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 ignored the prison altogether and caught us up with the lonesome duo of Michonne and Andrea. The episode introduced us to the “safe haven” of Woodbury, reintroduced the less popular Dixon brother Merle, and gave us our first look at David Morrissey expertly portraying the evil fuck that is The Governor. The episode was my favourite of the entire series, and I absolutely couldn’t wait to see what followed.

Let’s get right down to business! As always, you’ll see plenty of spoilers below! You’ve been warned!

Episode Thoughts – ‘Killer Within’

Holy Fucking Shit. I finished watching Killer Within just moments ago, and it’s nearly impossible to think of any other words to describe what I just witnessed. I know that I made this statement just last week, and I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but tonight we got the best episode of The Walking Dead ever. It may just be nerves, but that may have been one of the most intense 40 minutes of television that I’ve ever witnessed. Can you tell where I’m going with this?

Killer Within takes us back to the venerable prison, and as the episode opens we get a glimpse of someone (who appears to be wearing an inmate uniform) breaking a prison gate and allowing walkers into the area.

The survivors are beginning to make the prison yard their own: clearing bodies and planning ways to utilize the space while Glenn and Maggie have fun in the guard tower. Hershel is also looking quite spry for a man who appeared to be dead just two episodes ago: at one point in the episode, he’ll even don crutches and make his way outside. The two remaining inmates come and ask to be allowed into the group, and out of the cell block where they’ve seen the bodies of so many dead friends. Rick refuses, and instead of staying in their block the inmates decide that they’d rather leave altogether.

Things then shift to Michonne and Andrea in Woodbury. Andrea seems to be getting more and more keen on staying in the town, while Michonne trusts the area and The Governor less and less (any why wouldn’t she after finding their new army vehicle riddled with bullet holes and fresh blood). Andrea shares information about Hershel’s farm with Merle, who wants to go find clues of his brother’s whereabouts. Governor quickly shuts the idea down, but states that if Merle can get more concrete information, Governor will accompany Merle himself.

Back at the prison, just as Axel and Oscar are about to be set free, droves of walkers begin to surround our survivors. Just when you think things couldn’t possibly get any worse, the prison’s sirens start blaring, which is sure to attract any stragglers in the area. There are simply too many walkers to comfortably handle, so the group is forced to break into small chunks to have any chance of escaping. Carol and T-Dog find themselves in walker-filled corridors, and unfortunately, T-Dog spends his last breaths ensuring that Carol can safely make it out of harms way. This entire sequence is insanely intense, paced wonderfully, and of course looks just as great as The Walking Dead always does. I was already in love with this episode before finding out what would occur next.

Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and the surviving inmates rush to turn off the generator, fearful that it may be used to open the main gates. When the group makes it to the generator room, they also find the one who caused all this madness: the inmate that Rick left for dead in the season’s second episode, Andrew, ready for revenge. Ironically enough, it’s inmate Oscar (who Rick of course hasn’t trusted up to this point) that saves Rick’s life and kills the bastard. When Oscar then flips the gun and offers the handle to Rick, you know this character’s going to be around for quite awhile.

The final quarter of the episode is more emotional and gut wrenching than absolutely everything the series has given us to this point. The stress and fear from the events that have just transpired have forced Lori into labour, and of course there’s nobody with medical experience around to help. It’s simply Carl, Maggie, and Lori in a boiler room, and Lori leaves it up to Maggie to deliver the child. Again, just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, they get so much fucking worse. Lori needs a caesarian section which they all know she won’t make it through, and all they’ve got is a dirty knife (not even any fucking anaesthetic). The scene is a heartbreaking introduction to a new baby girl, and to top things off, Carl gives himself the duty of making sure his mom doesn’t turn.

I already felt tears welling up at this point in the episode, and this wasn’t even half as heartbreaking as it would get. After things calm down: walkers are taken care of, sirens are off, the surviving members head back to the yard. Rick spots Maggie holding the new baby girl, and upon asking “where is she?” immediately realizes what happened, and breaks down like we’ve never seen before. An absolutely tearjerking and heartbreaking end to a character, a relationship, and an episode. Of course only moments before the walkers found their way onscreen, Lori and Rick shared a loving smile, an almost wordless confirmation stating “we’re going to get through this, we’re going to be okay”. Now they’ll never get the chance.

Again, Killer Within was phenomenal. Even now I’m thinking about it, and I’m sure I will be long into the next chapter. At the opening of the third season, I wasn’t sure if we were setting ourselves up for disappointment after a fantastic opening, but now a quarter way through the year I’m pretty certain we’ve got a winner on our hands.

As usual, during the credits we got a peek at what to expect next week, and while I’m sure it can’t possibly match what we saw tonight, it doesn’t look like things are about to calm down either. Check out the preview for Say the Word below, and as always, let us know what you thought of this week’s offering!

Comic Comparison

Of course, the most pressing event to compare with Killer Within is the life and death of Lori Grimes. Both the relationship between Lori and Rick and the way Lori’s death is portrayed is striking different between paper and screen.

The couple seems to have few issues in the comic (while in the AMC version Rick appears to almost hate her). Sure, Lori slept with Shane, but Rick was very quick to forgive, stating that it was a different world, and that he was glad Shane was there to protect her. The pair were happy, loving, and a role model to other couples in the group before Lori’s untimely (and unexpected) death in issue 48.

The death of course happens at different times and in different contexts as well. The television characters don’t even know that The Governor exists at this point, while in the comic he causes Lori’s (and baby’s) death. The show instead has Lori dying in childbirth, leaving her newborn child to survive (at least for now, though I don’t see them killing off a newborn).

As for other differences, the book leaves Dale legless after a walker bite, while of course the series has Dale already dead so that job falls to Hershel. The comic has Hershel successfully farming the prison yard, but in his current state I don’t see that happening in the show.

Axel has found himself welcome in the group and very useful in Robert Kirkman’s version, yet AMC still sees him as an outcast, though hopefully that will change now that the surviving inmates saved Rick’s life. The physical character also looks substantially different from his paper origins.

Another major difference between media: only Lori and T-Dog die in this episode, yet in the book when Lori passes, so does almost everyone else. After her death, the comic has Carl and a sick, heartbroken, one-handed Rick on their own for quite some time. This is of course still plausible (though AMC is very unlikely to kill off this many established characters), as Governor still doesn’t know that the prison exists in the series: the comic has everyone dying simply because he wants to take it.

Speaking of The Governor (who AMC introduced us to just last week), this character again shows that he’s substantially different from the pervy looking dick that the comic portrays him as. David Morrissey’s Governor (who in this episode strangely revealed that his name was Philip, though just last week stated that he would never tell) is a much more sly and seductive (and clean cut) character, and though I doubt we’ve seen what he’s capable of, it’s surely more than we’ve seen so far. As I mentioned last week, the comic version of the character spends the better part of a week brutally beating and raping Michonne, and also decides to cuts Rick’s hand off among other things, simply in an attempt to get some information. I also don’t see the same fate coming to the Morrissey’s version of the character: it would certainly be tough to act a one armed, one eyed, penisless, evil shell of a man. In any case, I’m of course excited to see where they take the character.

Honestly, after what I saw tonight, I absolutely can’t wait for next week or for the rest of season 3. Since the premiere four weeks ago each episode has somehow managed to surpass the prior chapter. It’s not a trend that can continue I’m sure, but if Say the Word is half as good as Killer Within was, we’re still looking at some great TV.

As always, thanks for reading, and see you next week!