Just in time for next week’s midseason finale, the glimmer of hope that the Governor was a changed man has been snuffed out. Or, perhaps more appropriately, beaten to death with a golf club. I’ll be dropping all kinds of spoilers throughout, so if you haven’t watched this week’s episode, now would be a good time to check it out. Go on. I’ll wait.
Okay, are you back? Sweet. Let’s delve into some madness together.
“You Can’t Think Forever. Sooner or Later, You Have to Move.”
The episode begins with a chessboard. The dark and light pieces have already been arranged in an epic melee as the Governor discusses the finer points of the game with Megan. As this discussion progresses, we see a minor flashback in which Martinez pulls the Governor and Megan out of the zombie pit.
The Governor may be a tyrant, but he’s Megan’s tyrant after all.
It’s this moment when one can’t help but think that the Governor’s cunning mind is churning with dastardly ideas. The chessboard is a fitting metaphor for the Governor’s perspective on their current way of life. He’s based his existence on surviving—no matter the cost. His fixation on Megan (he even calls her pun’kin. It would be cute if he wasn’t so evil) has filled a deep and emotional gap for him, so his priority is to ensure that she is safe no matter what—even if it calls for an old fashioned coup.
Admittedly, I was still remaining hopeful that this dialogue between the Governor and Megan was nothing more than a bonding session—but when I saw that the clothesline was attached to a tank, my hopes darkened. As with the comic books, I’m sure the Governor is planning on using that tank for more than just drying laundry.
“You Seem Different Now. Are You?”
Martinez has become the head honcho of a new group of survivors that appear to have taken residence within an old trailer park. Moments after fishing the Governor out of a zombie pit, Martinez makes sure that his old boss knows the score. Later in the episode, Martinez admits to the fact that he would have let the Governor rot in that zombie pit if he had been on his own. Keep in mind that when Martinez left his old boss, the Governor had become little more than a walker himself. Martinez—like all of us—was hoping that the Governor had actually turned his back on the old days of committing atrocities.
For the first half of the episode, things appear harmless enough. The Governor accepts an invitation to accompany Martinez and his team on a supply run. The team consists of Mitch and Pete, two brothers that are little more than hastily drawn clichés of two survivor archetypes—Mitch is pissed off and trigger happy while Pete is more considerate and compassionate. Throw in Martinez, who appears to be simply going through the motions of leadership without any real investment in the group’s survival, and it’s easy to see a lot of disharmony within this team. It’s because of this disharmony that the Governor has to save their asses from the inevitable zombie attack.
This is the point at which I believe the Governor’s unraveling began. I still hold to the fact that, given the right circumstances with the right group, the Governor would be more than happy taking the sidelines with his new family unit. However, when he sees how poorly the leadership functions with this new group, he makes an executive decision—with emphasis on execute.
After the supply run, the Governor joins Martinez on top of a camper for some drunken golfing. Though this scene abruptly ends with the Governor whacking Martinez over the head with a golf club and feeding him to a pit full of zombies, it was triggered when Martinez asked for help with the leadership duties. At this point, I’m still defending the Governor. He could have voiced his opinion without murdering Martinez, but his murderous rage was fueled by the fact that he didn’t want to be a leader—he screams this as he lowers a semi-conscious Martinez into the zombie pit.
“Things Are About to Go Very Wrong Here.”
As Pete (the nice brother) assumes leadership, his constant bickering with Mitch is enough for the Governor to see the bonds of the group dissolving. He gathers Lily, Megan, Tara and Tara’s slightly obligatory girlfriend Alisha, and hits the road. This feels like the Governor’s last attempt to be rid of the man he used to be. He knows that the group’s infrastructure is collapsing, and he doesn’t want to take over leadership because he also knows that it will require him to do terrible things again. Though he wants to take the people he cares about and find someplace else, their road is blocked—both literally and metaphorically—by a writhing horde of the undead that is half-submerged in muddy sludge.
This is the moment when I stop defending the Governor.
As he gazes into this Nietzchean abyss, he comes face to face with the darkness that has come to define him. Though he uses that darkness to protect his own, it comes at a great cost to his soul—and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in his way.
Not wasting any time, the Governor and his family return to the camp where he promptly dispatches Peter and psychologically manipulates Mitch into becoming his right hand crony. Just like that, Woodbury 2.0 is born.
The episode concludes with the scene that we saw two episodes ago—the Governor looming just outside the prison. He spies on Rick and Carl, but when he sees Michonne, he raises his gun and…cue end credits!
Verdict
Though the showrunners needed to make sure the Governor was back to being a nefarious villain by midseason, I felt like this episode rushed the transition. Based on his apparent disgust with the events of Woodbury, it was hard to believe that he’d jump back in the saddle that quickly. Sure, he’s got a new family to protect, and the episode implied that weak leadership in the group forced the Governor to take the reins, but the transformation happened a bit too fast. That being said, the last two episodes have ensured that the inevitable conflict between Rick and the Governor will remain complex, as we can understand what both men are fighting for. The Governor may be a tyrant, but he’s Megan’s tyrant after all.