The Walking Dead - S3E8 - "Made to Suffer" Recap of the mid-season finale

And here we are at the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead.  As I'm sure most fans know the episodes resume in February, so this episode needed to satiate the thirst for zombie slaying and human on human crime for two months... Lets see how they did!

The Recap

We start of this week with a nice visual of a southern sunset, which pans down to a walkers feet.  As the camera pans up we get a nice close up of a female walker shuffling through the woods with the screams of a woman in the distance.

Suddenly, A wild Tyreese appears!

For those unfamiliar with the comics, Tyreese comes into play much sooner in the story line   He is an ex NFL linebacker who likes to dispose of zombies with his trusty hammer which he uses right away to take out the walker wit a pair of swings to the face.

Stop... HAMMERTIME!

Also as we know on this show when it comes to black male characters, it's really a highlander spin-off...

So queue the countdown to Oscar's death...

Tyreese then runs through the woods when another girl jumps out at him with a shovel.  They quickly recognize each other and Tyreese asks Sasha where the rest of the group is.  She said they were right behind here so they continue to backtrack.  They come across a group of 3 people fighting off a larger group of walkers.  There is a girl wielding a crowbar which she uses to dislocate a walkers jaw, while a younger guy uses a machete to slice down the middle of a walkers skull.

Your supposed to take the weapon with you stupid

The third member of the group is using a bat to beat a walker back and they start moving toward Tyreese and Sasha.

Tyreese hammers another walker in the head clearing a path, but the girl who was using the crowbar is bringing up the rear and gets jumped from the side, getting her arm bit in the process.  We find out here that she is the mother of the boy with the machete, it was really subtle when he yelled "MOM".  The bat guy hits the walker who is biting her and helps her escape.

They come from all angles...

They run through a clearing and up to a fence.  They debate if they should take the bitten girl in, Sasha doesn't want to, but Tyreese says they need to keep her with them for the time being.  As the climb through a damaged part of the fence, the camera pans up to see a building that appears to have been halfway leveled.  As it continues to pan out, it becomes obvious they are entering the prison that Rick's group was occupying all season.

Next we find Andrea trying to pretty herself up in front of a mirror in the Governors apartment.  She looks down and finds a picture of the Governors family, and examines it. He comes in, walking up being her and Andrea says that she is off to help Milton create the remains of Mr. Coleman.  He says she doesn't need to do that if it's bugging her, but she says that is what people in Woodbury do, they help each other.  He mentions how he thinks Woodbury is growing on her, and she walks away.  We see him look down at the frame of his family picture and grit his teeth.

The Governor is in the aquarium room where he turns on some music.  He calls out for Penny after unlocking a cage that leads back into the wall.  She charges out, in the straight jacket and with the hood on being held by a chain.   He removes her mask, and begins to sing to her.   While this is happening, there appears to be a bowl of meat that she is growing at.  This angers the Governor and he begins telling her to look at him, eventually screaming it before caging Penny back up.

Can't count the amount of things that are wrong here

Skip down to the room where Glenn and Maggie are being held.  Glenn has taken off his shirt and given it to Maggie allowing her to cover up.  Glenn begins to ask what happened and she confirms that she was not raped.  Maggie talks about how they spend so much time being afraid of walkers, they forger how dangerous people are, which really has been the theme of the new season so far.  They hug, and then Glenn walks over to the walker he killed last week.  He rips its arm off, and then starts peeling off the flesh.   Eventually he has it down to the bones, which he hands to Maggie to use at a weapon.  Bone shanks for the win!

Outside Rick's little posse watches the walls.  Michonne disappears for a minute, and Rick tells them to strip down to the bare essentials to lighten the load.  When Michonne comes back, they follow her.

Inside the Governor is talking to Merle about the prison.  Merle asks if he wants to move Woodbury to the prison, which he doesn't.  He just thinks it's a good idea to take out any groups in their backyard so to speak. His brilliant plan is to do the same thing they did with the national guard, wave the white flag and shoot everyone.  Merle asks what to do with Glenn and Maggie.  The Governor says he doesn't want to risk Andrea stumbling into them, so take them to the screamer pits.

Meanwhile Michonne leads the group into a dark building.  They question if she is leading them into a trap.  Rick pulls Daryl and Oscar aside and tells them that if she is they need to be ready to kill her.  A guy patrolling the Woodbury streets hears noises and comes into the building, saying no one is supposed to be there.  Rick grabs him, puts a wadded up rag in his mouth while Daryl knocks him out cold.

In the prison Axel is in a cell with Beth, Carl and Judith.  Axel is doing his best perverted old man, hitting on Beth.  Carl looks like he is ready to put a bullet in Axel before Carol comes up and pulls Axel out.  She tells him to quit hitting on Beth, and he complains that everyone is taken or a lesbian.  Carol laughs, saying she isn't a lesbian.  Axel thinks that made things more interesting, and she says it doesn't and walks off.

Doesn't know Carl has dibs on Beth

Next we see Merle and a couple of his peons going to get Maggie and Glenn.  When they open the door Glenn and Maggie come out swinging.  Maggie uses the bone shank to stab the guy in front in the neck.

