Wakling Dead - Hope you can wait until October!

“Welcome to the Tombs”

So this is it, y’all.  Does anyone else feel like this entire season has been building to this episode?  There were a couple of excellent stand-alone types, but all of it lead to what happened last night.

The episode opens with an extreme close-up of an eye ball and I’m creeped out.  It’s the Governor’s remaining eye and we’re seeing him from the perspective of the person he’s dragging down a hallway.  It’s Milty the science guy being dragged and the Governor stops to fill him in on what it’s been like being Governor recently.  Milty evokes the memory of Penny and it doesn’t work because the Governor is loooong gone.  Milty is now with Andrea in the torture chamber and the Governor wants Milty to kill her.  Instead Milty goes for the Governor who deftly disarms him and stabs Milty in the gut.  Before he leaves them to die, the Governor says, “In this life now, you kill or you die.  Or you die and you kill.”  Heavy.

At the prison, Carl is looking at the family photo and then packs it up.  In fact everyone is packing.  Carl doesn’t want to talk to Rick and is kind of proving that kids not only need to be kids but need a home and some stability.  Stupid zombie apocalypse.  Michonne understands Rick and his struggles as to whether or not he was going to hand her over to the Governor.  In fact she seems really cool about it but probably because he chose to not sacrifice her.  They kind of have a moment together, a total understanding of each other, and it’s kind of nice. 

In Woodbury, the Governor is giving his best St. Crispin’s Day speech to get the townsfolk ready to do some killin’ but Tyrese and Sasha aren’t biting.  They’re all for killing walkers but refuse to kill the living.  Instead they offer to stay behind and protect the women, children, and old folk.  The Governor isn’t thrilled but doesn’t waste time arguing.  They arrive at the prison, shoot up the place and find an empty cell block.  They hear some noises down a hall, go to investigate and wander right into a trap full of shooting and walkers.  The Woodbury folk flee and one kid presumably gets left behind and wanders up to a hiding-in-the-woods Carl, Hershel and Beth.  He’s about to surrender his large gun but Carl just shoots him anyway.  Whoa.  Hershel and Beth are rightly horrified as am I.  Hershel tells Rick who can’t and won’t understand why Carl would do such a thing but he knows Hershel wouldn’t exaggerate such things.

Back in Woodbury, Milty is slowing dying while Andrea is slowly trying to free herself by getting a pair of pliers off the ground with her feet.  She finally gets them but Milty is now undead. 

On the way back to Woodbury, the Governor stops the caravan and starts yelling at people to go back and finish the job.  They start bitching and moaning so she just slaughters all of them.  Allen is included even though he was all for avenging his son. 

Rick tries to talk to Carl and help him understand what surrender looks like but Carl is too busy thinking Rick isn’t killing enough people.  If he was a bit more lethal folks like Lori, Merle and a few others might still be alive.  Ouch.  So Rick, Michonne, and Daryl head off to kill the Governor once and for all and find the slaughtered Woodbury folk.  They also find the one woman the Governor missed.  She goes back to Woodbury with them, helps convince Tyrese and Sasha about their intentions and how the Governor has snapped.  Well she came in handy.  Rick then figures that Andrea might still be in Woodbury somewhere and miraculously guesses she would be where they had kept Glenn and Maggie.  She’s there and still barely alive after a tussle with Milty.  Oh happy day!  Nope, wait, Milty bit her.  Damn.  And it’s in the neck so there’s no cutting off of an appendage to save her.  Double damn.  Michonne cries.  Rick comforts. And Andrea does the valiant thing by ending her troubles on her own terms.  At least she left this crappy life knowing she really tried to keep everyone alive.  Rick leaves her in the room with Michonne and a revolver.  He, Tyrese and Daryl stand there waiting and we hear a single shot and I swear I heard a little gasp from Michonne.

It’s the next morning and a different caravan pulls up to the prison.  Rick’s brought back lots of supplies and a bus full of people who were too young or too old to be soldiers in the Governor’s little army.  Rick, thanks to Andrea, knows you can’t go through this life alone so he’s decided to try and give his son a community.  Maybe Carl will have a chance to do some kid-type things for once.  Rick looks up to find his Lori hallucination but she’s gone.  I’m guessing he thinks he’s doing the right thing for once and doesn’t need her anymore. 

Also, the Governor lives.  Damn.