they aren't entirely likeable. Doesn't matter though, as long as we want to know what happens to them we don't actually need to like them! That, in a nut shell, is why the Walking Dead is such a success.