Apparently they didn't know Maggie has been in prison

An Uzi goes off when the other guy gets knocked down alerting everyone in town that something is happening including Rick's posse.  Rick and the others use the commotion to sneak out of the house.  Merle gets up and pulls a gun on Maggie, but Glenn grabs his arm.  In the tumble Merle ends up on top with his knife hand at Glenn's throat.  In the meantime though, Maggie has gained control of the Uzi and tells Merle to let him go. Merle smiles as he says "okay" and then two other guys come in and get the drop on Maggie.  Merle uses the distraction to stanch her gun, and he yells at Glenn to get up.

We see Ricks group sneaking through poorly lit hallways.  They stop at a corner and watch an armed man pass.  They advance behind him ducking under a window of sorts and peak through.  Inside we see Glenn and Maggie on their knees.  Glenn tells her to keep looking at him.  She tells him she loves him as one of the henchmen puts a bag over her head.  As Merle and his guys escort them out, Daryl uses a flash bang and a smoke bomb to provide a distraction   Rick and the others run in while Daryl provides cover fire to pull Maggie and Glenn out. Daryl and Merle narrowly avoid contact without knowing it.

Outside Andrea walks up to the Governor saying she heard shots and wants to go check it out.  He tells her not to worry about it, it's probably just biters getting in the side gate and he will handle it.  They overhear a girl yelling for help.  As they run up to her it appears she is helping the guy that Daryl knocked out earlier.  The Governor wants to know how many people, and he gets told it was at least 6-7 (counting is hard in the zombiepocalypse).  People are gathering around and freaking out.  The Governor tells them the best thing to do while the sort it out is everyone go to their home, lock doors and shut off lights.  As people disperse to follow his orders a few more of his little militant peons show up and ask whats going on.  He tells them the town is under attack, and they should shoot to kill, not capture.

Rick's group is running through a side street, and duck into a building.  As Oscar checks the windows, Michonne doesn't enter and instead shuts the door and takes off.  Maggie notices that Michonne is gone, Rick just indicates she is on her own now.  Glenn chooses this time to tell Daryl that Merle is the one who beat him.  Daryl asks if Merle is the Governor and Maggie tells him that he is more of his right hand man.  Glenn tells Rick that they gave up the location of the prison.  Daryl thinks he can go meet Merle and rationalize some type of agreement, but Rick says now isn't the time considering they are in hostile territory.  Rick pleads with Daryl saying how much they need him, and Daryl gives in.

Group from Woodbury in the room we first saw Milton doing experiments in.  Milton is asking what's going on, Merle says that people who want what they have are attacking.  Milton being the skeptical nerd he is asks if anyone has actually seen these people, Merle indicates they killed Warren.  The Governor wants to form a couple of patrols against these "terrorists", to which Andrea wants to join, but he won't let her.  Instead he sends Andrea to go house to house and check on the residents despite her repeated pleas to use her gun.

Michonne has ninja'd her way into the governors home, where in the dark she pulls out a chair facing the door, and draws her blade while sitting in it.  Patiently waiting.

Daryl tosses out another smoke grenade to use as cover so the group can make a run for it.  We see Rick take out a guy on a bus with his newly acquired AK.

Former Call of Duty champion

Andrea comes out onto the main street, and people are running everywhere.  She draws her pistol and approaches the commotion as people run past her.  Daryl and Rick each take out another guard.

Sometimes a crossbow just doesn't cut it

The smoke has filled the central part of the town and making it really hard for anyone to see targets.  The Governor spots Andrea and runs up to her while she is firing off pot shots in into the smoke.  We see Rick's group take cover at the front of a building.  Andrea says she saw one of the guys who is attacking, said he was in a prison jump suit.  The Governor immediately decides it's escaped convicts.

Daryl pulls another smoke grenade out, says he will provide cover while they make a run for it.  He tosses the grenade toward the area were a Merle and a few other guys are trying to pick them off from.  Rick and Daryl start laying cover fire as the group moves toward one of the buses being used as a wall.  Oscar starts lifting people up onto it.  Rick turns to his left and has a bit of a hallucination as he sees a guy that looks like Shane coming at him with a shotgun.

Shane as the new Wolverine

In the confusion over what he sees, he lets the guy get a shot off at Oscar (THERE CAN BE ONLY 1!!!!).  Rick finally realizes whats going on and shoots the guy in the head.  He then approaches the body for a closer look and realizes it's not Shane at all.  Too bad for Oscar though...  Maggie is calling for help, but realizes he is too hurt to help, so she finishes off Oscar with a shot to the head.  Rick runs to Maggie and the bus, while calling for Daryl to come. Daryl yells at him to go as he shoots at Merle.

Back in the prison Hershel is telling Carl and Beth that he just got Judith to sleep.  Carl asks how stocked they are on formula, learning they have about a month supply left.  Carl says at the end of the week he will do a run with Carol to get more.  Beth tells him not to worry because Rick and everyone else will be back by then.  Carl tells her they don't know that for sure and the Judith is his only family at this point.  Suddenly, they hear screaming.  Hershel's first instinct is to check the guard tower Carol was standing guard in, but Carl knows that's not where the screams are coming from.   Carl starts to take off, Hershel attempts to stop him but you can't stop Carl, you can only hope to contain him.  Carl begins searching the hallways of the prison following the noises.

