I know I'm a week late, we get The Walking Dead on Fox one Saturday after you folks do in the States.
I don't follow the show like I used to, but I'm glad I paid attention to this one. We see that Carol's alright and I think she'll actually outlive more of the cast in Season 4, that's okay. Hershel is cool with Glenn marrying his daughter. The guys say a prayer or two to guide them as things seem to keep on getting worse and then Rick sees the light in the form of a vision of old pregnant Lori who is maybe frowning on his series of bad hard-ass decisions.
Dammit, I'm glad that angsty dark Rick seems to be going back to good old Rick. "I'm not your governor...", that summed up the season for him with finality.
What got me was this whole thing with Daryl and Merle has been building up for quite a bit, and it went resolved in an unexpected way. Family ties are a powerful element in this show.
Well, maybe we expected it a little. Merle finds he'll always be an outsider, we all know that. However the truth hits the guy hard when he finally realizes that he can't and won't change to fit in, and his brother really is his own man and no longer puts up with his mean old ways. (and cares about him despite him being a jerk. brotherhood, yo.)
As Merle is on his way to the Governor to surrender Michonne, the dude shows us the importance of knowing how to break into and hotwire a car. However he messes up and sets off the 1990's car alarm, alerting every single zed in the neighborhood to their position. A desperate fight ensues, both having close calls and they even end up saving each other's lives.
This is the big monkeywrench in Merle's plans, you know how folks become buddies after "enduring hardship" together?
So after all this excitement, Michonne finally gets through to him in her usual zen-master pep talk as they were driving in their newly commandeered car. This helps Merle to see the light and choose Daryl's side. Maybe to redeem all the "bad stuff" he's had to do since all this came down.
More excitement follows as he prepares to take care of business. He draws a large group of walkers towards the Governor and succeeds in getting their attention. Merle proceeds to shoot down some of the henchmen in the ensuing chaos. He was doing pretty well too, taking out a lot of them and nearly killing the main man himself until they finally jump him just because a stray walker got in the way. As they beat the crap outta Merle, the Governor viciously joins the fray because this business was personal.
As it turns out, the sort-of duel they have reflected how mean those two guys really are. Both guys got in a lot of nasty shots that made me wince in delight. I figured it would have taken 3 guys or more to take him down.
Later on, we all know how it turned out because Daryl discovers his brother's fate and whips up the best bit of acting in the whole season. The dude has feelings man. Real men felt it, like I did.
So here's looking forward to the season finale!
Stay vigilant!
