[8-Ball]

so the gov was a murderous villain last season, but a compassionate hero this season?

Was is just me, but did at one lady look like maggie?

i kept thinking this too

[JesusMonroe]

"The last time we saw the Governor, he was mowing down a group of his former supporters with a machine gun. After a season full of vacillations, this appeared to be the final, no turning back line for the character; he’d been a monster and a killer before, but killing his own when they were defenseless, for no other reason than they’d pissed him off, was the sort of moment you can’t rationalize. There was no justification for it, no “Well, sure, that looked awful, but from another point of view, maybe-?” to balance things out. (The Governor threatening Maggie with sexual violence was horrific, but at least he was theoretically trying to break her for information to help his town; the finale had him going from vile leader to just vile.) It would’ve been a perfectly good time for him to die. The Governor has never worked as a character, because the writers could never pick one approach and stick with it; in the comic, he’s blatantly psychotic, and there were moments of that on the show, but there was no consistency to him. A villain with complicated motivations is fine. A villain who is sometimes crazy, sometimes not, sometimes not, and who lacks a strong motivating agenda, is not so fine. Maybe someone like Michael Emerson could’ve made this work, but as is, the guy is too empty and random to be frightening or believable."

That was from the AV Club, and now I'm just wondering how much better the Governor would be if Michael Emerson played him

[Lioness]

Was is just me, but did at one lady look like maggie?

Yes. I thought so too.

[Kikora]

Didn't like it and don't like the fact that it's part of a larger pattern.

It seems they are trying to create character complexity, but they are doing it with paint-by-numbers formula which is:

A. Show a character doing things that are noble, heroic etc.
B. Show the same character doing things that are ethically questionable or even downright ruthless.

Carol is a strong, motherly caring type who kills sick people.

Governor is a psychopath who slaughters people, but he also saves little girls and risks his life to secure oxygen tanks for old men.

Complexity is good, but not when it follows a simplistic, predictable formula.

Don't like it.

It's not the first time this show has followed a lazy formula. Last season it was, "Find an unlikable/relatively unknown character, give them a moment of endearment to redeem them somewhat with the audience, kill them tragically for emotional pull without having to hurt the series favorites."

I do hope they get over this pattern of repeating plotlines. =/

[Deadpelican]

so the gov was a murderous villain last season, but a compassionate hero this season?

Yeah really.

Seems they are going to ridiculous lengths trying to make the characters complex, as well as following a simplistic formula, which is to depict good characters doing bad things (e.g. Carol) and bad characters doing good things (e.g. governor).

[JesusMonroe]

Didn't like it and don't like the fact that it's part of a larger pattern.

It seems they are trying to create character complexity, but they are doing it with paint-by-numbers formula which is:

A. Show a character doing things that are noble, heroic etc.
B. Show the same character doing things that are ethically questionable or even downright ruthless.

Carol is a strong, motherly caring type who kills sick people.

Governor is a psychopath who slaughters people, but he also saves little girls and risks his life to secure oxygen tanks for old men.

Complexity is good, but not when it follows a simplistic, predictable formula.

Don't like it.

Exactly. Characters don't do bad things that are in character, the writers just make them do things for the sake of being morally ambiguous.

Why make the Governor a hero? Makes no sense.

[Edocil]

Was is just me, but did at one lady look like maggie?

THIS!

It bugged the shit out of me the whole episode, she even sounded kind of like maggie

[8-Ball]

Yeah really.

Seems they are going to ridiculous lengths trying to make the characters complex, as well as following a simplistic formula, which is to depict good characters doing bad things (e.g. Carol) and bad characters doing good things (e.g. governor).

it really seems that way. I think David Morrissey is a fine actor, but this TV Gov is a mere shadow of his comic book counterpart,

[Jaybird]

I think the governor was doing all this to try and find his humanity again... I can completely understand him trying to do good things with this new family, especially if he sees the little girl as penny.... I'm just waiting for him to snap again though...

[Deadpelican]

Exactly. Characters don't do bad things that are in character, the writers just make them do things for the sake of being morally ambiguous.

Why make the Governor a hero? Makes no sense.

Exactly. Characters don't do bad things that are in character, the writers just make them do things for the sake of being morally ambiguous.

Why make the Governor a hero? Makes no sense.

Yeah exactly.

Why in hell did the guv have to run into a kindly, innocent family who needed a hero?

We are now at an advanced stage of the ZA.

It's more plausible to see him running into thugs in search of safe haven, so the governor leads them to the prison, birds of a feather flocking together.