Once you shoot your mom, you get to be a bad-ass

He sees the door to the boiler room, where he last was seen shooting his mom in the face.  A surprise walker pops up and Carl instantly head shots it.  He proceeds into the boiler room and finds Tyreese and his friends fighting walkers.  Tyreese hammers one down and moves to another.  One of them attacks Sasha at close range, and Carl uses his now elite pistol marksmanship to shoot over her shoulder and into the face of the walker.  At the same time MC Hammer takes out another walker and they turn to Carl.

The deadliest pistoler since Wild bill they say

Carl tells them to follow him, but the guy carrying the woman who was bitten earlier is stumbling while trying to support her.  Carl says they should leave her, but Tyreese won't do that.  Tyreese picks her up over a shoulder while Sasha fends a walker off with her shovel and Carl shoots another walker that is approaching.

50 points!

Tyreese punches one walker in the face spinning it around as Carl finishes it off and they take off down the hall.

COMBO!!

Back in the Governors house, Michonne hears a knock in the other room.  She kicks in the door to his little aquarium room, and sees the gruesome sight.

This isn't very feng shui!

She hears noises coming from the gate, so she approaches it and opens it up.  Penny comes out, hooded and chained.  Michonne takes the chain off first, and then rips off her mask revealing her to be a mini-zombie.  Michonne spins her around drawing her sword and is about to decapitate her, when the Governor shows up and yells "NO!" with his gun drawn on her.  Michonne quickly re-positions Penny between them as a shield. He asks Michonne not to hurt her, holstering his pistol and taking off his gun belt.  He tells Michonne that "it's me you want, no need for her to suffer"  Michonne responds with "She doesn't have needs!" and right as the Governor pleads with her to not hurt his little girl, Michonne does this...

You mad now bro?

The Governor screams and attacks her, starting a brutal fight.  He punches her, knocking her onto the ground where he mounts her and begins choking.

The Governor, played this week by Rick James

Michonne manages to reach the case of her sword and uses it to knock him off the top of her.  She gets up quickly, kicking him in the ribs and them climbing on his back while using her weapon case to choke him.  He stands up and backs into a wall, knocking Michonne loose.  He turns into her, grabbing her face and slamming her head into the wall twice before she clamps down on his thumb with her teeth.  He pulls her by her head across the room slamming her face into one of the aquariums.

OH HAI!!!

She grabs the shelf they are on and pulls it down as she backs out, causing all the aquariums to fall and break.  This leaves a few rather active zombie heads on the floor trying to nip at them.  The Governor drags her toward one, but she elbows her way free of his grip.

Nom Nom Nom!

Michonne notices her sword and goes for it, but the Governor mounts her from behind putting her in a rear naked choke.  She reaches up to one of the broken aquariums and dislodges a large shard of glass with her bare hands.  She uses it to stab the governor in the eye, breaking it off in his face.  As she gets up and pulls her sword to finish him, Andrea conveniently shows up. Gun drawn on Michonne, they have a wordless stare down.  Michonne gets her back to the entrance and turns to leave.  In the background, the Governor is crying to Andrea goes to help him.  She takes note of everything in the room, as she watches him go for Penny's zombie corpse and hold it crying.

A daddy-daughter moment, straight out of a Hallmark card

Back at the prison Carl leads Tyreese's group to the room they used to hold the convicts in earlier.  Tyreese puts Donna down as Carl locks the door they came through.  Carl walks up to Donna and puts the gun to her head, wanting to put her out of her misery.  Tyreese says they should take care of their own, apparently planning to hammer her face.  As Tyreese tells everyone to back against the wall, Carl goes through another gate and locks them in with Beth watching.  Sasha looses her shit, yelling at him that they aren't animals and they shouldn't be caged.  Carl tells her they will be safe, and he will give them food.  Tyreese calms Sasha, saying that this is the safest place they have been in months and it's Carl's house, so they will play by Carl's rules.  Tyreese tells Carl they don't want any trouble, and he heads back to take care of Donna.   Beth asks if they should help them, Carl says "I already did".

Logic, who needs that...

At the makeshift hospital in Woodbury, the Governor is getting his eye patched up.  Andrea asks why he and Michonne were fighting, and what the hell the fish tanks full of heads were.  He tells her he used them to prepare himself mentally for the horrors he would have to face outside the walls.  As weird as that sounds she seems to go with it, and proceeds to ask about Penny.  Milton and Merle show up asking what happened.  Merle says he will take a team in the morning to go after the group since it appears they got away.

Starting to look a bit more like the comic version

Outside Rick's group is running, but Glenn is hurt and they have to slow down.  Michonne appears like the ninja she is, and Rick pulls his gun on her asking where she was.  He takes her sword, and they have a quick conversation where she tells him that he needs her, like it or not.

Inside the town, everyone is gathering at the fighting pits.  The Governor comes out in his new gauze eye patch.  He tells everyone there hasn't been a night like this since the walls had been built, how it reminded him of the first days of the outbreak.  He says he failed to keep them safe, and that he is afraid of the "terrorists" who want what they have.  But he says, the problem is that one of their own is one of the terrorists.  Just when you think he was going to point out Andrea, a couple of his guys draw weapons on Merle.  He tells the crowd that Merle let them in, and blames the attack on him.  Next he brings out a guy whose face is masked, and unveils it to be Daryl.  Andrea and Daryl see each other, exchanging a WTF look.  Andrea finally realizes that Michonne was right...

