Welcome to Walking Dead Weekly! As the title implies, each week (bearing a new episode of course), we’ll be taking a look at the latest episode of the AMC series. I’ll let you know how I felt about each weekly offering, and will also compare it to what Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard were doing with the comic at the same time.

Last week gave us an insane introduction to the prisoners that had been residing in the West Georgia Correctional Facility. It also gave us a quick conclusion to more than half of them, which was a sad end but definitely kept the group from getting too large (and kept us from having to keep track of even more characters). The episode was absolutely fantastic. In fact, in the last pod, Jonathan stated that it was his favorite episode of the series so far.

Let’s jump right in to last night’s episode! As usual, you’ll see spoilers below! You’ve been warned!

Episode Thoughts – ‘Walk With Me’

Last week’s intense prison moments left us with absolutely no time to catch up with Michonne and Andrea. It’s nice to see things reverse this week: we won’t spend a single frame with Rick and the gang, and instead Andrea and Michonne fall front and centre.

The episode begins with a group of military-looking men travelling in a helicopter before their engine decides to fail. Andrea and Michonne are in the vicinity of the crash, and obviously rush to find out what happened: could this have been a rescue attempt? In any case, how is there a helicopter in the sky after all of the chaos of the past year?

The pair arrive at the scene just long enough to get a look at a survivor before vehicles begin to approach the area. The untrusting duo naturally hides as the group takes the only living occupant of the copter. Just as the group is about to leave, Andrea and Michonne are threatened from behind. Who could it be but Merle Dixon, Darryl’s long lost one handed brother (now with a badass Assassin’s Creed esque shiv). The pair also witness the leader of the group (David Morrissey portraying the freaking Governor) killing what they think is another survivor. The two of course don’t know that everyone is infected, and that simply dying is enough to bring you back.

The pair are hooded and brought to an unknown location. Andrea is in as rough shape as we saw in the season premiere, but her new captors seem only interested in assisting her. They provide her with medicine and tend to her injuries. How bad could these people be? The duo is shown to a nice room, and offered food before being told that if they want to leave, they can do so at dawn.

The Governor initially seems like a great guy. He doesn’t appear to have any interest but helping Andrea and Michonne, and seems to get nothing but respect from the people he leads. Daylight arrives, and The Governor (who never says his real name, but it probably starts with a P) shows the duo what he’s been up to since the apocalypse happened: Woodbury. A town, a safe haven, a place where people respect the guidelines that have been set for them, and appear to be happy with their lives once more. In the age where the dead don’t stay dead, this looks absolutely impossible. Andrea looks perplexed throughout her tour: this is something Rick’s gang has been striving for since the dead began to walk, and here it is in the flesh (no pun intended).  For the first time in nearly a year, she doesn’t have to walk around with her finger constantly resting on a trigger, and she can can let her guard down and recuperate.

Of course, people tend to not be who they seem in this universe, and The Governor is no exception: he’s a sadistic, evil fuck whose ‘safe haven’ is just a by-product of him looking out for himself. He assures the lone survivor of the helicopter crash that he will bring the rest of the platoon to the town, and after he is told their location, he kills them. Why? I don’t know really, but it looks like Woodbury received a LOT of supplies by doing so, and also removed a potential future threat. Governor also ends the episode by grabbing an adult beverage, heading into a secret room, and staring at some fishtanks full of walker heads. What. The. Fuck.

We learn a few more interesting pieces of information throughout Walk With Me. Even Merle is afraid of the seemingly timid Governor: if you remember Merle from the first season, he was typically the character with the biggest ego and the shortest fuse. He calms right down as soon as Governor tells him to, which may attest to just how crazy Governor could be. It’s also revealed in the episode (thanks to The Governor’s clever scientist) that the walkers can starve, and that it simply takes longer for them than for a living human. Does this mean that when the food sources run out, the zombies will simply die off? Is there possible hope for the future?

I have to say, this episode was absolutely phenomenal. While last week’s Sick was Jonathan’s favourite episode of the series, I’d say that its follow-up is mine. Only three characters that we’ve ever seen before get any screen time, but we’re introduced to the most terrifying walker we’ve ever seen, and he’s not even dead. David Morrissey gave a grand performance, and I can’t wait until we get to see more of what this character has to offer. Walk With Me continues the trend that the first two episodes started: this shit is fantastic. At this point, season 3 of The Walking Dead is exponentially better than anything that the series has offered in the past. My only hope is that this momentum can continue!

The episode of course ended with a preview of next week’s Killer Within. Check out the trailer below, and let us know what you think!

 Comic Comparison

While episode 20 started around the same time as issue 13, the gap between the media has closed substantially (the comic has dealt with things that the show hasn’t even hinted at yet). Both episode 22 and issue 26 begin with a helicopter crash, but see different outcomes and different survivors heading to check out the wreckage.

While the numbers gap may be closing, the series and comic continue to spread thematically. The comic has had Michonne comfortably living with Rick’s group for some time already, while the series has them unaware that the other exists. The show still has survivors dealing with walkers at the prison, while the comic has passed that and is dealing with how shitty humans can be once things calm down.

The Governor is a character that seems very different on screen than he did on paper. Though he is evil as fuck in both, he is much more upfront about it in the comic. In Robert Kirman’s story, Rick, Michonne, and Glenn are led to Woodbury after finding the crash scene empty. Here they’re hastily told that they are to be fed to zombies for the entertainment of the town. The Governor is also determined that the three have something that he wants (which turns out to be the location of the prison) and he plans on torturing the trio to get the location. He also spends the better part of a week brutally raping Michonne after she bites off part of his ear (something I doubt we’ll see in the show).

The show introduces The Governor very differently as well: he’s still a saviour to the area of Woodbury, but also a friend to Michonne and Andrea after finding them at the crash site. The two end the episode with mixed thoughts of the man: they don’t fully trust him, yet he has given them no reason not to. It’s when the duo is off screen that you see just how sick The Governor can be.

Of course there are plenty of other differences in the media (caused simply by the different continuities of the two). Walk With Me of course reintroduced Merle to the screen, who like Darryl never appeared on paper. The comic has Dale and Andrea as a couple with a huge age difference, while the series has Dale deceased and Andrea lost to the group. The inhabitants of the helicopter were vastly different between media too: the comic has them as simply survivors from the fallen city of Atlanta, while the show of course had them as military personnel.

I’m extremely excited to see where we’ll be taken next in the AMC series. I don’t want to get too much into Woodbury and the Governor at this point in case anything I reveal pops up in episodes to come. All that I can say is that I expect things to shit the fan sooner than later, and it’s going to be awesome.

See you next week! Thanks for reading!