The Walking Dead: Say the Word, 11/11/2012

It’s yet another a charming, peaceful day in Woodbury. (You get the distinct feeling that when things finally go all to hell here, these blissful, sheltered people are going to have ZERO idea how to fend for themselves.) Milt brings Andrea a cold drink, complains that the generators are being used to run the freezers. They chat about the upcoming party tonight. Michonne, who is not—ever?—in a festive mood, prowls not far off, watching Andrea. Cut to: Guv brushing a dog’s hair. Wait. Holy hell that’s not a dog; it’s little girl. A little zombie girl. As he brushes, a patch of her rotting scalp is ripped off. She goes berserk and tries to bite him. He puts her in a straightjacket, drops a sack over her head, and holds and kisses her, cooing, “Daddy still loves you.” Oh dear god. This is a thousand times worse than finding out Hershel had zombies in the barn. At least they were in the barn. Not in his bedroom being groomed, kissed, and sweet talked. I shudder to think what Guv’s feeding Corpse Daughter. As he struggles with her, he looks out to see Michonne staring up at his window. He glares at her.

In the prison yard, Hershel says the baby looks healthy but needs formula. Daryl, Maggie, Glenn volunteer to go. Daryl pulls Beth to the side and asks her to keep an eye on Carl, cuz his mother just died and his father … poor Rick is zoned completely the eff out. Maggie says there’s too much debris in the road; the vehicles can’t make it. They have to take Daryl’s bike, which has room for only one passenger. Maggie tells Glenn she has to go. For Lori. They kiss; she and Daryl head out. Oscar shuts the gate behind them. Suddenly, Rick grabs an axe, heads inside, and goes tear-assing through the zombie-filled halls, killing and killing and killing and killing. #stressreliever

 

As Guv gives a speech to his adoring citizens, Michonne sneaks into his place to retrieve her sword. She finds a notebook filled with names and pages of scribble, then hears bumping coming from behind the wall. She’s trying to pry open a secret door when she hears voices approaching, and manages to hide in the nick of time. Guv, Merle, and Milt enter. Milt’s complaining that wasting the generators on the party is draining juice he needs for an experiment. Guv tells him to start it over in the morning post-party. They leave. Michonne’s gone, having sneaked out a back window, into a closed-off area containing eight or so caged zombies. She smiles an I-KNEW-he-was-crazy/I’m-SO-going-to-enjoy-this smile, then calmly opens the cage, draws her sword, and slaughters the zombies. She’s still smiling when she’s discovered. Allow me to neatly sum up the next scene. Michonne sits in an interrogation room. Guv enters with her sword, prattles on and on, asks her again to join his team—and Michonne snatches up her sword, unsheaths it, and is holding it to his throat faster than you can say “politicians suck.” Then she just leaves. Merle enters, asks if there’s a problem. Guv says nope. Round up the boys and go get some more zombies, and also, send Andrea to him.

Glenn is outside digging graves. Axle and Oscar approach, offer to help. (Time out. WHY THE HELL DON’T THEY CHANGE CLOTHES??? Those prison jumpsuits are driving me up the damn wall! Find a zombie your size, wash his clothes, then change! For the love of god, change clothes!!! Time back in.) Glenn lets them so he can go talk to Hershel, who asks him to go get Rick. They chat for a bit. Glenn’s down in the dumps about having lost three people. (Dammit, Carol, where the hell are you?) He shares some fond T Dog memories; Hershel reminds him that T saved Maggie by getting that gate closed. Glenn admits that he kinda wishes they’d just shot all the prisoners on sight. Hershel reminds him that Axle and Oscar seem ok. Glenn says yeah, but he’d trade any number of lives for the life of just one person from their group. Hershel grasps his hand for a sec; then Glenn goes to look for Rick. I like this father-in-law/son-in-law kind of bonding. I also like Hershel’s ponytail. It makes him look distinguished. Glenn finds a severely crazy-eyed Rick at the end of a trail of zombie corpses, just standing there, staring at a wall. Glen tries to get Rick to come back with him, but Rick slams him into a wall, shoves him aside, then wanders deeper into the prison. Glenn, wisely, leaves him be.

Andrea arrives. Guv asks her to help him with Michonne, She stole her sword, Guv says. Can’t steal something that belongs to you, Andrea says. And she broke into a private area and killed zombie captives, Guv said. Andrea (who’s probably thinking, “Not this again.”), asks why he’s keeping zombies. He’ll only say there’s a good reason but he can’t get into it right now. At which point I would have found Michonne and hit the highway, but Andrea finds Michonne and tries to convince her to stay. *sigh* Elsewhere, Merle, Mitch, and crew check one of their zombie traps, find it full. Merle kills some; Mitch tests out a jacket with arms that are zombie-bite-proof. By which I mean wrapped in duct tape. Back at Woodbury, Michonne and Andrea have it out at the gate. Michonne wants to leave, Andrea wants to stay. Michonne leaves. :( Guv, reminding females watching this show of every opportunistic creep who’s ever hit on them knowing they were vulnerable, finds Andrea sitting alone, offers her a drink and some company.

Maggie and Daryl come across a daycare, break in, find diapers, bottles … and formula. YAY! Night has fallen by the time they make it back to the prison. They rush in, Beth and Maggie mix up and bottle some formula, and wonder of wonders, it’s Daryl who feeds Baby, rocks her, and sweet talks her. He asks Carl if she has a name yet. Carl rattles off a list of every dead female who’s ever been a part of the group. WTF? NO, CARL. Daryl calls Baby “Little Asskicker.” Ha! I like it. L.A. Rick, please come back, if only so you can save L.A. from Carl naming her. Alas, Rick’s currently too busy wandering around. He finds the boiler room, the puddle of blood, the knife, the bullet … and then a trail of blood and zombie with a distended belly, so full it can barely move. He blows its brains out and stabs it repeatedly.

Guv and Andrea walk arm-in-arm (*gag*) to an arena area, where all the citizens have gathered to with the evening’s entertainment: Merle and his friends beating the shit out of each other, surrounded by zombies on chains, which are let closer and closer. The crowd is going wild. I’m immediately hugely annoyed by the fact that this is what Woodburyians consider fun. Really, guys? We can’t form book clubs, Frisbee leagues, archery teams? ANYTHING else? Andrea’s annoyed too, but for a different reason. “You’re teaching them that walkers aren’t dangerous,” she hisses at Guv. “We’re teaching them not to be afraid,” he differs. And anyway, the whole thing’s staged, and the zombies are closely controlled. So it’s ok. Andrea looks very much not ok.

 

Sunrise. Outside, Daryl puts flowers on Carol’s grave. (What did they bury? Her head scarf?) In the boiler room, still crazy-eyed Rick just sits motionless on the floor. Then he hears the phone ringing. (Grief-induced hallucination?) He lurches to his feet and shambles over to it. “Hello?”