Duh...

The crowd starts chanting for them to die.  The Governor walks up to Merle and says "you wanted your brother, now you got him"

Bo and Luke, or Daryl and Merle... 2 more months...

This weeks kill count

I haven't  had a chance to verify all of these yet, but one I put together the total kill counts for the season I'll review this one more closely

Rick - (3 humans) - possibly more, that's just what we saw for sure
Daryl - (1 - human) - again, possibly more but only one was confirmed
Michonne - (1 - Penny) - slow week for Michonne, but probably the kill with the largest impact
Maggie - (1 human) - zombie bone shank!
Sasha - (2 walkers) - rough estimate
Carl - (4 walkers, all head shots)
Tyreese - (5 walkers, 1 human) - he doesn't get credit for the one Carl finished off and though we didn't see it, we can presume he finished off Donna.
Woodbury Residents - (1 human - Oscar)

I think if we have learned anything so far in season three, its that this rule went right out the window.

Speculation and Comic Spoilers

So we are on break till February.  Merle and Daryl are left reunited in a very strange way, Andrea is in the middle of a place she is quickly realizing wasn't what she thought it was, and Carl is babysitting a bunch of strangers at the prison.

Soooo How have you been?

Speaking of the strangers it took long enough to get Tyreese in the show.  At one point I thought Oscar was actually going to be filling that role, but now that he is here we can speculate on how this is going to work because Tyreese is actually a really early addition to the cast in the comics.  He is with them as they take the prison and actually dies at the hands of the Governor toward the end of the story arc.  However with his late introduction and bringing his own group of people in, I imagine this won't be happening...

Tyreese's death scene in the comics.

We also have Axel acting a little bit like a sexual predator, and though that hasn't been played up much I'm sure they hinted at it for a reason that we will see later.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Merle somehow dies.  He has too much anger to fit in with Rick's group...

It's funny cause it's true!

And considering the Governor just turned all of Woodbury on him, it just seems like he has no where to go.  Maybe he sacrifices himself to save Daryl, but the bigger question is how Andrea possibly ends up back with Rick's group. 2 months...

The Walking Dead - S3E7 - "When The Dead Come Knocking" giftacular recap!

This week was a buildup to the mid-season finale that is coming next week, but we were still provided a bunch of zombie killing action and just enough plot development to keep things moving. Sorry for the slow update this week, it's been kind of hectic.  Also this page may load slow due to all the images, sorry about that.

The Recap

We get started with Glenn sitting in a room with his hands taped to a chair, Merle approaching him for questioning.

Glenn is so hardcore

Merle asks about the group, telling Glenn he is still an asshole just like he was back on the rooftop in Atlanta.  He finds out that the spear chucker (his adorable racist nickname for T-Dog) is dead, and taunts Glenn about how he hopes it went slow.  He uses Maggie as a threat against Glenn to get the info on Daryl.  Then talks about how Glenn must have toughened up surviving this long, but uses his knife hand pinning it against glenn's nose from behind as a threat.  Glenn ends up headbutting him. Merle then beats him and we see Maggie in another room able to hear what's happening, crying...

Sadface!

At the prison rick is staring at michonne through the fence.  The zombies around her start to figure out that she's different and slowly turn on her, so she backpedals taking out two walkers, one by stabbing it through the head and the other by decapitation.

Sweet! - Carl

Before she can swing her sword again she blacks out from the wound she got last week. While Rick watches her about to be taken, Carl busts a few caps in zombie asses and saves her, this springs Rick into action killing 5 walkers of his own while Carl picks off another.  They drag her back into the prison.

BOOM HEADSHOT!

Deadliest pistolier since Wild Bill they say...

Rick drops her off in a cell, telling others to get supplies.  Rick asks her name... but she isn't answering.  Rick grabs her wounded leg and michonne gets pissed.Daryl interrupts telling rick he has something he needs to see.  The lock Michonne up keeping her sword, and Daryl brings Rick to see Carol in another cell.  They embrace and Carol meets Lil Kick Ass for the first time.  She also realizes that Lori isn't around, and breaks down with Rick.  Carl cries.

#truestory

In Woodbury, Milton shows up at the Governor's door and says that Mr. Colton is ready while Andrea gets dressed in the other room.

Dat ass

Michonne is still in her cell, with Rick.  He offers to have Hershel patch up her up.  He asks why she was carrying baby supplies, and she tells them about Glenn and Maggie getting snacthed by Merle.  She explains woodbury, but doesn't mention anything about Andrea to them, instead only describing the Governor in detail as a Jim Jones type.

Next we see Glenn, face beaten to a pulp. Merle is lecturing him, and Glenn tells him that the whole group will be coming for him.  Merle offers to bake them a cake.  Glenn starts naming everyone, and when he gets to Andrea, Merle stops him and laughing "Really"?  Glenn gets a look that makes him realize maybe Merle knows more than he has let on.

I know something you don't know...

Hershel patches up Michonne's leg with Carl standing guard.  She thanks him.  Meanwhile  Rick, Daryl, Oscar and others are debating on who is going to this town to get Glenn and Maggie.  Everyone wants to go, but Rick narrows it down to him, Daryl, Oscar and Michonne.  While loading the car Daryl reassures Carl that he will look out for Rick.  Michonne talks to Beth asking how they cleared the prison, she was shocked such a small group could do it.

