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.

The Walking Dead - S3E5 - "Say The Word" Recap

The episode starts off in Woodbury where there appears to be a picnic or party going on in the middle of the day.  We see Milton approach Andrea with a cold drink, and make some small talk about using the generators for the party.  Michonne seems agitated with the whole scene and leaves.  We then get to see the governor combing what appears to be his daughters hair, till he pulls back the brush ripping out a chunk of flesh and hair revealing that Penny is a zombie.  She gets a bit out of hand and he uses the straight jacket she is in to contain her arms before bagging up her head.  He gets up and looks out the window, to see Michonne looking in at him.  I'd like to point out at least they didn't use the scene from the comic where he kisses penny...

Back at the prison we hear a baby crying, and Daryl asking Rick if he is okay.  With Rick being non-responsive Daryl goes into leadership mode.  First he starts pimping Beth, by telling her she needs to look out for Carl since he just lost his mom.  Daryl makes one hell of a wingman.

After Hershel makes it clear the baby needs formula to eat, Daryl declares he is going to go on a run to get baby supplies.  While this is happening, Rick picks up and axe and storms off back into the prison.  Maggie hops on Daryl's bike after saying goodbye and giving Glenn a kiss.  Glenn, Axel and Oscar start cleaning up bodies after closing the gate.  Rick begins his rage killed filled spree taking out 4 walkers with an axe, it was like he was trying out for the lead in Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.

In Woodbury we see the Governor giving a speech at the get together.  It's all positive stuff about the growth of their community and how they started off as nine people in a apartment sharing SPAM.  Meanwhile Michonne is breaking into his house to get her sword back.  We also get a quick glimpse of a bag of weapons that say "Sheriff" on the side, possibly a call back to the bag lost in season 1 that was never recovered.  Michonne also notices a pic of the Governor's family, and she starts snooping through his desk.  She finds a notebook with random notes including a list of people that we can presume are part of the town. At the bottom of it is the name Penny which is underlined and bolded, followed by pages of weird scribbling.
Michonne hears a bump and begins to pick the lock on the door behind the desk, but has to hide when she hears people coming into the room.

The Governor, Merle and Milton all walk in.  Milton is complaining about the power being used for the party because it's interrupting his experiments.  They grab some supplies for the party and leave.  Michonne meanwhile and climbed out a window in the back, leading to a part of Woodbury that is outside the gates it seems.  She hears walkers, and walks around to find a bunch of them caged up.  She breaks them out of their cell, so that she can ruthlessly slaughter 7 walkers in no time.  Right when she gets done with her Mortal Kombat antics someone walks through the gate with what appears to be a bucket of red meat.  It gets dropped and the scene cuts away

When we come back, Michonne is sitting in a room with Merle guarding the door.  The Governor comes in to talk to her.  It's a tense conversation, where in the end he tries recruiting her to stay in Woodbury and join his "Research Team".  He ends up standing behind her with her sword in hand, as the tension builds she springs out of the chair, snathes her sword and holds him off with the blade tip in his neck.  Merle comes in after Michonne walks out the door asking if everything is okay.  Governor comments on how Michonne is all personality.  He then asks Merle to send Andrea in, and get the research team to run an errand.

At the prison Glenn is digging graves when Axel and Oscar approach him.  They have a brief conversation where Oscar drops his best impersonation of Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption when discussing the value of friends.  Glenn asks them to dig two more graves, which kind of makes no sense.  They know T-Dog and Lori died, but they have little proof of Carol being dead and they only have T-Dogs body at this point.  Glenn goes up to the cage and talks to Hershel about how he now thinks they should have killed all the inmates immediately.  They have a bromance moment where they hold hands and look at each other with sad eyes.

Back in Woodbury, the Governor talks to Andrea about trying to keep Michonne under control, and asks her to talk to her.  Andrea runs off and gets in a heated conversation about staying or going with Michonne that sounds dangerously close to a lovers quarrel.

Glenn decides he needs to go find Rick, alone... which doesn't seem like the best idea but if they all acted smart the show wouldn't be as interesting.  Glenn comes across the corpses of the walkers that Rick has taken an axe too earlier, and finds him around a corner.  Glenn approaches him, and tries to talk to him.  Rick snaps, pinning Glenn to a wall and then throwing him back down the way he came from.  Crazy eyed rick continues his rampage deeper into the prison.

Next we see a open field with what appears to be a solar powered contraption that is built to make noise and grab the attention of walkers.  Around it are pits that have been dug, lined with netting so catch walkers. They pull a tow truck up, and use it to drag out the bundled walkers.  They drop them down to let them out and after killing a few of the more vicious ones they use restraints to hold them down and start pulling teeth out with pliers.

