It’s back. Here’s the recap of everything you missed. We come back from the mid-season break of AMC’s The Walking Dead just seconds after we left, with Merle and Daryl facing off in Woodbury’s little fight club. Why are the citizens so eager to watch these dudes kill each other? I mean, aside from the fact that it’s Merle? Rick and crew show up to rescue them both with another gunfight, and all of the good guys make it out alive. Rick pistol-whips Merle because he’s a jerk but then Daryl lets him know that the brothers are a package deal, so the brothers trek off into the wilderness together.
Glenn and Maggie are totally jacked up from their torture in Woodbury and everybody notices it. Meanwhile, Carol gets a lot of screen time this episode, talking with Carl about the loss of his mother and feeling sorry for herself because Daryl didn’t come back for her, instead choosing to go with Merle.
Back at Woodbury, things aren’t quite so good. Rick’s incursion has put a worm into the apple, and walkers have breached the walls. It looks like the Governor’s grand experiment is pretty much over until Andrea rallies the townspeople with a stirring speech about how Woodbury is the future of civilization that they’ll tell stories about in the future. Uh, lady? There is no future. It’s enough to get them to stop rioting and repulse the zombies, though, so… well done?
At the prison, Tyreese’s group is waiting for Rick to give his decision on whether they get to stay. Two of them – Allen and his son Ben – discuss trying to take the place by force, which considering that there’s just two of them and Carl has killed people for less doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Tyreese and his wife Sasha just want to get along and blend in. The episode ends with another visit from ghost Lori, just to remind us that Rick has totally lost his marbles and nobody should be listening to him in any way shape or form. Tyreese is all “hell to the naw” at the crazy white guy screaming at nothing and waving a gun around, so he splits.
What did you think? I’m not sold on Rick as “hard-ass crazy person.” I liked him better as “fallible, but human guy trying to do his best and failing.” But I don’t write The Walking Dead, so what do I know?