The Walking Dead- “The Suicide King” (season 3, episode 9)
Mid-season premiere, brother against brother, ghosts, and much more on The Walking Dead!
I’m not sure what I was expecting for the second half of this season, but maybe it was what we got, or maybe not. Okay, small recap. The last time we saw our main characters Woodbury turned into a bloody mess, and the end result of the botched raid against the Governor’s safe haven was the Dixon brothers having to face off.
The Governor does not take kindly to those who might betray him, so of course he forces Merle to decide where his loyalties lie. Essentially this is what we, the loyal audience, have been waiting for, and of course we want Daryl to win the fight and for Merle to be dead, but that would be wrong (and too satisfying). Merle would never kill Daryl, just like Daryl would never leave his brother. So when Merle and Daryl walk into the woods arm in arm after being rescued by Rick and Co., I was not surprise. I was sad, heartbroken even, but not surprise. And that’s sort of how I feel about the whole episode really. I wasn’t surprise by anything because mostly nothing happened for me to be surprised about. There was a lot of talking, some necessary, some pretty boring.
Rick, Maggie and Glen rescue Daryl, but that also means they rescued Merle and no one is happy about this (I don’t even think Daryl is happy about it). Anyways, after the dust settles and the gang is stuck with Merle who won’t shut up, Daryl knows bringing Merle back to the prison would not be helpful, which is my reasoning as to why he walked away. Glenn takes his departure badly, but in the end blood is thicker to the Dixons. This whole scene, although a bit on the talkative side, was crucial cause when Daryl comes back (he will come back) it will probably have a nice tie in and it will be perfect (I have high hopes for this show, clearly).
Now the parts that didn’t work are the same from the first half of this season: Michonne and Andrea. Michonne has one outburst towards Merle and then nothing, she is still pretty mute, and Rick has made up his mind to fix her up and then send her on her way, and she still has nothing to say! Back in Woodbury the residents of this once “picnics and barbecues” town want out, and the Governor has retreated into his office and doesn’t really care what happens. At this point Andrea could step up, and she almost does giving rally speeches and the like, but instead of making decisions she sticks around the dying Woodbury?
But even with the bad bits there are good bits, Tyresse and his gang. We had a brief introduction towards the end of the first half of the season and it was brief. But in that briefness we got the sense that Tyresse was a strong character, and that’s proven in this episode. This character is not only a fighter and survivor, he’s an honest man, a rarity in this world. Although his other two male companions are of questionable moral fiber, for the most part we’re with Hershel and think the group should let Tyresse and Sasha (his daughter? Sister?) join in. Let’s not forget though, this is a still a Ricktatorship, and in the end Rick makes the choice, well, he would if he could.
The episode ends with Rick flipping out and seeing Lori’s ghost and yelling at it, in front of everybody, while still in the middle of a conversation with Tyresse. Come on, Rick, get it together.
On that note, I won’t mention Glen Mazzara leaving as showrunner, I guess that’s me mentioning it, but still I won’t mention it. Also, that won’t come into play until season 4…
I was hoping the whole crazy Rick thing would have ended with that extended phone call hallucination thing. I guess the idea is to show that while Rick is the unquestioned leader, he might not even be good/fit enough to do it. Not feeling the ghost of Lori still hanging around the show in this way though.