The Walking Dead - S03E05 Say The Word (2012)

Review

It's party time in Woodbury as the Governor decides they should celebrate what they have created with beer, a BBQ, and entertainment promised for the evening. Andrea is ready to party on but Michonne still doesn't trust the situation is what Andrea thinks it is. We also get to meet the Governor's daughter, excellent stuff, and some viewers are going to be in for a shock. Michonne decides to liberate her sword while the festivities are in full swing, but is caught after dispatching a group of walkers that the Governor has locked up. The Governor does his act on Andrea, after Michonne gets the drop on him, and the girls are soon heading for the front gate. Surprisingly Merle opens the gate for them, but only Michonne grabs the opportunity to get out of Dodge. Andrea, having decided to stay, soon finds out what the zombies are being kept for.

Back at the prison Rick has gone bat shit and heads into cellblock C with an axe to work through his grief. Daryl takes charge and with Maggie having his back heads out to find some baby supplies, primarily formula. Rick is on a rampage through the cellblock and doesn't take kindly to Glenn trying to talk him down, he eventually finds where Lori died after giving birth and unfortunately also discovers her body wasn't left in peace. The episode ends with Rick extracting vengenance on a zombie diner and surprisingly receiving a phone call!

After the last episode killed off a couple of characters I was about ready for anything to go down in Say The Word, thankfully they kept it in check this week and built on the characters rather than whittling them down somewhat more. In the entirety of season two we lost two major characters, Shane and Dale, we're not even half way through this season and we have already matched the cull rate! I figure we may lose one or two more characters, Carol is still unaccounted for, before we bed down for season four.

Rick is on sabbatical and Daryl takes charge

Rick has simply gone psycho over Lori's death, or at least needs some sort of weird closure. He takes off into the prison cellblock with an axe and starts wadding through zombies like Attila the Hun on steroids, which makes it easy for Glenn to find him, just follow the carnage. I guess this is going to put Rick out of current affairs for a few episodes, and once again shows the television show deviating from the graphic novels. In his absence Daryl steps up to the plate and starts getting people working, he and Maggie go after baby supplies, Axel and Oscar start spreading the zombies out on the fences, and Beth is put in charge of "Little Ass Kicker". With both Shane and T-Dog gone Daryl is now Rick's right hand man, Glenn being less disposed to taking a leading role. The character of Daryl is an invention of the television series so it's going to be interesting to see where this goes as Tyrone adopted the second in command role from memory in the books. Not sure if that's a spoiler or not, we haven't seen Tyrone as yet, but since the character adopts a major role in the graphic novels I'm assuming he'll pop up this season or next.

Director Greg Nicotero, who has been doing outstanding work with the web series over the past four years, nails the whole inner demons thing with Rick. It's a real journey into darkness for the character both figuratively and physically as Rick takes to the darkened interior of cellblock C chasing something elusive to cope with Lori dying. Without getting all metaphysical, Rick needs to hunt out his own common ground in the darkness before emerging into the light once again. I get a feeling Rick's character is going to change markedly once he has been foraged anew by his current, slightly insane, pursuit of solace.

The split we all knew was coming has finally happened over at Woodbury, Michonne has left the building after Andrea decides they have found their little sanctuary. I'm kind of confused as to all the hate directed toward Lori on the interwebs but nothing I've seen being aimed at Andrea. Lori for sure didn't shot Daryl, she would have seen through the Governor pretty quickly, and she wouldn't have abandoned Michonne for a cosy bed. Either Andrea is incredibly gullible or she is going to play a major role in the coming confrontation between the two groups in an example of poor script writing.

Speaking of the Governor we now know the dude is to the right of insane, we're talking a whole mob of Roos bouncing around in the top paddock. Not only does he have severed heads in fish tanks but his daughter is a zombie and no amount of classical music or hair brushing is going to change that. Even Andrea, who as we know is not the sharpest tool in the shed, finds the night time fights to be both insane and barbaric. Andrea is yet to discover just how off the planet the Governor is and I got a feeling it will happen when Merle decides he has to go looking for Daryl. Merle might currently be doing the Governor's bidding but I don't see that lasting. I should point out for the record that Merle is another character invented for the television series so all bets are off there. Anyways interesting setup at the moment, the sociopathic Governor versus the psychotic Rick, bring that confrontation on, it's going to define the season.

In another example of Director Nicotero nailing the requirements there is a single instance of the Governor looking out of the window of his upstairs apartment and seeing Michonne looking up at the apartment. Clearly the Governor is also going to have major confrontations with the sword swinging enigma that is Michonne, and by confrontation I mean more than this episode portrays. If you have read the graphic novels then you know it gets pretty messy, I'm wondering how far the television show will take this aspect, Kirkman wasn't holding back in the books.

The two surviving prisoners, Axel and Oscar, have now been completely accepted by Rick's group and are pitching in for the common good. Given the forces available to the Governor and the attrition rate amongst Rick's group both dudes are going to be needed in coming episodes, there are storm clouds on the horizon and Axel and Oscar are standing in the path.

I was grooving to Director Nicotero's episode as he laid the groundwork for the next block of episodes as the confrontation between the prison and Woodbury becomes inevitable given the Governor's view on life amongst the ashes. We get some good character development, lots of decaying zombies - they are starting to look pretty gross this season, and enough action to be rocking out to. Altogether another excellent episode that shows season three is going to be a lot more action orientated than season two, which took a detour into drama. I'm in a positive frame of mind going forward and think we are in for some exciting times on the horizon, this show is simply one you can't miss folks.