We start the episode off with a flashback of Andrea and
Michonne having a “girls night” around a camp fire, presumably not long after
Michonne first saves her after the incident at the farm. This was clearly an
attempt to show us why we should care about this relationship that was
developed over several months off camera but all it did was indicate that would
we need a flashback during the flashback in order for Michonne to tell us
anything relevant of her past. I would have had no issue with an entire
flashback episode if it had come much earlier in the season, but this late in
the game a two minute segment is all anyone would have put up with.
Speaking of people who could do with a flashback episode(*),
Tyreese attempts to explain a year and a half worth of events into a minute of
dialogue, and while I appreciate the effort of Chad Coleman acting it out this
was beyond forced. With Andrea and Milton having second thoughts on The
Governor the show needed to keep some people around in Woodbury who we actually
care about and have a moral conscience but we simply haven’t spent enough time
with this group to feel invested in them in that way. I so want to care about
Tyreese and his sister too but it’s not fair for the show to rely on the comic
book mythology of the characters as justification to why we find them
fascinating. They have to earn that by showing us.
(*)Well I’d almost say
every character in this show could. Mostly I would be curious to watch The
Governor build up a town in an apocalyptic world and watch his transgression
from regular Joe to maniacal lunatic. Plus Milton would be along for the ride!
But the majority of ‘Prey’ focused on our cliché demented villain
chasing down our not so cliché damsel in distress. And by “not so cliché” I
mean that I wasn’t necessarily rooting for her to get away. Although Andrea has
been salvaged much more than Lori had been able to, she still constitutes a
major problem because you can bring back a worthless character only so far. The
Governor’s pursuit of Andrea had a couple of good moments like when she
unleashed a staircase full of zombies (my
new indie band name) and I was legitimately caught off guard when The Governor pounced
her mere inches away from the freedom of the prison.
However, two semi good moments do not a quality episode make
and it has become abundantly clear that this season needed to be 13 episodes as
opposed to the 16 order it got. This was stall tactics done horribly wrong. We’ve
all know since episode two of this season that we were headed to a major
showdown between Woodbury and our loveable(?) group of survivors holed up in
the prison. There’s an old saying in storytelling: “it’s about the journey, not
the destination,” and The Walking Dead is
managing to stay steadfast on doing the exact opposite. This is a show that
writes finales first and moves just enough pieces around in-between the
beginning and the end to set it up. I have fairly little doubt that the finale
will be an excellent hour of television but I will continue to wonder if there
is much point in watching every episode of this show when we get essentially
throw-away segments like this.
Other moments of note:
- The Governor has his very own torture chamber filled with shiny new tools. I don’t believe Andrea has any useful information for him so should he torture her it would be purely for sport.
- Milton is slowly, very slowly, turning out to be a good introduced character. I hope he somehow makes it out in the finale and teams up Rick and the others next season as it would be fun to watch him adjust to their ways. Also, the results of him lighting the zombies on fire makes it into the top 5 grossest Walking Dead moments to date.
- The scene where Andrea is attacked by walkers in the forest was a stretch even by this shows standards. I didn’t realize zombies were both quiet enough to sneak up on someone without them hearing and also strong enough to pin a living person with one arm that no longer has muscle mass.
- I’m thinking The Governor was a fan of The Wire as he was “pulling an Omar” by whistling as he stalks his prey.
What did everyone else
think? Comments are always welcome.