Something like that.

Trying to humanize the governor is silly at this point, knowing what we do.

[JesusMonroe]

Why didn't Martinez and Shumpert slit the Governor's throat in his sleep? I know it's heartless but I'd be willing to bet most average every day citizens would do that after seeing him gun down 24 innocent people. These are soldiers that are hardened by the extremities of one year of the apocalypse.

Also, did this episode follow Rise of the Governor/Road to Woodbury? I never read either

[Kikora]

Yeah exactly.

Why in hell did the guv have to run into a kindly, innocent family who needed a hero?

We are now at an advanced stage of the ZA.

It's more plausible to see him running into thugs in search of safe haven, so the governor leads them to a prison, birds of a feather flocking together.

Something like that.

Trying to humanize the governor is silly at this point, knowing what we do.

I think they are trying to start him over. Go back to his origin, go through the same story, and completely reboot the character back to what he was in the source material... But you can't just do that with a character already fully developed (Albeit badly).

[Deadpelican]

I think they are trying to start him over. Go back to his origin, go through the same story, and completely reboot the character back to what he was in the source material... But you can't just do that with a character already fully developed (Albeit badly).

Yeah we've seen Phillip Blakes transformation into the governor.

So now we're gonna see Brian's (I think that's his new name) transformation into the governor?

Holy redundancy batman!

[Mr. NomNom]

I haven't watched this episode yet.. I knew it would be a flashback and I would figure I would just wait, i don't care for this gov...he doesn't put that scare vibe out. Heres my question though...what if this season ends just as bad as last season? What if gimple only had those few good episodes and that was it....like I have been saying all this time since the second season...this show needs to be on HBO.

I know I'm alone on this, however I would have wanted the new threat to be a tornado...it would have ripped through the fence causing issues....and a different type of raining zombie....I just don't care for the sickness..it just keeps dragging.

[JesusMonroe]

I hadn't read any spoilers, so I was under the impression that it would be a flashback episode. Even without including that disappointment, I still did not care for sympathetic Guv at all. Meh!

I think the only reason that Andrew said that this was one of the best episodes was because he got a week off.

Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.

This was the episode Andrew Lincoln said was one of the best episodes?

[Kiddo626]

Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.

This was the episode Andrew Lincoln said was one of the best episodes?

Good riddance.

[Kikora]

Yeah we've seen Phillip Blakes transformation into the governor.

So now we're gonna see Brian's (I think that's his new name) transformation into the governor?

Holy redundancy batman!

Really, what else are they supposed to do with him after last season? Logically he SHOULD have been killed in the finale. There was nowhere to go with his character, he had snapped, he lost everything, and there is no going back without wanting to go back. I firmly believe that everyone is capable of redemption, but not without a strong reason. Not without months of self-reflection. Not without effort. What we see here is a broken man who was magically fixed by a few days of tenderness.

But, again, what else could we get from a character so thoroughly shat on?

[JesusMonroe]

Good riddance.

Haha. Did you join just to tell me that?

[Kiddo626]

Nah, I've been here a while.

[Deadpelican]

Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.

This was the episode Andrew Lincoln said was one of the best episodes?

I thought Andrew never watched the show? Maybe he only watches the ones he doesn't appear in and maybe he's saying this is the best one because it's the only one he hash't seen (no, not serious, sarcastic).

[JesusMonroe]

Nah, I've been here a while.

Well, happy posting!

[Kiddo626]

Thanks!

[WalkerDub]

Judging by how the Governor's character is running in circles I couldn't tell if this was S4, E6 or S3, E6. It's as if season 3 was a dream sequence except when we woke up T-dogg, Merle, Andrea, and Lori still weren't around.


BTW...am I the only one that kept waiting for the Governor to kill everyone in that apartment building and take off in their truck?

[TheTalkingZombie]

As some one else said above - Andrew Lincoln got some much needed rest during the filming of 4x06 and 4x07, hence his declaration about them being the two best episodes inspite of him not even being in them

[Gates1986]

I thought it was very interesting to see what happened to the governor. The governor went from the top to rock bottom in a matter of days. I loved the part of the episode where he was walking in a town, saw a zombie, and just passed him. Governor didn't care whether he lived or died until he saw the little girl.

I think a lot of people are being a tad harsh on this episode. Not every episode is going to be full of gunfire and action.

With that said, I definitely rolled my eyes at the end when Martinez showed up. What's the odds in that? I figured Martinez would have left the immediate area after he left the governor behind.