The Walking Dead - S4E8 - Too Far Gone
Previously on The Walking Dead - ‘Dead Weight’
The Big Lie
This episode wasted no time in getting to the Governor’s plans: He wants to convince his new group to take the prison. He paints them as bad people who took his previous camp with Martinez. Of course, Martinez isn’t there to contradict any of this and in all his Jim Jones-smoothness he talks them into attacking the prison and even admits that he has taken two of their people. Sure enough, we see that he jumped Michonne and Hershel and now has them tied up in a trailer.
Lilly overheard his rallying speech and she’s not happy about the plan. She’s not down for killing people, but he says they’re killing killers.
The Governor patches up Michonne’s head wound, despite the fact that she warns him not to touch her. He gallantly tells her that he has forgiven her for Penny. He knows that she was dead already. Michonne is like, “That’s nice and all, but I’m still going to kill you.” Hershel hushes her up and tries to negotiate with the Governor. We learn that he no longer wants to be called the Governor. He does want to protect what’s his. Hershel thinks some common ground can be found and he plays the “you understand what it’s like to have a daughter and I have two in the prison” card, but the Gov tells him that he doesn’t care because those aren’t HIS daughters. In other words, he ripped that damn card up and tossed back in Hershel’s face. So, basically, he doesn’t think that they’ll be able to call bygones and live together, and ransoming Michonne and Hershel is the only way he sees being able to get that prison for his people.
The Governor and crew move their camp near a river and the plan is to leave Lilly and Megan there. He reasons they’ll be safe because the Biters can’t make it across the water. She tries to talk him out of it again, saying they can just find a place near the water, but his mind won’t be changed. He goes to say goodbye to Megan, who’s playing in the mud.
Getting Back to Normal, Kinda
Back at the prison, Maggie is tending to Glenn who’s still healing from his illness. He tells her their anniversary is coming up and she talks about going to a place her father used to take her when she was a kid.
Rick has told Daryl about Carol and he’s not happy. Daryl thinks Rick should have waited until they got back, but Rick says he couldn’t risk the confrontation with Tyreese. Daryl thinks he could have handled Tyreese, but we know that’s not true. Then Daryl is like, “What the hell we gonna do with those kids?” Daryl ain’t about the life of raising nobody’s babies. They decide to go tell Tyreese about Carol together.
Sasha tries to thank Bob, but he’s too busy wallowing in his pity party.
Daryl and Rick approach Tyreese about Carol, but before they can get into it, Tyreese wants to show them something. Someone’s been dissecting a rat in this area of the prison. My money’s on creepy-ass Lizzie. Before they can tell Tyreese that the person playing with rats isn’t the one who killed Karen like he thinks, there’s an explosion.
Shit Gets Really Real
The Governor and his crew are at the gates with a tank. They’ve used it to shoot out one of the guard towers. He wants Rick to come down to the gates for a chat, but Rick tells him he doesn’t make the rules. They have a council. The Governor reveals he has two possible members of his precious council and Hershel and Michonne are brought out and put on their knees. Rick goes down to talk to him while Daryl secretly hands out weapons to the rest of their group.
Rick tries to reason with the Governor by mentioning the fact that they have sick kids in there, but we all know how the Governor responds to reason.
Meanwhile, back at the river, Megan is digging in the mud while Lilly sits atop a trailer, watching the water for walkers. She spots one just as Megan asks for her help digging something out of the mud. The walker doesn’t make it very far before getting stuck in the water. Megan finally gets the sign out and tells Lilly she no longer needs her help. She wipes off the mud to reveal it was a sign warning about flash floods. After a few moments, a walker starts to claw his way out of the mud and grabs Megan. Before Lilly can get to her, the walker bites Megan.
Mika and the two other kids whose names we never learned are getting the fuck outta dodge with Judith. Lizzie scolds them for being little weaklings and says Carol told them to be strong. The bad guys have guns, we should have guns, too. Meanwhile Carl wants to take his shot, but Daryl tells him to trust Rick to handle it.