We catch up with Daryl and Maggie on bike, pulling into the back of what appears to be a residential area.  They break into a daycare, finding some baby supplies in the first room before doing a sweep of the building.  In the kitchen they hear noises.  Daryl takes up position  while Maggie opens the door where the noises are coming from to expose a possum on a shelf.  Daryl shoots it, and gets excited about having it for dinner.  Possum, the other other white meat.  Maggie searches the kitchen and finds a couple containers of baby formula.  Score!

Next we see Andrea and Michonne walking to the gate in Woodbury, with their bags in hand.  Merle stops them saying it's too late in the day because he would have to escort them, and goes to talk to the guard.  Michonne points out how everytime they try to leave there is an excuse why they can't and they are prisoners.  Andrea goes back to Merle while he is talking to the guard at the gate, and he tells her to back up.  A few moments later he opens the gate, telling them to find shelter for the night fast.  Michonne tells Andrea that it's for show, they knew they were going to be coming.  Michonne gives Andrea a with me or against me ultimatum   Andrea says she shouldn't do that.  Michonne says she was just slowing her down anyway and walks out.

Andrea sits on a bench alone, gets approached by the Governor who apologises that Michonne didn't work out.  He invites her for a drink to take her mind off things.

We then see zombies beating on the outside of the prison, Axel and Oscar try to make noise leading them away from the entrance as Glenn fires off a few headshots from the guard tower clearing the way for Daryl and Maggie coming back in.  What follows is a really touching scene of Daryl feeding the baby for the first time while everyone watches.  He asks Carl if she has a name yet.  Carl responds by naming every girl thats been in the group that has died.  Daryl jokes her name should be Lil Kick Ass, and rocks her while feeding her.  The result...

Rick is still wandering around the prison, comes into the boiler room where Lori gave birth.  He sees a huge puddle of blood and Carl's knife, and then picks up a shell casing but there is no body, just streaks of blood going down the hall and grunting noises.  He walks down the hall finding a slumped over walker with a huge distended belly that can barely move.  A close up shot reveals what looks like Lori's hair in the zombies mouth... Rick pulls his gun, puts it in the mouth and pulls the trigger.  He then takes his knife and rage stabs the belly about 5 times.

Next we see Woodbury at night, everyone is walking toward something that sounds like a concert.  The Governor takes Andrea to the top of some bleachers saying he has the best seats.  Night lights come on to reveal a makeshift stadium where they have 6 walkers chained up in a circle formation.  Merle and another guy face off in the middle where a ref steps in and starts a fight.  Merle does his best flying spinning heel kick and sends the guy stumbling back toward the walker behind him.  Who knew they did karate in his trailer park... Andrea is in shock as the fight continues.  The ref pulls a lever giving the chained walkers more slack in their lines so they can close the circle in around the fighters.  The fight continues, with Merle eventually winning and acting like Russell Crowe's character from Gladiator.

Andrea tries leaving and is stopped.  She gets in an argument about how barbaric it is.  The Governor tells her it's all staged, because they remove the teeth, and they are using it to teach people not to be so scared of the biters.  Andrea thinks it's stupid and suddenly realizes that Michonne's concerns about the town were justified.

Daybreak at the prison, we see Daryl walking up to a grave with a flower, leaving it on the grave they dug for Carol which has now been filled in.  This wins the award for dumbest writing mistake of the week.  They dig 3 graves for 3 presumably dead people, but have no proof Carol is dead and fill the grave back in after digging it without a body.  Maybe Glenn was just trolling Axel and Oscar, or it was just a bad fuckup.

Next we see Rick sitting in the boiler room a few feet from the zombie he had just shot and stabbed, clearly in a delirious state.  A phone rings.  Rick walks up to it... picks it up slowly "Hello..." and the episode ends.

"Say the Word" was a pretty good episode.  Considering what happened in the last episode it would be hard to follow up on the action and intensity, but they handled it pretty well.  There was a nice balance between the two groups we are following.  There was also plenty of plot movement between Rick losing his mind, Daryl stepping up and winning over the hearts of mom's everywhere, and Michonne and Andrea learning more about Woodbury.  There are some unanswered questions like why hasn't anyone looked for Carol, and what experiments is Milton running.  However we should be excited to see what happens when the two groups meet finally.

This weeks corpse count!

Michonne - 7 Walkers
Rick - 5 Walkers
Glenn - 2 WalkersMerle - 1 Walker and a lot of teeth
Daryl - 1 Possum

Comic book spoilers/discussion - you have been warned!!!

