Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Walking Dead: Hounded, 11/18/2012

Merle and three more of Guv’s crew creep through the woods, stumble upon carefully arranged pieces of cut-up corpse. Merle says Guv was right to send them after Michonne. Whoa! To kill her? Guv, you jerk. One of the guys, Neal, realizes that the pieces spell “Go back.” Merle just laughs. Then stops laughing when Michonne leaps out, swords two dudes two death, uses one as a human shield to block Merle’s bullets, then runs off. Michonne = BAD ASS. One of the shots grazes her thigh. Merle chases her for a bit, loses her. He hurries back to Neal, who’s freaking out, and pep talks him into resuming the chase.

In the boiler room, Rick chats on the phone with a female. She can’t believe someone picked up, she can’t tell him where her group is, they’re somewhere safe, away from the zombies. Personally I’d’ve been like, “What exactly was the point of this call???” and hung up in her face, but Rick asks if she’d be willing to take in more people. She says she’ll call back in two hours. Rick gets cleaned up and rejoins the group. Doesn’t tell them about the phone call, says he killed all the zombies in the boiler room area. Daryl tells him they’re cleaning out the generator room area later. Glenn tells him he (Glenn) and Maggie are making a run later for ammo and formula. Rick says he’s busy cleaning out bodies, then hurries off. I notice that, though he mentioned his newborn daughter when pleading with Telephone Lady, he does not ask to see her.

It is, as always, a beautiful day in Woodbury. Andrea tells Guv she didn’t enjoy the fighting-for-entertainment, but she likes it here and wants to stay, and to contribute. He starts to suggest a position in food distribution (Sexist much?), but Andrea interrupts him and says she’s a good shot and wants to help defend the place. 

In the boiler room, Rick waits impatiently. The phone rings. It’s a guy this time. He wants to know how many people has Rick killed? Who where they? How’d Rick lose wife? Rick refuses to answer the last question, and Telephone Guy hangs up. “NO!” Rick screams in fury.

Atop the Woodbury wall, Andrea talks killing zombied family members with Bow and Arrow Girl. A zombie approaches. BAG shoots twice, but the zombie is lurching and pitching; she misses. Andrea jumps down, rushes over, knocks him to the ground, stabs him through the skull. BAG is pissed.

Hershel crutches into the boiler room to talk to Rick. He tells Rick that Lori told him (Hershel) she was sorry for how bad things got, that Rick did everything he could to keep the group safe, that he got them to the prison. Rick says the prison’s not safe enough. Hershel says there isn’t anywhere else to go. Rick says he got a phone call from a woman who said she was with a group in a safe place. Hershel picks up the phone and listens. I was sure he’d say, “Rick. There’s no dial tone,” and we’d realize that the calls aren't real. But Hershel just asks if the lady said where she was, so I guess they are? Rick says wherever they are, he’ll find a way to get them there. But don’t tell the others yet. Hershel offers to sit with Rick; Rick declines, wants to be alone. In the generator room area, Oscar, Daryl, and Carl prowl around, hunting zombies. Daryl tells Carl about when he (Daryl) was kid and lost his mother in a fire, how much it hurt when she was just suddenly gone. Carl tells him about how he (Carl) had to shoot Lori in the head. “I’m sorry about your mom,” Carl says. “I’m sorry about yours,” Daryl replies. Awwwww. Male bonding with a substitute father figure.

Guv sits writing at his desk. Andrea enters, says, she knows she wasn’t supposed to go over the wall, but she just wanted some practice. Guv says fair enough, but she won’t be working the wall. Andrea accepts this, then admits that she liked the fights. Guv says he figured as much because she stayed and watched them … and he suspects she likes him, too. Andrea smiles. (Oh, gag me. Look, I get that Andrea was not only physically very sick but also mentally and emotionally exhausted after eight or so months out there in the zombie apocalypse, but dammit, she’s too willing to accept the Woodbury mirage of perfection, ignoring zombies kept in cages for fights and the fact that Michonne had a bad feeling about the place. Hope she doesn’t come to her senses too late.)

Neal and Merle run through the woods. Michonne attacks, but the fight is interrupted by zombies. Michonne slices one’s stomach open; his bloody guts spill all over her. She kills him and runs off. Neal kills another that’s trying to eat Merle, who kills the last one. Merle says they can stop hunting Michonne; she’s off in the head, wounded, and headed for the red zone. She’s as good as dead, so they can tell Guv they killed her. Neal says he’s going to keep looking, and he won’t lie to Guv. So Merle shoots him in the face. Elsewhere, a limping Michonne draws her sword as zombies approach … and is astounded when they walk right past her. She looks down, realizes she’s covered in zombie blood and guts, and the stench is masking her.  

In his garden, Guv and Andrea sit chatting and sipping whiskey. *eye roll* They kiss. Gross. In the boiler room, the phone rings. The woman addresses Rick by name, tells him to tell the man about Lori. “How do you know my name?” Rick asks. She hangs up. Ok, WTF. Hallucinations or not?????????

In a parking lot, limping Michonne ducks down as she hears a car approach. It’s Maggie and Glenn, out looking for supplies. They kiss. Awww. Their search of a store is fruitful; they find food and formula, discuss the quickest route back to the prison. They’re about to load the truck up with when Merle pops out, gun drawn. They draw their weapons. Glenn recognizes him. “Merle?!” he asks, astounded. Merle recognizes him, laughs, puts his gun down. Asks if Daryl’s alive; Glenn says yes. Merle says if they’ll take him to Daryl, he’ll forget and forgive the past. Glenn says no, wait here; they’ll go get Daryl. Merle draws his other gun, grabs Maggie, puts it to her head, forces Glenn to get in the car and drive them back to Woodbury. Damn that bullet wound! I’ve been wanting Merle dead for three seasons now. Had Michonne not been injured, she could’ve sneaked up behind Merle and made my dreams come true.

Oscar, Daryl, and Carl kill a zombie. Daryl recognizes that the knife sticking out of its throat is Carol’s.

The phone rings. Ok, I was right. RICK IS CRAZY. The woman on the phone is ... Lori. (So Hershel didn’t hear a dial tone. Guess he realized what was going on, and decided to just let the grief-induced crazy run its course.) Rick tells Not-Real Lori he’s sorry he couldn’t keep her safe, that he thought there would be time later to try to patch things up. Not-Real Lori tells him to take care of Carl and the baby. Cut to: Guv and Andrea getting it on. *eye roll* Merle knocks. Guv dons a robe, steps into the hall. Merle reports that Michonne and zombies killed the three guys he was with, and he couldn’t bring back her head and sword because zombies attacked, but he brought back two hostages, people from that Atlanta group. Guv asks if they know Andrea; Merle says yes. 

Rick joins Carl, Beth, and Hershel, who’s holding the baby. Rick takes her, holds her, cries. Let us hope this symbolizes an acknowledgment of responsibility and return to sanity. Elsewhere, DARYL FINDS CAROL! DARYL FINDS CAROL!!!!!!!!!!!! In the prison yard, Carl, Beth, Hershel, and Rick, whose holding the baby (Name her already!), go for a stroll. Rick sees something, hands the baby to Carl, draws his gun, goes for a closer look. It’s blood-and-guts-covered Michonne, standing amongst the zombies outside the fence, holding the left-behind food and formula. Yay!

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