The Governor takes out two approaching walkers and tells Rick that more will just come so he needs to get on with the get on. Also, there’s about an hour of sunlight left. Rick tries to tell The Governor that they can all live together. They will even have separate cell blocks until they’re ready to see each other or be around each other. The Governor gives that a big fat NOPE.
Rick then tries to appeal to the people with the Governor. He tells them that people from Woodbury are there and they’ve become leaders, built a real community. Tara looks swayed, but does nothing. Mitch pipes in like the asshole he is that it’s time for Rick and his people to leave. Finally, the Governor threatens Hershel with the sword and Rick FINALLY got the lesson that Hershel had been trying to teach him: We all get to come back from the things that we do. Hershel smiles.
For a moment, it seems this has worked. The Governor looks like he’s thinking about it, but he eventually decides, “Nah,” and slices Hershel in the neck with the sword.
Then all hell breaks loose. Everyone starts firing at each other, Michonne rolls away to take cover behind a vehicle and tries to cut the ropes behind her back on the edge of a license plate. She trips one of the Governor’s men, stomps his neck, and then goes back to work on her ropes.
The Governor finishes the job and cuts Hershel’s head off, hacking away at it several times. Rick takes shelter behind the overturned bus, but gets shot in the leg. Mitch yells at Tara to pick up her gun and start shooting, but she won’t. She wants to leave, but Alisha tells her that they can’t go back. She wants Tara to stay behind her and if they get separated, run for a safe place and she’ll find her.
The Governor looks up to find that Lilly has driven Megan to the prison. He takes Megan into his arms and promptly shoots her in the head. He then tells his people to storm the prison and kill everyone.
The End
The Governor doesn’t get far before he’s jumped by Rick. They two fight while the gun battle rages on.
Maggie runs inside to get Glenn, forcing Beth to help get people on the bus. When Maggie returns to the bus with Glenn, she learns that Beth took off to find the kids so she leaves Glenn to find her.
Daryl is almost eaten by a walker, but he uses it as a shield and tosses a grenade at the tank. The shock of the explosion seems to bring Tara to her senses and she decides to get the fuck up outta there.
Maggie finds Bob and Sasha who are in the middle of a shootout. They haven’t seen Beth. Bob gets shot, but the bullet went through cleanly so he can be patched up. Then the three look on as the bus takes off. Sasha says they’ll figure it out and the three run off in the direction of the bus.
Tyreese gets pinned by Alisha and another man, but is saved by Lizzie and Mika. Lizzie takes out Alisha with a headshot. Then Tyreese follows the two back into the prison.
The Governor is choking Rick to death when Michonne puts her sword right through his back.
Rick asks about Carl, but she doesn’t know where he is. Instead of putting the Governor down once and for all, she leaves him writhing on the ground, coughing up blood. No worries, though. Lilly walks up and puts one in his head.
Daryl takes out the tank by putting a grenade in the barrel, and then kills Mitch when Mitch exits the tank. He finds Beth, who couldn’t find the kids, and they take off.
Rick finds Carl, but they don’t know where Judith is. They find her carseat, empty except for a whole lotta blood. Carl breaks down into tears. As they leave the prison, Rick warns Carl to not look back.
I was impressed with the camera work going from Hershel to Rick during the neck slash scene. I also thought the chess piece in the mud was a good scene.
I’m curious why Rick didn’t speak up to the Governor’s new crew about how the Governor gunned down his previous crew? Probably would have been a good way to win some people over, no?
Does he even know that happened?
Jeff, we’re about to record a short show covering listener feedback, questions, and predictions. I will definitely address this as it was something I meant to talk about when we recorded last night, but forgot.
It seemed to me that Michonne left The Governor mortally wounded but alive for a reason - - - so that walkers could come eat his face off. Lilly ruined all that!