Friendly Fire

Walking Dead

Episode Report Card

M. Giant: B+ | 11 USERS: B+

YOU GRADE IT

Friendly Fire

By M. Giant | Season 3 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.31.2013

In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

It looks like the group has decided to abandon the prison, emptying the cell block and loading up the cars. Because the Governor is indeed on his way, but not before exacting his revenge on both Milton and Andrea by knifing him and locking them in together so that Milton will eat her when he comes back. Andrea's lucky that Milton takes his time dying, because that gives her time to work on both getting her hands free and putting the finishing touches on her towering edifice of self-justification.

When the Governor and his forces show up at the prison, they light the place up pretty good but of course meet no resistance. He's pretty disappointed to find everyone gone, but leads everyone into the catacombs anyway, I guess to find some kind of fight. Once everyone's in there, though, it turns out our people are still in the house after all; they ambush the invaders and drive them out in a panic, despite the Governor's orders to stand their ground. He and his two must trusted henchmen are reduced to chasing after their own people to return to the fight. In fact, I think the only Woodburian who gets killed at the prison is the one who has the bad fortune to run into Carl in the woods. Who's so butt-hurt about not getting to take part in the fight that he remorselessly kills one of the invaders in cold blood. And just when we were starting to like him, too.

The Governor, Martinez, and Shump catch up with his retreating army on the road, and after a brief argument about whether the prison is even worth the battle, the Governor just up and massacres all of them (including Tyreese's old buddy Alan), then hits the road with Martinez and Shump. While chasing the Governor so they can put an end to all this, Rick, Daryl, and Michonne come upon the scene and rescue a Woodburian named Karen. She accompanies them back to town, where, after an abbreviated firefight with Tyrese and Sasha (the only able-bodied people left behind to guard the wall and the children and elderly of Woodbury), they find the room where Milton breathed, and then slavered, his last. Yes, Andrea managed to take him out, but not without receiving a fatal bite. She sticks around long enough to say her farewells to her old compatriots, and then checks out using Rick's service revolver. Considering all the carnage she could have prevented, it's probably better than she deserves.

So Tyreese and Sasha get to move into the prison after all, and this time they've brought even more people -- every person in Woodbury who was too old or too young to attack the prison in the first place. Looks like Rick is making up for that hitchhiker from "Clear" in a big way. The good news is that Lori's stopped haunting him, and the Governor seems to be gone. The bad news is that going by what Carl said after killing that kid, Rick might just be raising a new problem.

Want more? The full recap starts right below!

Season finale of the zombie show on Easter? Isn't that a little on the nose, AMC?

Much as we started the season, we're slowly zooming out from an eye. But instead of a dead, white one of a zombie like in the season premiere, it's the Governor's dead blue one, just before he throws a punch at the camera and the screen goes black. We fade back in, still in POV mode, as he's telling us that he's impressed with us for taking a risk, getting our hands dirty. But because we burned up the zombies at the trap, eight of the Governor's men died at the meeting-place. Another punch, and we see that the victim is Milton. You know, Governor, I don't think a lack of walkers at that meeting was the issue. Merle brought plenty, as I recall. The Governor lectures Milton on his worldview: "When there's a threat, you end it, and you don't feel ashamed about enjoying it...You won. You take the head so you don't ever forget: you kill or you die." And then you put the heads in tanks that someone blinds you with? No thanks. Milton asks, "What would your daughter think about what you are?" Well, from what we saw of Penny, she'd probably think, "uggh kklkl ack oop klaaaagh." The Governor admits that she'd be afraid of him, "but if I'd been like this from the start, she'd be alive today." Milton asks his next question, which is whether the Governor killed Andrea.

So he throws Milton into his "workshop," Where Andrea is still handcuffed to the dentist's chair. She heard the whole conversation all through the wall, and tries to tell the Governor that he can still stop this and not lose any more of his men. Still not getting it, are we, Andrea? The Governor just vows to kill everyone at the prison. But first he has Milton collect the "tools" off the table. Beaten and weak, Milton clumsily spills them behind Andrea's chair. While collecting them, he deliberately leaves a pair of pliers on the floor behind her, where they will help nobody. At the door, the Governor grabs a knife from the tray Milton's carrying and slams him against the wall, telling him, "You're going to kill her now... Milton, there is no way you are leaving this room without doing it." Milton reluctantly accepts the knife the Governor handed him and steps toward Andrea, but suddenly turns and lunges at the Governor instead. Of course the Governor was ready for that, and he turns the knife in Milton's hand and buries it in his gut several times. "I told you you were gonna do it," the Governor says. "And now you're gonna die. And you're gonna turn. And you're gonna tear the flesh from her bones." Sounds like he's got all the angles figured out. He lets Milton fall to the ground and repeats, "In this life, you kill or you die. Or you die and you kill." He closes the door and leaves the two of them alone in there, probably wishing the zombie apocalypse had not wiped out Successories.

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