Lamalo
2781
Except for the fact that whenever any living person dies he will turn into a zombie and the cycle begins anew. It almost is 28 Days Later, but not quite.
I wonder if there’s ever any explanation of where/when the zombie infection started in The Walking Dead (comic or TV show).
The zombie heads in Milton’s lab and The Governor’s fish tanks were all animated. Except for the chopper pilot’s head, so far as I could tell.
So far, with or without animated zombie heads, this season is getting my hopes up again. Season 2 was very watchable but not nearly as good as the first season.
I love the pacing of this episode. They succeeded on simultaneously making me think the Gov was a little creepy, while at the same time respecting what he had done, his people seemed safe, a pretty good life…considering.
Of course that unravels at the end with the soldiers and his relaxation in front of his aquariums.
I can’t wait to see what is up with that, surely more than he is batshit crazy. They mention at least once that they believe the dead have something still in them from who they used to be. Is that a red herring or the core of what he is doing with that scientist and his collection.
Other than that, on to more mundane creepiness. He seems happy to kill any male that comes near his camp, but the females are brought in, talked into staying, but I doubt they can just pick up their weapons and leave if they decide to test the Govs insistence that they are not prisoners and are free to leave.
My take was, he doesn’t view all males as being a risk. Just groups of militarized males. Note that he took in Merle, and seems to know what that guy is about. So far as we can tell, The Governor is out to rebuild civilization in some form, but isn’t willing to trust other military installations.
Can’t comment on your speculations about what might happen if the women try to escape the Governor’s stronghold.
The Governor doesn’t see males as a risk, but what he does see is rival organizations and leaders as a risk, because he’s the Governor. The leader. Doesn’t matter who they are. This is why he will come into a big, big conflict with Rick eventually.
As for the heads, I just figured he was a big fan of Futurama.
— Alan
I was just trying to figure out why Norm MacDonald was the Governor.
Now that would be an interesting direction to take.
Exactly. The Governor’s not necessarily interested in taking out all potential rivals, just groups that might stand in the way of what he’s trying to achieve with the walled community he’s working with right now.
Hey all,
It read to me as the Gov was acquiring munitions. He didn’t care about “rivals” and “groups,” he wanted their stuff. His hideously dishonest speech after about their “sacrificed” made it clear that he’s a capital “E” evil bastard. Andrea is an idiot for wanting to stay around another minute.
I think the character’s actions are perfectly reasonable. It’s not like she’s watching the show and sees all the shit.
On the run for months on end and then run into a secure town? Being tempted by the situation isn’t idiotic. In fact, the only truly bad overt sign is the fact that Merl’s been accepted into the community.
One question: remember when they showed Merle, the Governor, and the Doctor in the lab? The Doctor said something about Merle eating his last “experiment.” Anyone have any idea what that was about?
WarrenM
2792
My thought during that scene was that, well, it seems unnecessary BUT … no additional mouths to feed and they gain a bunch of food, guns and ammo. Seems practical if fairly douchey.
I was just surprised at how the military guys just stood around and waited to get shot. Was a return shot even fired?
serling
2793
Even though that bugged me as well, it was quickly overshadowed by that cringeworthy slow motion sequence. Well played, Walking Dead!
Well they were noted as being National Guardsmen, not active duty military. Not to take anything away from the contributions of real life Guardsmen, but if they were activated shortly before all hell broke loose chances are they were not following any sort of military protocol in securing their perimeter and had little training on how to react to such an ambush. Given that they were caught in a crossfire where all their attention up front was on the sudden appearance of an actual living person, then the shock that followed that person’s shooting one of their own, it’s not surprising that they went down so easily. If all they had fought to that point was walkers it would be easy to see why they had their guard down, though surely someone could have snapped off a single round the Governor’s way…
It was a poorly done scene. Those guys might have been National Guard, but they had also survived for a long time. I just don’t see how the Governor’s guys could sneak-up like that without being heard. Plus, why the “switcheroo”? Why not just sneak-up from behind and shoot them all? The second The governor pulled his gun he should have been shot multiple times. A more plausible scene would have had the helicopter pilot be the one who confronts the military guys (after leading the Governor to them), have them drop their guard, then the guys hiding shoot them all. I guess that would have ruined the fish tank reveal at the end though.
Dumb dumb dumb. Still, it’s a good show.
The scene was clearly about defining the Governor’s character, not about the action. They wanted to show that he’s crazy, but absolutely not a coward (ala Shane). He leads from the front. Given the image of his lost family, he also seems to have a bit of a death wish.
Heavy-handed and a bit unrealistic, but I think the scene served their purpose. He’s a good foil to Rick and continues pushing the same question that Shane posed: what is the best type of leader for a post-apocalyptic world? One who holds on to pre-ZA morality or one or puts survival above all else?
Rick walked close to the edge in the last one, but he clearly only took out those who went at him first.
Hugin
2797
Yeah, but that’s much less of a big deal.
Half the population staggering around is a disaster. A trickle of people becoming zombies as they die from typical causes is just an alteration to the way we do emergency medical care and funeral arrangements.
Think about all the people you know. Friends, family, coworkers, the people you even just brush past briefly in the supermarket, in your daily commute, etc. How many of those die, per day? I’m assuming the typical person encounters very little death in the course of an average day or even average year. So, cops, paramedics, doctors, firefighters, mortuary workers etc carry guns or Headsquisher Tool Thingies (I’m thinking some kind of captive bolt gun kind of thing), and life mostly goes on as normal for most other people.
Hugin
2798
Nah, from a survival point of view it was dumb. There’s no way you can justify throwing away a half dozen or dozen young, healthy males with military training and probably various other mechanical or technical skills.
That’s a whole hell of a lot of wasted perimeter defense, zombie fighting, field plowing, lumber cutting, 75 pound sacks of whatever carrying, engine repairing (or whatever other skills) labor force.
Nah, it’s about control, not mouths to feed.
WarrenM
2799
Hugin … Yeah, that’s true. I guess crazy factors in as well.
Hey Steps,
I think perfectly reasonable people are fully capable of making idiotic decisions. Michonne hasn’t had the benefit of watching the show either and she seems to know perfectly well that the Governor is bad news and they should light out of there asap.
And you dismiss Merl’s being accepted AND GIVEN AUTHORITY as if it’s nothing. That isn’t nothing in the slightest. That is serious bad news. Particularly for Michonne, and Andrea should know that. We’re given to understand that they care for each other, but if she thinks Merl is gonna be a perfect gentleman with Michonne she’s an idiot. Kinda like Lori saying to herself, “Yeah, Shane tried to rape me at the CDC but he’s still good people…”
Also, anyone should be able to smell the bs when the guy with half a dozen armed men surrounding your room tells you you’re a prisoner. Honestly, she’s seriously naive if she thinks this is the answer.