Rick pulls Carl to the side and they have a chat about being responsible while Rick is gone and what to do if something happens.  Carl tells Rick about Daryl's pet name for the new baby, Rick thinks its funny and asks what Carl wanted to name her.  He decides that he wants to name her after his 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Mueller.  So he picks the name Judith.  As they finish packing up Daryl tells Carol to stay safe, and Hershel sternly demands Rick bring them back.  Axel opens the gate and lets them out in their sponsored vehicle that is impeccably clean.

Next we find the Governor bringing Andrea into a room where some music is playing.  We see Milton sitting with a very old man in a bed.  Governor asks Milton to bring Andrea up to speed before leaning over to Mr Coleman and telling him he is doing them a great service.  He leaves and Milton asks Andrea to queue up the record again.  He uses a series of audible and visual tests on Mr. Coleman one the record starts.  After he finishes the routine Mr. Coleman grabs Miltons hand and asks him to keep the record playing while he passes.

Elsewhere Glenn is trying to yank his arms free, but Merle brings in a biter on a leash letting him loose on a tied up Glenn.  Glenn leans back in the chair and kicks the walker with two feet giving himself room to scramble.  He uses some of the spare furniture to barricade himself from the zombie, eventually using a table to knock it over.  He then breaks the chair against the wall behind him and uses the broken arm of the chair and duct tape to prevent himself from getting bit before stabs the walker in the chin.

Certified badass

Milton goes over the plans of the tests on Mr. Coleman with Andrea.  She finds out that Mr. Coleman has untreatable prostate cancer.  Milton's goal is to test a zombies mind before and after the turn to see if they keep any of their humanity.  Andrea says there is no unconscious mind when they turn.. She realizes Milton has been sheltered from the walkers and never seen anyone turn.  He tells her a bit about his boring pre-outbreak life that we really didn't need to hear.  In the meantime, Mr. Coleman stops breathing and they put on his restraints.

Outside Merle and another guy are talking to the Governor about Glenn.  He asks why Merle tried to kill Glenn, and the other guy talks about how it only took him a minute to take the walker apart.  Merle says he is going to question Maggie, but the Governor says he will do it.

Governor enters Maggie's room which is a little more bare than the one Glenn was in.  He pulls out his knife, walking around to her.  He uses the knife to cut the tape that has her hands bound.  He pulls up a chair across from the table and asks to take a seat.  Maggie asks to talk to Glenn, but he won't let her with the excuse they are dangerous because of what they did to Merle.  Maggie obviously knows nothing about that. He tells her that he will bring her people here if she just says where they are.  She refuses, so he says lets try something else, asking her to stand up.  Once she does, he tells her to take her shirt off, she says no, and he asks again saying that if she does not comply he will bring her Glenn's hand. She removes her shirt getting the governor's attention...

Keeping it classy in Woodbury

Left standing there in her just her bra, He tells her to "Go on" and she reluctantly undoes her bra, throwing it to the side and covering herself with her hands.  He stands up, undoes his belt... walks around the table slowly.  He touches her hair, sniffing it, then suddenly grabs the back of her head and slams her face first onto the table.  She looks back up at him telling him to "Do whatever your gonna do" adding that she wasn't going to talk and he can "Go to hell".  He stands behind her, thinking about it... and then walks away.

Go to hell indeed...

Next we see the spotless sponsor vehicle of the zombie apocalypse pull off to the side of the road.  Oscar, Michonne, Daryl & Rick hop out and start pulling supplies out the back.  Michonne mentions how Woodbury has patrols and that they need to sneak up from here, which is somewhere between a mile or two out.  They take off into the woods as a few walkers start heading their way.  Rick takes a second during this to thank Daryl for all he was doing while he lost his mind for a minute.  Naturally, they run into a group of walkers, Rick calls for them to go into formation and not use guns.  Rick stabs one, they Daryl puts an arrow through another's head, and Oscar beats on silly with a pipe.  Daryl says there are too many, and they start backing up, but realize walkers have followed them from the car.  Rick knifes another one, then points in a direction and indicates they need to get the hell out of there.

They run into what appears to be an abandoned shack, kicking the door in while Michonne closes it behind them.  Daryl notices something smells terrible and they hear a buzzing noise.  They start to search the little shack and find a dead dog on the ground with flies around it's corpse.  Suddenly the zombies show up beating on the door and sides of the home.  We get a shot of outside the house showing a while wall that is covered with walkers.

Inside they notice a bed with what appears to be blankets covering a body.  They surround it and pull the blankets off, revealing a man who jumps out of bed screaming.  He threatens them and says he will call the cops, Rick says he is one.  He puts down his gun and reaches for his badge.  In the process, Rick disarms him, but the man breaks for the front door where the walkers are.  Michonne stabs him in the back stopping him.

Should have treated the puppy better

Meanwhile Oscar checks the back door saying it's clear.  Daryl asks Rick if he remembers the Alamo while picking up the body of the crazy hermit.  Michonne opens the door as Rick and Daryl throw him out to the walkers who start fighting over lunch.  They use the distraction to sneak out the back and we get some awesome product advertisement as the zombies rip apart the remains of the hermit.

Nom Nom Nom!

