House Call [The Walking Dissection]
Posted by Justin on December 3rd, 2012
One young lady gets skeeved on, another gets a mouth full of metal without the pain of braces. One brother has his past failures haunt him, another just gets haunted by his brother. We introduce a new black character just as another one dies. Lighting crashes.
The Governor gets an eyeful of his future, gates are stormed and we have an underwhelming cliffhanger. All of it is chopped up in this week’s breakdown AFTER THE JUMP…
A Villain… Born
Except for the fact that he’s already a bad guy. Remember when he killed the army people? That’s bad. Also, The Governor goes out of his way to let his lieutenants know that he wants our jolly gang of prison folk dead. Which is pretty rude. I mean, they really aren’t any different than random road folk for whom his entire community is comprised. Right? I understand killing a military unit for security fears, one day they could just invoke some random part of the constitution and depose you. But what does Woodbury even know about the prison gang aside from that they heartily encourage interracial dating?
Hell, at that point they don’t even know our prisoners were storming their gates.
Which is a very long way of saying that the Gov’s “origin” moment where Michonne kills his already dead daughter and then gives him a very close look at a glass shard just felt… hollow.
Why make him that bad of a guy initially? What if he’s a bit of a chicken hawk and knows he turns a blind eye to Merle’s brutality but at heart is a politician. A politician who would relish the chance to bring in new constituents. Let’s say he tells his brain trust that they need to offer terms of protection for the prisoners. Maybe even unreasonable ones. And if they don’t agree, take care of him.
THEN when the poop hits the fan and he’s left looking like Sagat there is a change in plans. As it is now he went from “let’s kill everyone in the prison” to “LET’S KILL EVERYONE IN THE PRISON”. Sure he will be a little bit more eeeeeeeeevil but how much more can you tarnish a man who killed unsuspecting soldiers in cold blood by himself?
Tyrese Arrives!
Not that Tyrese. It’s the Tyrese FROM THE COMICS!
I’ll get into some questions of how this screen version of T differs from his COMICS! version. In general, I have no idea why they introduced him in this episode. The Creepy Axel plotline was way more interesting and I would have loved more time there or maybe even flesh out our escape plan in Woodbury. Not to say that Tyrese won’t be a valuable character going forward, I just wish he and his group would have introduced when they had something to do.
The Cliffhanger
Let’s look at the peril our characters find themselves in, in order from most danger to least danger.
– Merle Dixon: Made to be scapegoat for incursion. Also kind of deserves it since he told the Gov that he killed Michonne before she returned to slice his eyeball like sushi.
– Daryl Dixon The only character who we love that is in genuine danger. But we don’t quite know how he was caught or what the Governor plans to do with him. It’s not like he even yelled “let’s kill them!” as they faded to black. We just know they are going to think about it for the next few months.
– Rick, Michonne, Maggie and Glenn In the woods, thinking about what to do. It’s not like Rick even yelled “we gotta go back!” or “we gotta leave him” as they faded to black. We just know he is going to think about for the next few months
– Andrea Hopefully drinking bleach off screen.
– Beth the 17-year-old sex object of creepball Axel Upgraded to Defcon 4 to guard against possible night molestation.
Is anyone really in any more danger than they normally are? Are there any consequences that we have to deal with in the upcoming half of the season? Pardon me if I just don’t see them.
Carl
On the upside I really, really liked Carl. He’s my favorite character now.
BUT IN THE COMICS!!!! Corner
BUT IN THE COMICS!!! Corner tries to predict arguments you will hear from fans of the show that are also fans of the comic book.
Couple nominees from Twitter. “BUT IN THE COMICS it was an eye patch not a bandage” is good and even BUT IN THE COMICS Tyrese goes crazy killing zombies in the gym not the electrical room.
I can’t think of any better. So if you have one, leave it in the comments or something. Or don’t, it’s fine.
Which Brings Us…
Eh. We’ll see. Whatever happens it will probably just be really inconsistent peppered with inventive ideas and random surprise deaths.
Twitter this
December 3rd, 2012 at 8:07 am
Completely agree about The Governor. He pretty much went from a bad guy grrrrr to a really pissed off ARGGGHH. It would have been way more interesting to see his stance on the prison drastically change for the worse after his encounter with Michonne.
All Michonne did by mentally and physically kicking his ass was make him moodier and pirate chic. If her actions were what triggered the Woodbury/Prison war that would have been a hell of a thing.
December 4th, 2012 at 8:22 am
not sure why, but i found this episode to be one of the best of the series….you know what that means.
second half of the season is gonna suck….hard
for me it felt like we finally got a glimpse of the actual governor..the guy he was before the politician took over woodbury. his every action this episode that did not pertain to violence or the order of violence felt like an act. up to this point, that has been the exact opposite. the soldier killing felt out of place for his character intially, now it makes total sense. i hate to say it but david morrisey as the gov is really starting to grow on me.
michonne showed emotion…nuff said.
excelsior!
December 4th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
You said: “In general, I have no idea why they introduced him in this episode.”
Law of Conservation: Oscar was killed this episode, meaning the One Black Male Character has to be replaced. Enter Tyrese.
Still holding out hope that Merle pulls a coup in the town of Woodbury. They’ve put a lot into his character, and he’s far more menacing than the Guv’nor.
BUT IN THE COMICS!!! Merle doesn’t even exist.
December 4th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Sooo … stuff happened.
There was a action sequence that was lacking some serious professional direction. People acted stupid. And we’re left with a cliff-hanger that I couldn’t care less about how it’s resolved, and not just because that’ll be stunningly dumb, too.
Par for the course, I guess.