The Walking Dead: Episode 3.14: “Prey”

Andrea was one of my favorite characters from the first two seasons of The Walking Dead, but between her often smug self-righteousness and her willful blindness to the Governor’s true nature, it’s been a rough ride for Andrea fans in Season 3. Lately every time she’s been onscreen, I’ve imagined a choir of nuns singing “How do you solve a problem like Andrea?”

We got the answer last night: make Andrea the Governor’s “Prey”, instead of his paramour and the audience will root for her again. I can’t speak for everyone, but it worked for me!

The episode opens with a flashback of Michonne and Andrea by a fire. Michonne’s pet zombies are chained to a tree; Andrea asks if Michonne’s zombie pets were once people she loved and Michonne breaks out a few of her words to say that “they deserved what they got. They weren’t human to begin with.”

Speaking of people whose moral compass didn’t improve in the zombie apocalypse, in the present day, the Governor testing out some chains and manacles.

Elsewhere in Woodbury, Milton and Andrea interrupt Martinez gathering weaponry for the meetup with Rick before Milton finds the Governor laying out his torture instruments. Milton asks “how does that help Woodbury?” C’mon Milton, don’t you know by now that the Governor’s motto is “Ask not how I can help Woodbury; ask how Woodbury can help me”? Milton tries to get the Governor to move on from his vengeance plans against Michonne for killing Penny, but the Governor tells him that “it’s all that matters.”

Disturbed by what he just saw, Milton tells Andrea (who’s just been hanging around outside) about the Governor’s plans to have Rick hand over Michonne before he kills everyone at the prison. “I have to stop this!” Andrea tells him.

Just in case Andrea wasn’t convinced before (and we know it takes a lot to convince her of the Governor’s evil), Milton shows Andrea the torture chamber prepared for Michonne. Andrea says she has to kill the Governor because “this is sick.” At last, Andrea has seen the light! Or rather, the dark, dark side of the Governor. When the Governor arrives to play with his toys some more, Andrea points her gun at his head, but Milton pulls it away. Busybody!

Milton is still loyal to the friend he knew before the zombie apocalypse and points out that Martinez will take over if Andrea kills the Governor and the plans to kill all the prison folk will proceed as intended. I still say it was worth letting Andrea take her shot!

Andrea’s Plan B is to run away from Woodbury and warn Rick’s group that the Governor intends to betray them. Milton says he belongs in Woodbury and can’t join Andrea; she tells him that if he stays he can’t keep looking the other way from the Governor’s craziness. Andrea Pot, meet Milton Kettle! Andrea gives Milton a quick farewell kiss on the cheek, which is really sweet and distracts me from her hypocrisy.

Outside, Martinez demands Andrea’s gun, saying that the Governor is collecting everyone’s weapons and ammo (Personally, I think disarming your citizenry just before leaving the town to go ambush Rick’s group is a terrible idea, but maybe the directive is really just about Andrea.) Martinez asks if she has a knife too, and Andrea uses her self-righteousness to good effect, asking if he wants to search her, which he declines.

The Governor pops up and apologizes to Andrea for not telling her about everything; he says he wants to keep her separate and safe. “Do you understand?” he asks her. Yes, I think Andrea does, at last, understand that you’re a psycho. The Governor says he wants Andrea with them when they go meet Rick; either he wants her complicit in the massacre of the prison people, or he wants to kill her, too.

Tyreese and Sasha are on the wall practicing shooting rifles at zombies. Tyreese is a horrible shot. Andrea runs up and who tells Tyreese and Sasha a ridiculously unbelievable story about a zombie attack on the other side of Woodbury. Tyreese and Sasha, not being stupid, don’t believe her story, so Andrea says she needs to leave Woodbury immediately. In response to Tyreese and Sasha wondering why, she tells them that the Governor has done terrible things and “is planning worse.”

You know, I think if Andrea has said something like: “he collects heads in aquariums and he was keeping his zombie daughter alive and my friend/savior killed her so now the Governor now plans to avenge her loss by capturing my friend/savior and torturing her in a special room he’s set up for that purpose and also massacre all the people at the prison and did I mention that he set up his right-hand man and his right-hand man’s brother, who was a friend of mine, in a zombie cage fight to the death? And if you don’t believe me, talk to Milton” I think she would have had more credibility with Tyreese and Sasha. But no, like Michonne, Andrea is completely vague about the Governor’s brand of crazy. And unlike Michonne, she doesn’t actually KNOW Tyreese or Sasha or have any reason to think they would just trust her vague, unsubstantiated word. Sometimes the writing on this show makes me want to bang my head on the nearest wall in the hopes that it will make sense.

Tyreese and Sasha let Andrea go, and she takes off running in her stylish knee boots. (Maybe take the time to grab some running shoes before the Great Escape next time, Andrea?)

When Tyreese and Sasha report what happened, Martinez snaps at them, and Tyreese asks if Woodbury is a prison camp. Yes, Tyreese, it is, though with relatively nice amenities.

Unlike Martinez, the Governor tries to soft-soap the situation, telling Tyreese and Sasha that Andrea isn’t in any shape to take care of herself out there. When Sasha replies that Andrea seemed capable to her, the Governor paints Andrea as having gone nuts from the solitude of surviving by herself all winter. Then he asks if Andrea mentioned her reasons for leaving Woodbury. Tyreese and Sasha don’t share that Andrea warned them about the Governor; Tyreese says he hopes that Andrea’s defection doesn’t affect their status in Woodbury.