Mack in Milton's office, Mr Coleman turns finally.  Milton starts running his tests as Mr. Coleman tries to bite him.  One of the tests require him to raise his hand, but due to the restraints Milton thinks he can't respond properly.  He tells Andrea to remove the restraint because it might be tethering his consciousness.  Andrea, thinking this is as dumb as it sounds, rejects the idea, but Milton goes forward with his plan.  Andrea reacts like you would expect... (which also happens to be everyone's reaction to her sleeping with the Governor)

When he sets the arm free he gets grabbed, and as Mr. Coleman is pulling Milton in for the bite Andrea knives him through the skull.    Milton backs up shocked, and says he needs to record his findings.

Yes, Milton peed his pants

Merle and the other guy from before come into Glenn's room where he is ready for a fight, but before he can do anything the Gov brings in a topless Maggie.  The Gov pulls a pistol and says one of them is going to tell them the location of the group. Glenn has stiffened up, he knows he is facing death.  Gov points the gun at him and Maggie finally breaks giving up the location of the prison.  Gov walks back to Maggie, sniffing her hair and touching her just to piss off Glenn before shoving her toward him.  They lock them in the room.

The Governor is pissed at Merle, asking how a small group could take the prison when he was told by Merle it wasn't possible.  Outside, Rick and his group close in Woodbury.  Back inside the Gov questions Merle's loyalty to which he states he is loyal.  Andrea is walking around outside, and comes back into the governor's room.  He mentions that she kept her word about coming back.  She walks over and pours herself a drink
and says Mr. Coleman died.  He asks if Milton got the info he was looking for, and gives her a hug.

This week's kill count...

Rick - (7) - All walkers, mostly via gunshot but 2 quality head stabbings also.
Carl - (3) - All walkers - 2 shot on screen saving Michonne, another shot killing one off screen
Michonne - (3)  Two walkers (head stab & decapitation) one person (stabbed in back)
Daryl - (1) - Walker, headshot with a crossbow
Oscar - (1)- Walker, laid some pipe
Andrea - (1) - Knife to Mr. Coleman's skull

Spoilers and speculation...

So it appears we avoided the rape dungeon, though I have seen some people speculating that it was just done off camera.  I'm not really buying into that, I think the TV version of the Governor is differing slightly and this is the most obvious example.

It looks like next week we will get the inevitable Merle/Daryl showdown, and it's really anyone's guess how that is going to go.  Neither are characters from the comics so the writers have complete freedom to spin this story any way they want without getting the comic fans upset.  However Daryl has grown quite the popular character and has been getting more screen time giving him some more depth.  We know what happened to T-Dog when he started talking more.

Rumor has it next week we might get to see the introduction of another favorite of the comics.  A while ago it was reported that Chad Coleman (The Wire) would be playing the role of Tyreese.  He really looks the part, and was an excellent small character (Cutty) on The Wire.  The question now is... will Oscar have a shorter shelf life as the groups token black guy than T-Dog did.

The Walking Dead - S3E6 - "Hounded" Recap

This weeks episode was a bit tame in comparison to how the season has started off, but there was some good progress in a few plotlines getting us closer to a confrontation between the groups at the prison and those in Woodbury.  Most of this felt like a setup for the mid season finale which airs in two weeks, but was still full of human on human and human on zombie violence.

We start off with Merle and three others walking in woods where they walk into a clearing and find a zombie that has been cut to pieces.  One of the guys points out that it's a message, the arms are formed into the letter G, the legs into an O, and then the torso by itself.  One of Merle's lackeys points out that it means "Go back".  This makes a few if the peons a little nervous, and Merle approaches one and asks him his name, after he tells him that his name is Garguilo, Merle says he is going to keep calling him Neal.  It keeps up Merles racist swagger.

Suddenly, a wild Michonne appears!

She drops out of a tree and decapitates Crowley, before stabbing the other guy whose name we never heard and uses him as a shield while Merle fires off several shots at her.  

You just got... Mich-owned!

Michonne runs off, leaving Garguilo confused and covered in Crowley's blood.  Merle chases her to the clearing, yelling at her if they are having fun.

Back in the boiler room at the prison we hear a woman on phone talking to Rick.  They go through a series of questions where she talks about being someplace safe and Rick wanting to take the group there.  After Rick breaks down crying on the phone and pleading for help, she says she will discuss it with her people and call back in two hours.  

Rick shows back up to the cell block where everyone appears to be eating, and he is magically got a shower in someplace because now he is perfectly clean.   Rick says he stopped back to check on Carl after he cleared in the boiler room killing over a dozen walkers.   Daryl says Axel is fixing up generator room and they have cleared the bodies from the area.  Glenn says that he and Maggie are going to make a run for more supplies. Rick leaves to do the same in the boiler room. 

Back in the woods, Merle is arguing with Garguilo, or maybe giving him a pep talk about how "shit is going down".  Merle indicates one of the rules is they never let their own turn, he knifes the ones guy we didn't know in the head, and demands Garguilo do the same to Crowley even though he is already decapitated and it makes no fucking sense.  Merle gives him approval, and says Michonne is hunting and now they need to hunt too.

