The Walking Dead Review: “Prey”

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Goddamnit. Not only do we get a “non-event” episode for the third week in a row, but this time we have to do it without Rick, Carl, Daryl or any of the prison gang. Who do we get?

Andrea.

We’ve all wondered what it was going to take for Andrea to finally figure out that the Governor was a sadistic asshole who she shouldn’t be anywhere near.

Zombie fight club? Nope.

Imprisoning and torturing Glen? Nope.

Sexually assaulting Maggie? Nope.

Staging a siege on the prison? Nope.

A plan to capture and torture Michonne? Ah, there we f***ing go.

Yes, that was indeed the straw the broke the camel’s back, and Andrea strolled out of Woodbury to go and tell Rick the bad news that surprise, the Governor wasn’t going to keep his word and was planning to kill them all, something Rick should absolutely have figured out already by himself.

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“Annnndreaaaa, come out an play-yi-yay!”

But alas, she’s stopped at the last minute by the Governor who somehow manages to singlehandedly restrain her inches from the prison’s doorstep and smuggle her back in his truck and into his underground torture dungeon with no one seeing. This seems like this would have been quite a feat, which I’m guessing is why they showed exactly none of it.

I also didn’t understand the purpose of their altercation in the abandoned sharp metal object shop. It was a lot of fumbling around in the dark with the Governor making as much noise as possible to give his position away for some reason. It was obvious that neither of them would die, as the Governor has to at least survive to his big showdown with Rick and Andrea, despite her relative uselessness, is a pretty major character in the story, at least for the time being. As such, that entire scene didn’t feel remotely tense despite the atmosphere. Nothing was really at stake.

My problem with this episode is that really, nothing changed, and it was the filler-est of filler evenings by the end. Andrea figures out the Governor is bad, yet isn’t able to warn the group after being snatched away at the last second. Tyreese briefly considers switching allegiances, but the episode ends with him determined to stay.

The most interesting bits of the night were just random tidbits like how Michonne hinted at the origins or her now-dead walker companions (though it was really out of place since it didn’t come up again), or Allen and Tyreese’s feud over Tyreese saving Allen’s wife(?) at some point in the past. Also, Tyreese being a terrible shot with the rifle was hilarious.

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I like the idea that not everyone in this world is a crack shot, heroes included.

What I thought was going to happen was that Tyreese would get blamed for Milton’s zombie pit fire and the Governor would show his true colors by trying to kill them. In reality, the Governor kept his cool and nothing of the sort took place. I thought this would be the week that Tyreese finally wised up, but it appears it wasn’t meant to be. I guess you want to stick with a guy who can punch his way out of a crowd of twenty zombies without a bite, and locate fugitive humans in the middle of enormous fields and abandoned warehouses like a bloodhound.

I just don’t appreciate episodes that act like they’re going to move the plot forward, then don’t. It seemed like Andrea would finally prove useful by providing info to the prison group. No. It seemed like Tyreese was going to make a significant discovery about the governor and change his mind about Woodbury. No again, and last night was effectively the sort of waste of time that season two perfected. This may in fact be my least favorite episode of the entire season.

With only two episodes left, SOMETHING has to go down soon, but they haven’t exactly made waiting enjoyable the past two weeks. “Clear” was a great slower paced episode, but the last two have just been dragging, even if a few zombies did get their heads split open.

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4 Comments

  1. This is the collapse that I was afraid would happen when they announced that Glen Mazzara was leaving after season 3. The second half of this season has been largely tedious and with the exception of “Clear” I feel like episode quality has been steadily declining each week. With only 2 episodes left things need to start happening

  2. Well, the show never overcame the comic to me… Andrea is useless and a b**ch, Michonne is just plain dumb, Glenn is hard to figure out as a leader, a trustable guy or whatever, Carl is a pain on the a*ss, Rick is not even the shadow of the one in the comics.

    Still is better than half of the current shows, refreshing from all those CSI, and lawyers, doctors dramas

  3. The best part of this episode was Milton’s small character development. He no longer trusts the Governor and is more willing to take a stand with him. Also, I do believe it was him who torched the biter pits.

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