Outside, Milton asks the Governor if Andrea’s gone and whether he’s sending someone after her. The Governor tells Milton he’s going after Andrea himself, and Milton pleads with “Philip” to let her go. “She just wants to be with her people.” Uh oh! The Governor realizes that Milton knew Andrea was leaving and asks “did you tell her about the deal?” Milton has the worst poker face in the world, and now the Governor realizes that he has to kill Andrea not just for fun, but because she’s going to tell Rick about his treachery.

Sasha and Tyreese ask Martinez, who’s loading up a vehicle, whether their new assignment is going after Andrea. “If we are, is that a problem?” Martinez asks. If they’re maintaining the illusion that people are free to come and go from Woodbury, then yes, Martinez, it is (or should be) a problem. In fact, they’re going with Martinez on another mission.

A slightly crazy looking white guy tells Tyreese not to “screw this up for us” and I finally recognize him as Allen, Tyreese’s companion from the prison. Allen and Tyreese get into an argument about Allen’s dead wife Donna, who supposedly worshipped Tyreese because he saved her life. This sounds like an even duller version of Lori/Shane/Rick.

Andrea runs down the road from Woodbury, ducking into the woods when she hears a vehicle behind her. It’s the Governor, of course! Zombies attack Andrea in the woods, and she disposes of them handily because in many ways, Andrea is awesome.

Martinez and the Governor’s African-American henchman who has neither a name nor lines bring Tyreese and Sasha to a cement pit full of zombies. Tyreese and Sasha recoil at the Governor’s plans to feed Rick’s group to the biters. Tyreese says that the prison group has women and children among them, and Allen gets up in his face again about not rocking the Woodbury gravy boat. Tyreese and Allen get into a fist-fight, which ends with Tyreese holding Allen over the pit. I guess Tyreese is ok with feeding annoying men to the zombies, even if he draws the line at women or children. Sasha talks Tyreese down and he lets Allen go free. Martinez is unimpressed by the bickering new people.

Andrea makes her way through a nice open field with no zombies in sight. Suddenly, we hear a car engine, and the Governor heads straight through the field towards her, herding her into another patch of woodland. The Governor drives away.

Andrea makes her way to a deserted warehouse. Either this is the same warehouse as the one where Rick met the Governor earlier, or else rural Georgia is full of warehouses. The Governor pulls in behind her and we get a bunch of scary dark scenes in which the Governor stalks Andrea through the building until Andrea gets the better of the him by locking him in with a room full of zombies. Yes, I’m on Team Andrea again!

Meanwhile, at the zombie pit, someone throws in a gasoline filled rag and lights it.

Andrea makes it to the perimeter of the prison and is about to call out to Rick in the watchtower when the Governor grabs her from behind. This is the second time tonight that I want to bang my head over this script; not only did the Governor make it out of the warehouse alive but he somehow silenced the engine noise on his jeep AND evaded any lookouts from the prison.

Rick sees the struggle in the grass, but when he raises his rifle sight, there’s nothing there, so he assumes he’s hallucinating again.

The zombies in the pit have somehow survived being set on fire (another strain on my credulity here: not to be too gross, but wouldn’t their brains have cooked from the heat, and thus wouldn’t they be ex-zombies at this point? I’m not sure why I’m still asking for consistency with regards to the zombies, though, since the show has them doing whatever is necessary to advance the plot.)

Moving on… the Governor returns to Woodbury, where Martinez fills in the Governor on the Great Zombie Barbecue. Martinez blames Tyreese and his group for being troublemakers.

The Governor goes to talk to Tyreese, Sasha and Allen. Tyreese says that it’s OK that the Governor has a beef with Rick, but he can’t feed Rick’s kids to the “biters.” A man’s got to have a code! The Governor tells Tyreese that it’s a bluff, and Tyreese asks why Martinez didn’t just say that in the first place. “We don’t discuss tactics with people we don’t really know,” the Governor tells Tyreese, although apparently they have no problem arming these unknown people and taking them along on sensitive missions and ambushes. Tyreese and Sasha don’t look particularly convinced, but Tyreese promises that his issues are under control and says that they really want to stay in Woodbury.

“Where did you get the gasoline?” the Governor asks Tyreese as he leaves. Tyreese, Sasha and Allen’s expressions of complete befuddlement convince the Governor that they weren’t involved in the Zombie Barbecue.

As he leaves, the Governor runs into Milton (sidebar: does everyone in Woodbury just hang out on the main drag all the time waiting to run into everyone else?) Milton asks whether Andrea’s dead, and the Governor says that he hopes not. “Are you OK?” Milton asks the Governor. Really, Milton? Does he seem OK? “It’s a real shame about the pits,” Milton goes on. “I hope you find out who did it.” The Governor says he already has found out. (Poker face, Milton, look into it!)

We return to the Governor’s torture chamber, where Andrea is bound and gagged in the dentist’s chair. I bet she wishes she’d killed him in his sleep now!

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Regina Thorne is an avid reader of just about everything, an aspiring writer, a lover of old movies and current TV shows, and a hopeless romantic.

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