Crowley has a squishy skull

In Woodbury we see Andrea approached by the Governor.  She brings up the arena fights from the night before, and when she asks if she can ask a question, he shoots her down immediately   Andrea voices her concern anyway that the "brutality for fun" isn't a good escape in such a brutal world.  Despite this, she claims to get it and has decided she wants to contribute to the community.  She offers to take up wall guard duty, and to learn to use a bow.

Rick is back in the boiler room, sitting by phone.  It rings and this time it's a guy on other end this time.  The man starts quizzing Rick about if he has killed anyone.  Rick says he killed four people.  After explaining a few of the deaths away, most notably Shane's... The voice asks how he lost his wife.  Rick is confused about how the man knew he had a wife, to which the voice responded "you have a son and a small child", but Rick doesn't wanna talk about that, the phone line goes dead.  Rick at this point goes into a bit of a rage and does his best Darth Vader being born "NOoOoOoOOOOooooOOO!!!"   

Next we find Andrea sitting on the wall of Woodbury talking to a girl about learning to use a bow.  The girl tells her that her dad taught her how to use a bow and wanted her to be an olympic champion.  She talks about killing her dad for the bow, but Andrea sees through the bullshi and they end up sharing stories about having to kill family members.  Just before their idol chatter could get any worse we are spared their intellectual repartee by a walker showing up.  Bow girl fires two shots missing terribly  Katniss she is not.  Andrea jumps the wall rushing the walker and killing it up close.  Katmiss (yes, I did that) yells at her for jumping over the wall and breaking the rules.

I auditioned for Hunger Games, never got a call back...

Rick still in boiler room.   Hershel shows up and asks to hang around.  Rick gets him a chair.  Herschel talks about his missing leg and how its like having a ghost while thanking Rick for saving his life.  Hershel says Lori was sorry for the things she put Rick through and was planning to talk to him about it, but she never got the chance.  Rick tells him about the phone calls.  Hershel picks up the phone, puts it back down and gives him a fairly confused look.  He offers to stay and wait with Rick, but he says no.  

Merle and Carguilo are in the woods, still hunting Michonne.  She sneaks up behind them and disables Carguilo with a slice of a sword that sends him stumbling back.  Merle disarms her when her sword and his prosthetic get entangled, but during the melee a group of walkers show up.  Michonne scrambles to her sword in time to disembowel one that is standing above her, it's guts spill out and cover her upper body.   Carguilo kills one  by stabbing it in the back of the head while it's trying to to turn Merle into a snack.  Merle then does his best street fighter uppercut to put his knife through the last ones skull.  All three walkers are down, but Michonne is gone.  

Daryl, Carl and Oscar are walking through the hallways, scouting for walkers and supplies.  They come across a door with some banging noises on the other side, but Daryl wants to leave them for the way back.  Daryl tells Carl a story about how when he was a kid his mom smoked in the bedroom.  One day he was playing with all the other kids in the neighborhood who had bikes and he didn't.  Says one day they heard fire trucks going, so all the kids on bikes start to chase the fire truck and he raced after them but couldn't keep up.   When he caught up to the fire trucks he realized they were at his house, and it had burnt down killing his mom.  Daryl says how people told him it was better that way.   Carl interrupts to tell Daryl that he shot his mom, before she turned.   He says "I ended it, it was real"  and says sorry about Daryl's mom, Daryl tells him sorry about his.  It was a cute big brother moment for Daryl who is getting more character development so far this season than pretty much everyone else combined.  

Kid in an adult body, and an adult in a kid body, lets bond!

Next we see the Governor sketching in his notepad.  Andrea comes in and says that she says she liked the fights, and says she didn't like that she liked the fights.  He says he knew because she didn't leave when she had the chance. He thinks it's because she likes him.

Back in the woods we see Merle who appears to have lost some of his nerve.  Merle says she killed Tim (hey he does have a name!) and Crowley.  Merle tells Carguilo they need to leave.  However in a sudden burst of manliness, Carguilo wants to keep going after Michonne.   Merle says its a waste of time because she is going to die anyway with all the biters out there and that they should live to the Governor about her death.  Carguilo says he won't lie to the boss.   Merle says "Carguilo...  hear that bird" and as soon as he glances at the tree Merle shoots him in the face.  

Michonne pulling her pack that she hid in a tree, loads it up on her back and starts to limp away when she sees four walkers headed her way.  Right when she is prepping her sword to kill them, she notices they are ignoring her and just wander right past her.  She looks down relaxing the spilled walker guts all over her are masking her to them, similar to what Rick and Glenn did in season one.

Rick gets another call, woman this time, same voice as the first call.   Rick says he doesn't want to talk about his wife, then the girl says you should talk about it Rick.  He suddenly realizes that he never told this person his name, so he asks how she knows it. 

Now we find Michonne walking around a building and into a parking lot full of cars.  She ducks behind a car as she hears and then sees a truck coming.  Out of it pops Maggie and Glenn.  After Maggie checks the parking lot briefly, but not very thoroughly, they have a kiss and talk about how nice the weather is.  Glenn pops a padlock that was holding a door shut on what appears to be some sort of department store.  When he opens the door they are startled by birds flying out of the entry way.  Michonne watches then quietly.

They didn't, but maybe they should have...

