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The Walking Dead 3×15 – “This Sorrowful Life” Review

Stars: Andrew Lincoln, David Morrissey, Sarah Wayne Callies, Danai Gurira, Steven Yeun, Norman Reedus | Created by Robert Kirkman

Redemption is such a strong facet for the television show character. When we met Merle way back in season one, he was the stereotypical racist jackass. It’s no wonder that Rick decided to handcuff him and leave him there (although T-Dogg REALLY left him there) and so understandably he was to be a pissed off jerk when the paths were to inevitably cross again. And so we’ve spent most of this season watching Merle be a torturous monster to everyone of Rick’s group (especially Glenn and to a lesser extent Maggie) and then after this last half-season break we saw a defeated Merle, deflated and resigned to lashing out at Rick’s group. But, redemption exists for a reason, and man does it not hit its hardest when the character is as reviled as Merle is. Yes, it does.

‘This Sorrowful Life was a strong outing for the penultimate episode, and a showcase for the innately badass Michael Rooker. It keeps the upcoming war front and center, and effectively deals with the Governor’s treaty about giving Michonne over for the supposed sanctuary. Naturally, Hershel pauses at this, and around this time last season there was another situation like this, although Michonne is an inncoent versus the bad guy that was set up at the farm. There isn’t any real thought to why someone levelheaded like Rick would bring a loose cannon like Merle into the equation of delivering Michonne to The Governor, and be shocked when he does exactly that. But, they did a great job shading Merle’s motives and putting you through the wringer of determining where his alleigance lies. And we learn it really isn’t on either side. It’s just about respect.

There wasn’t too much filler with annoying characters like Andrea, that bobble around listlessly. The prison angles allowed for some stronger character beats like Glenn proposing to Maggie, and in true fashion it was with the ring from a shambling corpse. There was a little bit of Rick and company preparing for the oncoming war with The Governor.

It was a great episode dealing with just Michonne and Merle on the road trip to hell, and a great episode for characterization for Merle himself. The show does its best when it just minimizes everything. Pairing it back allows for not only, the show to breathe but for growth in the chracters at hand. See ‘Clear’ for an effective angle of how this is handled. Michonne even gets off a few cracking bits of dialogue, proving that Michonne should speak more, cause she’s funny when she does so. And she proves that she’s an effective warrior killing two zombies even when she’s tied up at a hitching post. Both actors on this trip have a great rapport when they move past all of the stoicism and racism and just talk. And Michonne is an incredibly insightful person and gets through to Merle, or maybe she doesn’t – either way he lets her go and the character starts his beautiful redemption in just one episode.

And what a glorious redemption it was. The plan to lure a batch of walkers into The Governor’s backyard was quite ingenious. One thing of note, the lead zombie in the batch of zombies was a direct visual homage to George Romero’s ”Dawn of the Dead.” Plus, it was a great get to hear Motorhead whilst doing so. And sadly, it was a fruitless suicide mission especially once The Governor himself showed up and started his reversal attack. It was a nasty brutal battle befitting the show we know and love, and cringeworthy as The Governor bites off Merle’s fingers during the squabble. But, it would only end one way, especially this close to the finale – Merle had to die because it certainly wasn’t going to be The Governor, no doubt about it. But that still gave it the resonance it deserves.

It’s really resonant for how Daryl was affected by the death of his brother. Because even if Merle was the racist jerk that he’d been for the small time when knew him, it still mattered that the brothers had a strong bond and that death scene was damned impactful and came at a strong time close to the end. And it sets the storm clouds a’brewin’.

Check out the rest of our The Walking Dead reviews in our The Walking Dead review archive.

The Walking Dead 3×14 – “Prey” Review

‘Prey’ is an effective episode setting up the endgame to come in the dawning war between Rick and The Governor. It smartly focuses on one half of the equation and barely even registers with the prison group save for the cold open with Michonne by the fireside and a brief but unsettling apperance by Rick at the episode’s end.

There are some parts of the episode that don’t click and feel like they take all the time away from the real driving force of the episode. One of which, is the aforementioned scene with Michonne is a little frustrating because for every two steps forward the writers take with Michonne, they step back by not having her talk. It makes sense in the timeline that she’s a little reticent to speak but it’s hard to believe that she spends all that time with Andrea and still hadn’t opened up to her versus how she was outspoken and being fun with Carl and Rick a few weeks earlier in ‘Clear.’ The second half of this is all the business with Tyreese and his group that we met way last season. They try to drag some half-baked storyline to cook up emotion with them but it all doesn’t matter in the grander scheme of things. We just don’t feel the emotion towards them, especially when the characters flip-flop emotionally (one minute they’re questioning The Governor, the second they’re saying they want to stay). It could be out of self-preservation, or it could be inability to move anything forward with this group we’ve barely had a chance to meet. But sending The Governor to hunt Andrea by ratting her out, isn’t a way to endear up to them.

But, they’re at least pulling Milton around to who The Governor is becoming, even as it was a little late in the game. It’s interesting to think of a time when they were together in the beginning of all of this mess, but for him to acknowledge that Philip is a tyrant and yet to not let Andrea kill him makes sense, because all of the events in Woodbury have been set up like a loaded gun and any pushback, especially any attack against the leader would cause a war before the war. But, to have Milton backbite and burn up the walkers makes sense because this is the perfect way to get back at Philip without killing him. It’s all about being calculating rather than upfront. The only stretch is that their isn’t any mystery to who burned up the pit because it had to be someone who mattered to The Governor, and the coy way they revealed that Milton did it was quite nice.

The scene where The Governor stalks Andrea throughout the episode, and later the abandoned building was a great exercise in suspense. As the truck prowls the land, it gives The Governor the appearance of being a shark, and he smells his blood. The scenes in the building are actually reminiscent of a great thriller from the early 90′s, “Mute Witness.” It’s almost done in complete silence with nary a word of dialogue spoken at least until the very end of the scene. The sound is what sells it though. The foley artist must have had a field day with those crackling sound effects, all shuffling feet and broken bottles. But as the scene went on, the possibility that Andrea could actually die seemed to actually become reality. Now, The Governor dying was never a possible outcome this week because he’s the main antagonist of the season even with a hallway of zombies being foisted upon him. But Andrea dying could have made sense because the character hadn’t been useful in quite a while.

More than that, there wasn’t anyway in hell she was going to make it to the prison to warn Rick and company because that would start the endgame far too fast, and that couldn’t happen just yet, so of course she was going to be kidnapped by The Governor and brought back to be held hostage. But that still didn’t make the scene where she was at the outskirts of the prison intense as she barely avoids being seen by Rick’s sniper scope in the tower. And Andrew Lincoln sells the suspicion that something strange was afoot but ignores it. The end was a little predictable because we knew that she was going to be held in that chair reserved for Michonne. Because as useless as a character as Andrea HAS become, she still wouldn’t die offscreen.

Check out the rest of our The Walking Dead reviews in our The Walking Dead review archive.