The Walking Dead - S03E14 Prey (2013)

Review

The Governor is preparing for all-out war with the prison. He's loading for bear and also collecting "biters" for some nefarious purpose. Milton isn't best pleased, especially when he learns the Governor plans to kill everyone at the next meeting, except for Michonne, he has a special place prepared for her. Milton warns Andrea, and shows her the Governor's "workshop". Andrea decides to leave and warn the prison, but is forced to run on foot without much in the way of weapons. The Governor gives chase, determined to get her back.

Meanwhile Tyreese and Sasha have started to question Woodbury's seemingly tranquil façade, especially after Andrea informs them just prior to leaving that the Governor isn't who he claims to be. Tyreese is further alienated when he discovers the pit of zombies the Governor has, and is informed the biters are for use against the prison. Sometime during the night someone unknown destroys the biters, thus throwing a spanner into the Governor's plans. Things are heating up in more ways than one.

An interesting episode that points the way to the season conclusion, anyone else think we are headed for a major battle, actually rubbing my hands in glee at the concept. The Governor has some dissension in the ranks with Andrea and now Milton defiant, though it doesn't look to have done Andrea any good, and Tyreese and Sasha starting to wonder what exactly they have got themselves into. Offsetting this is of course Woodbury tooling up with some pretty heavy combat weapons. Interestingly the Governor seems to be lying to everyone, including Milton and his staunchest of supporters Martinez.

There has to be more than a simple backstory here to explain why people are blindy believing the Gov!?!

Andrea, continuing her blonde escapades, only needs one look into the Governor's special room to ascertain what the maniac has in mind for Michonne if Rick hands her over. Remembering the jury is still out on Rick's decision though in all honesty it is fairly obvious the Governor can't be trusted at the best of times. Deciding she wants out and to go warn the Prison of the duplicity nature of the Governor Andrea is soon legging it into the "red zone" in an attempt to reach Rick and warn him of what's coming down the line. As expected the Governor is soon in hot pursuit as Tyreese informs the powers that be that they have a runner on their hands.

Now I had major problems with the chase sequence, which occupies pretty much the entirety of the second half of the episode. Firstly did Andrea run in a straight line toward the prison, the Governor seemed to have little problems tracking her down? Anyone with an ounce of intelligence would have made it a hell of a lot more difficult for the Governor to find them. Maybe Andrea thought the clock was ticking therefore her best option was to run down the one road that leads directly from Woodbury to the Prison! My second issue was how did the Gov find Andrea at the factory? Given the numerous possibilities that Andrea could have chosen it seems a bit too convenient that the two found themselves at the factory within a few minutes of each other. Other than those issues I thought the chase scenes were pretty cool, you could really feel Andrea's desperation to make it to safe ground.

Saving the episode, or at least Andrea's run to freedom, is the abandoned factory scene which just dripped tension for mine. I really dug what director Stefan Schwartz had going down here, yes the zombie inclusions were spot on, so thought the Governor was toast. Actually Schwartz adds a bit of bite to the ending with a chilling final few frames that just ooze with menace, exactly what is the Governor going to do to Andrea! Anyways episode is worth catching for mine solely on the factory cat and mouse shenanigans, as well as Andrea thinking she has made it to the prison only to be taken down in the last moment.

There was a scene at the start of Prey that I really don't get, though maybe it's Andrea remembering what she has lost or something, yeah, nay, don't know. Anyways it's a flashback to Andrea and Michonne on their own with Michonne's two "pet" zombies. Andrea enquiries where Michonne got the zombies from and Michonne avoids answering though stating the duo of defanged walkers weren't human to begin with. Clearly waters run deep, but I would kind of like to know Michonne's backstory rather than have hints dropped seemingly at random. The scene itself makes little sense in the context of the episode and underlines we have no idea what the skinny on Michonne really is, though thinking about it if Rick makes the wrong call there's a ready built "out" clause for him.

With Andrea sidelined there's no one to talk out against the Governor, though Milton may have been the one responsible for the destruction of the "biters" and clearly Tyreese and Sasha are started to have doubts about the Woodbury experience. I'm expecting full out war to erupt prior to the end of the season, which if it follows the graphic novel's lead is going to be fairly traumatic for some viewers. I'm fully expecting at least one of the major characters to go down during hostilities and for the prison defences to be irrevocably breached. Everything has been building toward this climax and now with Andrea taken out of the picture it's pretty much a foregone conclusion. The question remains however, who will survive and what will be left of them?

I had a few issues with Prey but by and large was grooving to the mayhem on display. Clearly the episode was a Woodbury exclusive, so I'm expecting next week's focus to be on the Prison as things start to come to a boil. If after an episode that goes large on the tension and atmosphere then Prey should be fertile ground for you, however if after mass zombie slaughter then you are in the wrong place. Yet another episode that underlines just how good The Walking Dead actually is.