A few exciting things from the comic made it into this weeks episode.  First up was Penny the zombie child of the Governor was revealed.  This was done really well, though the image of putting a bag and straight jacket on a kid was a bit unusual for television.  It's a small change from just keeping her locked up in a separate room that happened in the comics.  Next we got to see the gladiator ring in Woodbury.  Again this is handled slightly different, but it's effectively the same thing.  I wasn't sure if this was going to make the show at all, but I'm glad it did.  It will be interesting to see if it gets used the same way it does in the comic later on when Rick's group meets up with the town of Woodbury.

Lastly was the phone call.  In the comic this didn't take place till much later than the prison storyline.  Just to cover the background, the comic has Lori and the baby die in a gunfight with the Governor's people at the prison.  Rick and Carl then end up on their own and find a housing development to stay in when the phone call happens.  On the other end is Lori, which is actually all just in Rick's head as he is going through a psychotic episode.  They clearly moved this up in the storyline to fit in with Lori's death.  I think it works better in the show as this whole episode was Rick basically losing his mind.

Another change from the comic was Michonne leaving Woodbury unscathed.  In the comic the Governor puts her in what can only be described as a rape dungeon, where they abuse her constantly.  I imagine that was a bit too graphic for the show, so they are doing to leave it out or transfer parts of it somehow to Andrea.

The Walking Dead - S3E4 - "Killer Within" Recap

This week's opening scene started off with a character we can't see chopping open locks on the prison gates with an axe.  Then we see rocks hitting a couple of walkers in the head which is probably the best game invented for the zombie apocalypse.  It's like a life and death game of tag.  The mystery person also uses a deer corpse to attract walkers to different parts of the prison by leaving them tasty snacks.

We then see Rick's group going organizing things in the prison yard and they can't figure out where Glenn and Maggie are.  Daryl says they were up in the guard tower so he yells at them, and Glenn pops out without his shirt on looking pretty embarrassed.  Then Maggie comes out buttoning her pants even more red faced, but...

Suddenly Axel (creepy white inmate) and Oscar (big black inmate) come wandering out, which pisses Rick off because it's breaking the agreement.  Axel says they can't stay in the cell block they were given, because GHOSTS!  Oscar is a little more reasonable, but their pleas fall on deaf ears and Rick says if they don't like it they can hit the road.  T-Dog gets to actually say something, which by my count is about his 3rd line of the series, when he argues the merits of letting Oscar and Axel join the group.  It's nice that T-Dog isn't mad that the new black guy has already had more good lines of dialogue in 3 minutes than he has had in 3 seasons.  Axel says they would rather risk it on the open road than stay in the cell block.  They lock the two inmates up in a cage around one of the guard towers where Oscar makes fun of Axel's constant whining.

Back in Woodbury, Michonne sneaks around and investigates the national guard vehicles the Governor brought back last episode, noting the bullet holes and fresh blood inside.  You can tell she thinks they were not killed by zombies.  The Governor shows up and tries to recruit her to stay in Woodbury, they have what could best be described as a tense moment.

Meanwhile Hershel gets to test out his ability to walk around on crutches with his single leg.  Of course as soon as he comes out to the yard for the feel good moment of everyone seeing him up on his foot again, a bunch of walkers appear from behind.  This causes problems since the majority of the group is on the outside section of the prison and there is a huge fence between them and everyone else.  So it's Carl, Lori (prego), Herschel (One legged gimp), mute daughter, T-Dog, and Carol inside running and fighting off walkers.  As Rick and the rest try and get back in they have to let Oscar and Axel out... who follow in to help.  Daryl and Glenn start going HAM immediately!

The group predictably gets split up.  Herschel and his mute daughter barricade themselves using his crutches in a small entryway, Lori, Maggie and Carl go running down dark hallways because they are smart (/sarcasm), in the mayhem T-Dog gets bit while trying to shut a gate, and sprints off with Carol down another dark hallway cause well, it makes no sense for them to be logical and go back to the main group.

Back to Woodbury again, where Andrea gives Merle a map to locate Hershel's farm, so he can try and track down Daryl. Merle takes this opportunity to try and hit on her,  which was as painful to watch as it sounds.  Andrea does ask him what he thinks of the Governor, and Merle explains how he was saved by him when he had no reason to, so yea he thinks he is a good guy.

Back at the prison the alarms start going off which starts attracting all the walkers outside the prison to come running and beating on the fence.  Rick goes right to Oscar to figure it out.  Oscar says there are some backup generators that are probably being used, they decide they have to find the generator room and shut them down because with the power on the gates could be opened and break their protective barriers.  They leave Hershel and his daughter barricaded outside and go in to find the room, splitting up their search into 2 groups.

As for the rest of group... T-Dog and Carol are still running around dark hallways, where he gets a few more inconsequential lines of dialogue since he is bit and bleeding out, while Carol freaks out.  Lori of course chooses this time to start going into labor, Maggie, Carl and her duck into a boiler room to avoid zombies in the halls.

