‘The Walking Dead’ 3.14 Recap: “I Have to Stop This”

‘The Walking Dead’ went from six episodes in the first season to thirteen in the second, and now the third has been stretched to sixteen. While this is a normal progression for such an insanely popular show, it results in episodes like this week’s ‘Prey’, which has a whole lot of filler, some important setup, and little else.

I didn’t outright hate this episode, but it left me feeling a little annoyed. A couple weeks ago, we got an episode that focused on Michonne, Carl and Rick that was by far the best of the season. ‘Prey’ travels back to Woodbury and gives us an all-Governor-all-the-time episode. It has its moments, but the important story elements could’ve largely been consolidated into other episodes. ‘Lost’ was notorious for throwing filler episodes at its audience a few weeks before each season finale. It seems that ‘The Walking Dead’ is following suit.

David Morrissey really rubs me the wrong way as the Governor. I don’t know what it is, but after a few minutes of him on screen, I hope that the show will move onto someone or something else. He chews up more scenery than a horde of hungry Walkers. His sneering malevolence is less scary than comical. The fact that this episode centers on Andrea and the Governor (the two weakest characters in the series) makes most of it a chore to sit through.

Now, I say this fully acknowledging that the sequence inside the abandoned warehouse is pretty tense and fun to watch – even if Morrissey tries his best to do a bad impression of Uncle Charlie from Hitchcock’s ‘Shadow of a Doubt‘. (Apparently, you’re a really evil son of a bitch if you whistle before you do something dastardly). The end result, in which Andrea opens that stairwell door and lets out a horde of Walkers, is a bright spot in a dull episode.

1 comment

  1. Just got my Internet back, so I watched it yesterday.

    I was a little disappointed. I felt like the ending with Andrea strapped in the chair belonged more to True Blood than to The Walking Dead. It felt more like cliffhangery fun than there being any real danger to Andrea.

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