Outside in what appears to be a garden, Andrea is talking to Governor about his past life joking about what kind of a guy he was.   When she runs into a brick wall in her inquiries she says something about him not being proud of anything, but he tells her that he had something he was proud of before, most likely alluding to Penny.  He  says he likes being where he is right now though and that she should call him Phillip because he is off the clock.  Andrea likes that because then she feels less like a lobbyist.  He tells her she doesn't have to be ashamed about liking the fights.  Tells her that fighting is part of being alive and that liking the fight is what separates the living from the dead.  "Eat drink and be merry, tomorrow we die" he tells her.  Andrea wants to pass on the dying part.   They share a pretty intense kiss.

Glenn finds a bunch of baby formula and other supplies which he is carrying in a basket back out to the truck.  He is talking to Maggie about how it's not far back to the prison and how they need to get back.  Merle shows up with a gun drawn on them.  Glenn and Maggie both pull pistols and we get a nice little standoff.  Merle recognizing Glenn drops his gun and approaches.  He asks about his brother Daryl.  Merle wants to know if he is alive and if he can be taken to him.  Says if they take him to Daryl then all the old drama of being left on the roof will be forgiven.   Glenn says he should wait there and he will go get Daryl and bring him back.  Merle being the irrational douchebag he is decides he doesn't like Glenn's plan.  He gets the drop on Maggie and has her pinned down at gunpoint.  He uses her as leverage to make Glenn get in car and start driving them away.   Michonne watches this all happen.

Ninja Michonne

Daryl, Carl, and Oscar are all still searching cells.  Oscar runs into a cell really excited by finding some slippers  Daryl is confused by this, but Oscar says that he needs them to relax.   While all three are in the cell a walker pops up in the entryway they came through and all three unload on it, winning this weeks award for most overkill on a walking corpse, grats guys!  Daryl notices something odd on the corpses neck when he walks out of the cell.  He grabs a handle from it's neck and pulls, finding a knife deeply imbedded in the walker.  Daryl inspects it, realizing it's Carol's and now he is left wondering what happened to her.  

The phone is ringing again, rick waits a few rings and then he answers.  He asks the voice on the other end how they knew his name.  A familiar voice responds with "because we know you... because we know you and you know them".  Rick realizes he is hearing Lori's voice.  She says she knows the people he talked too naming off people who have been part of the group and died such as Amy, Jacqui, and Jim.  Lori asks him what happened.  Rick starts breaking down again, saying he loved her repeatedly.  He is sorry he "couldn't pull it back together".  He tells Lori that he made a deal with himself to keep her alive.  He found a place to keep them all alive.  Lori says "Rick you have a baby, our baby and Carl... I love you..." she tries to say more, but the phone starts cutting out.  

We then jump from one form of mental instability to another, as we see the Governor and Andrea getting their freak on.  Poor Andrea just can't pick the right guy in this world, even though the population is diminished you think she would be able to do better.  There is a knock on the door, and he tells her he lied about being off the clock, that it's a 24/7 job.  He goes to the door in his robe, its Merle.  Merle says that Michonne killed the other three guys he was with.   The Governor asks about the trophies he wanted from her (head, probably for another aquarium, and sword).  Merle tells him that he lost the trophies when they were overran by a herd, but he has something else for him.  Merle leaves and he goes back into Andrea.  They start kissing again.

Hi I'm Andrea, and I sleep with all the nutjobs, next up Merle!

Rick shows back up to cellblock with everyone.  Hershel is there holding his daughter, and for the first time Rick goes to see her.  Rick holds his still unnamed daughter (unless you count Daryl's suggestion of Lil Kick Ass), smiles, and then kisses her on the head.

Awwwwwwwwwwww

Next we see Daryl is playing with the knife he pulled from a walkers neck, clearly distraught.  Across from him a door keeps trying to open, while banging into a huge zombie corpse.  Daryl is about to snap, he gets up angrily and rage yanks the corpse away from the door.  It opens revealing Carol, who has been hiding here for days, he picks her up and starts to carry her back to the group.  Carol wins TWD hide and seek championship!

Merle is in a room with Glenn tied up, asking for info on his bother, it cuts away before we see anything really happen other than Glenn looking a bit beat up.

Rick, Carl and a few others are walking outside.  Rick gives baby to Carl,, and heads out to gate where he has spotted something.  In the middle of a group of walkers on the fence, is Michonne with a basket full of supplies.  Rick and Michonne stare each other down.

How you doin???

This weeks corpse count!

Michonne - (4) 1 walker offscreen who was neatly formed into a message for Merle & company, 1 walker via disembowelment, Crowley via decapitation, Tim via the pointy end of the sword

Merle - (2) - 1 walker, Carguilo shot in the face

Carguilo - (1) 1 walker 

Daryl/Carl/Oscar - (1) 1 shared combo kill on a walker

Michonne leads for the second week in a row.

Possibly storyline spoilers and theorycrafting... Consider yourself warned!

In the comic Michonne doesn't escape from Woodbury like this, in fact the entire Woodbury plotline is a bit different in set up and execution.  She actually goes through a few days stuck in what can only be called brutal-rape-dungeon-torture which is where we can assume might end up getting redirected toward Maggie at this point.  It would be a shocking and drastic departure from the comics.  Glenn being stuck in a room next to Maggie and hearing it happen would drastically alter these characters from their original versions.  Not sure how I feel about this possible change, or if AMC is even willing to possibly portray the brutality that Michonne (and now maybe Maggie) is about to go through.