Next we see the Governor sitting on top of one of the walls to Woodbury, with a practice tee from a driving range set up where he is hitting golf balls down the street into some walkers for fun.  Merle comes up and says he wants to go track down his brother, the Governor says no because his info is 8 months old.  In the end he says if he can get better intel, he will go with him to find his brother.

Back at the prison Rick is shooting everything in the halls and yelling for Lori and Carl, but isn't finding them. In the boiler room Lori starts going into labor, so Maggie strips her naked.  At this point you have to feel bad for Carl...

Next we see T-Dog and Carol running down a hallway to an exit which is guarded by two walkers.  T-Dog decides to be a hero and charge them, pinning them against the wall so Carol can run by.  Let me state at this point it was very heroic, however this is what happens to hero's in the zombie apocalypse!

Carol runs past, while T-Dog becomes zombie lunch.  It's so sad that as soon as he got an episode with more than one line of dialogue, he gets killed.  But hey, he still got to fill in a bunch of stereotypes as the token black guy.

Let's also not forget, that he was no longer the token black guy anymore, he can be conveniently replaced with Oscar now!

To tone things down a little, we go back to Woodbury and see Andrea talking to the Governor in his home.  They have a shot, and talk a little about life before and after zombies.  He tells her about losing his wife in a car accident, and mentions his daughter (refer to last week's write up for the comic spoilers).   As Andrea is leaving, he tells her his name is Phillip, which shocks Andrea.  He is reaching to try and get her to stay, and it appears to be having some effect.

Next we see Rick, Daryl and Oscar make it to the boiler room.  While Daryl and Oscar hold the door shut from the trailing zombies, Rick tries to find a way to shutdown the generator where he is sneak attacked by Andrew with an axe.  Last we saw Andrew Rick had left him to die in a yard full of zombies, but apparently he was really fast and now we know who was baiting the zombies in the opening scene.  Rick tries to pull his gun, but it gets knocked away.  They grapple while Oscar heads over in their direction leaving Daryl to defend the door himself.  Daryl opens the door, shoots one zombie in the head and then knifes another and wedges the door shut.  Oscar meanwhile throws a trash can that knocks Andrew over while Rick scrambles for his gun, but Oscar picks it up and points it at Rick and Andrew.  Andrew tells him to shoot Rick, while Rick is holding out his hand trying to ask for the gun back.  Oscar shoots Andrew in the face, and Rick asks for the gun back in a scene that lets us get a glimpse of ninja Daryl!

As you can see, Oscar made the smart choice to become the new token black guy.  However less smart decisions were being made in the boiler room where Lori is telling Maggie she will need to cut the baby out because she isn't dialitning properly.  She tells Maggie Carl has a knife, and this is what's going ot have to happen.  Everyone is getting weepy like they were cutting onions.

Next we see Andrea talking to Michonne about waiting a day to leave.  There is some tension, but we quickly cut back to the boiler room.

Lori shows off her old c-section scar, and tells Maggie she will have to cut along that and if she dies that Maggie needs to be the one to finish her off so she can't come back.  She gives Carl a speech about what a good person he is, and how he makes the right decisions and she knows he will survive in this world.  More onions as they hug.  Maggie then treats her belly like a piece of meat at a butcher's counter and slices it wide open.  Blood everywhere!  With Carl's help, Maggie pulls the baby out, and eventually gets it to cry.  As they get up to leave, Carl says he will handle it cause it's his mom.  A cute flashback takes place to a conversation Rick had with Carl near the end of season two, where he tells him that someday his parents will die, and he needs to know how to deal with death.  As Maggie looks out the door, a gunshot goes off and Carl comes walking to her, as stone faced as a kid who just killed their mom could be.  Also let this be a lesson to Glenn and Maggie...

Also more irony...

Next we see Rick and crew meet up with Glenn and Axel, and then stumble on T-Dog's corpse being treated like a buffet.  Rick shoots the hungry walkers, and stands over T-Dog's corpse, while Daryl finds Carol's headband.  They have a brief moment of sadness for T-Dog.

They run back outside where they go to where they left Hershel and ask if the others have shown back up.  Suddenly you hear a baby crying and Rick turns to see Maggie, holding an infant covered in blood walking with Carl at her side.  Rick walks up, breaks down screaming and crying, because he knows that Lori is dead.   We end the episode with Rick's sourpuss face... while Carl is more manly than Rick.

Two main characters dead, one missing, a new baby and lots of dead zombies.  Pretty eventful for the 4th episode of the season... Next week, the hunt for baby formula begins!!!