Knowing there are still a few episodes left before Woodbury and the Prison break into all-out war, I didn’t know what to expect from last night’s episode of The Walking Dead. Last week was very little action and a lot of talking when all we wanted was for someone to shoot The Governor and end it all. So what could they do last night to hold us over? Something very, very disturbing…
[SPOILERS]
The episode was called “Prey” and it was easy to see why but at least we weren’t given another episode waiting for something…anything…to happen.
Flashback to Andrea and Michonne during winter on their own. I’m not sure what we got from this scene, as I was expecting the two women to share secrets, but nothing was revealed. Michonne hints at the past she shared with her walker pets but chooses not to talk about it. Back in present-day Woodbury, we see The Governor setting up a torture chamber. He has two chains, much like the ones Michone kept her walkers hooked up to, and a table with several instruments. He starts laying them out one by one and…WAS THAT A SPECULUM?!
For those of you not familiar, a speculum is a medical instrument used in gynecological exams. So while some viewers may have just written off that table with, “Oh, The Governor is planning something messed up,” a great deal of us realized he’s about to take his psychopathy to a whole other level.
Milton has been wavering in his loyalty to The Governor’s cause, seeing as how it’s been getting further and further away from their original Woodbury ideals, but when he sees this secret room and what The Governor is laying out, he finally speaks up. Of course he’s scared back into submissiveness but at least we see his character starting to evolve. He runs to tell Andrea and ask that she leave immediately, even though he doesn’t feel he can, and the two go and look at the room together from a secret hallway above. When The Governor walks in, Andrea sees this as a chance to do what she didn’t earlier and kill him. But Milton stops her because, obviously.
Andrea is at the point of no return, which she should have been at weeks ago, and makes for her escape. Her exit is being guarded by Tyreese and his sister Sasha who try and get her to stay but realize they weren’t asked to keep people from leaving, just keep walkers from getting in. Andrea gives them a heads up but doesn’t want to stay long enough to explain. Tyreese is still experiencing some tension with the other two members of his group and while they are out on a secret mission with Martinez, he breaks. He sees Woodbury are planning something sinister with their captured walkers and doesn’t want anything to do with unleashing them on women and children. When Allen opposes him he comes very close to dropping him in the walker pit but holds back.
Milton can’t lie or keep a secret for shit so The Governor finds out fairly quickly Andrea is loose and headed toward the prison. Even though she’s been running at a pretty good clip, he catches up to her in his truck. The two then have a very horror movie-like scene in an abandoned warehouse in which Andrea must evade but The Governor and walkers left inside. It led to a great character and show moment when Andrea, stuck between The Governor and a door leading to a staircase full of walkers, opens said door in such a way that she is protected and the walkers are let loose on The Governor. It seems like the end for him though we know it can’t be – there’s that torture chamber still waiting to be used.
Andrea is almost to her destination, literally so close to the prison she can smell it, when The Governor comes up behind her and prevents her from yelling out to Rick, who was on watch. And of course Rick thinks he saw something but dismisses it because well, he’s seeing a lot of things these days.
Upon arriving back at Woodbury, The Governor finds out all their captive walkers were burned by an unknown person. He thinks Tyreese might be at fault then realizes Tyreese didn’t have access to the fuel used to burn them. It was nice knowing you, Milton. Also, Tyreese and Sasha totally know what’s up and are totally cool if The Governor wants them to leave because they let Andrea go. No? We can stay? Crap.
And then of course there’s the reveal. The Governor doesn’t tell anyone he’s brought Andrea back with him because he’s gagged her and tied her to a chair in his torture room. This is not going to be pretty.
I think this episode should have happened much sooner in the season to move things along. It was suspenseful for sure but was simply the revelation of everything we knew about these characters. We knew The Governor was bad but the hiding that fact and waffling back and forth was getting frustrating. We also knew Andrea needed to leave Woodbury and Milton needed to stand up for himself. Readers of the comic book know this is the real Governor and were waiting for this particular behavior to show up, it just happened to show up in a different way. Though considering how the Glenn/Maggie scenes played out, I’m not sure how the Andrea situation will unfold. Will they hold back again or show brutal violence? Or will they imply the violence but not show it on camera?
Let us know what you thought of the new episode in the comments and we’ll see you back here next Monday for another recap!
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