A quick review of tonight’s “The Walking Dead” coming up just as soon as I finish my run…
The pre-credits sequence to “I Ain’t a Judas” pays lip service to the idea of Rick stepping down as leader of the prison group, but nothing really comes of it. Instead, he remains in charge, and having already driven away Tyreese’s group – which will lead to even more problems now that they’re in Woodbury – he and Michonne combine to make Andrea feel so unwelcome at the prison (a place that’s opened its doors to Merle, after all) that you can’t entirely blame her for declining the perfect opportunity to rid the world of the Governor once and for all.
For the most part, I think the show has done a good job of letting us see how Andrea, knowing what she knows, might be taken by the Governor. The problem is that we know a lot more, and Andrea – who already has a history of loudly, stubbornly backing the bad guy(*) – comes off looking wildly unsympathetic at best, and a plot device at worst. (Though Michonne comes off worse either way; the idea that she went back to Woodbury just to hurt Andrea’s feelings is pretty awful, and not what that character needed at this stage of her relationship with the audience.)
(*) Note that when she surveys the remains of the group from the farm, she asks after Shane, and then Lori, but has to be reminded about T-Dog. (Twice, no less!) Even the people who knew him can barely recall T-Dog’s existence.
Still, I thought “I Ain’t a Judas” did a good job of showing how much the group has changed since Andrea last saw them, whether for good (Carol has really blossomed), for ill (Merle is there, and trusted with assault weapons) or for both (Hershel lost his foot but is a far more assertive person – and interesting character – than he was on the farm). And putting Tyreese into Woodbury at least keeps our sympathies from being entirely one-sided; we don’t know the guy well, but he’s very decent and got a very raw deal from Rick.
Keeping in mind the usual spoiler rules – no talking about the previews, no talking about the comics, no talking about other knowledge of upcoming stories and episodes, etc., etc., etc. – what did everybody else think?