3.13: The Walking Dead - Arrow on the Doorpost

[ctg]

Rick and The Governor convene to create a peace treaty in hopes of preventing further deaths.

 

[FireDragon-16]

Wow, what an episode!

Rick and the Governor come to talk about some sort of a truce. At least, Rick comes to talk about a truce. He's even got a plan for all of them to get along and not be bothered. Unfortunately, the Governor doesn't want that (who else saw that one coming?)

Daryl, Hershel, Milton and Caesar seem to have come to some sort of mini truce amongst themselves, but who knows if that'll last? Although, Milton seems to be slowly realizing just how bad the Governor actually is. Andrea as well. Maybe the two of them will switch sides?

I did like Andrea's line: "What am I doing here?" Hasn't everyone been asking that for awhile?

 

[Lenny]

It was never going to match up to last week's episode, but it wasn't bad.

I liked the way the two sets of 'henchmen' bonded, and I get the feeling that everyone would be happy to band together if there wasn't a war on. When it comes to picking sides, though, I agree that Milton and Blandrea would most likely join up with Rick if they had the choice to do it again, knowing what they know now.

I also liked the shots of both sides returning to their respective camps, set to the music.

However, a couple of things annoyed me. First, the shots of the Governor's gun taped to the table and the lingering shots of the whiskey - if ever there was a blatant use of Chekhov's Gun (and Chekhov's Empty Whiskey Glass), this was it. One can only hope that something is made of them within the last few episodes, otherwise they are the most useless shots I've ever seen.

Secondly, the Governor's request for Michonne. I understand it, and of course it's obvious that Rick is not going to comply. What annoys me is that the writers would spend an entire series ignoring her, characterise her in a late episode, and then try and use the character to invoke emotion in the viewer. Because we know nothing about her, the whole plot-point does not hit its mark. Heck, if she hadn't been so central in Clear, I'd happily watch Rick give her over. Using her as a reason for war? Baffling.

Anyway, everything is in place for a final showdown! Looking forward to it.

 

[ctg]

First of all, if I don't post in usual times I might have a very good reason for doing so and I asked firedragon to do updates because of that. So why no talk?


The episode is a brilliant character study. It's not your usual episode and it certainly doesn't fill your usual action packed slot. All action was packed into the dialogue between different characters in pairs. And on the top - as they should - were Rick and the Governor. You can see how much the Governor has advanced after the yesterworld had collapsed. He's not your average psychopath that you would see in Criminal Minds and he's certainly not Hannibal Lecter. It's not like he's getting absolute satisfaction from doing these things but more like that he's embracing fully the idea that nobody's going to catch him. There's no laws, no police, nobody to make him pay for what he has done or about to do. So finding people who can put on pecks in his plans is perplexing him. Do you agree?

 

[FireDragon-16]

At first, when everything started and the Governor stepped up, giving the people in Woodbury a person they could look to who kept them safe, I think he had the right idea. Finding somewhere that could be defended and protected and attempting to start over. However, I don't think he was being smart when he did things like stage those fights with the walkers or keep the heads in tanks. The fights were showing people a side of the walkers that you don't really see and for the people who hadn't really spent to much time outside Woodbury, it was dangerous.

Now though, I think the Governor is just plain crazy. He truly sees the group from the prison as some sort of threat. He's spent all this time telling Woodbury that the only safe place was Woodbury and yet here's this group of people that come and show they've managed to survive on the road. More importantly, I think he sees Rick as a threat to his leadership. While they both have problems I'll admit, Rick just feels like a better leader to me. He doesn't try to sugarcoat everything, he just tells it like it is and while he doesn't always like it, he's not afraid to do what he has to in order to protect the group and the people he thinks of as family. The Governor's call for Michonne was just a ploy (obviously), he just wants to get rid of what he sees as a threat to his leadership.

I don't know...this is just me rambling. Hopefully this makes enough sense to someone to comment on it

 

[thaddeus6th]

I really enjoyed this episode. On paper (two chaps meet for a talk) it sounds like a boring way to spend an hour, but it was very well done. The contrast between their underlings becoming friends (through fighting or talking) whilst both men at the top basically went nowhere and conceded nothing was great, and suggested that egos rather than anything else was the real problem.

 

[rune]

I really enjoyed this episode, good to see these two character finally meet. And its so obvious the difference between them. Rick may be hurting, but he's not crazy like the Governer.
Even though Rick is considering giving Michonne up, I dont think he will

 

[thaddeus6th]

I also like the continuing contrast between seemingly nice Woodbury and seemingly nasty Rickland (the latter were far harsher with Tyrese et al., and at the meeting Rick wisely refused to part with his gun).