by Sarabeth Pollock:
The Walking Dead: “Made to Suffer”
Original Air Date (AMC): Sunday December 2, 2012
Season 3 Episode 8
You know that trouble is brewing when the sky is dark and there are screams in the distance. A lone Walker trudges through the woods. She is taken out by a man and his hatchet. Behind him is a group of four people making their way through the forest. The Walkers descend upon them and grab a woman, ripping open her arm. A teen hears her cry and turns around. It’s his mother. They grab her and kill the Walker, then they keep moving. There’s a tower up ahead. When they come to the edge of the forest, we viewers see that they are on the other side of the prison, at the part where the wall fell and the inmates left…and the Walkers entered. They seem to be in units—a man and wife, and a family (mom, dad, son). The woman doesn’t want the wounded woman to slow the group down and she votes to leave her behind. Her partner disagrees. They’re not ready to let her go just yet. They need to keep going…and they’ll deal with her later.
Andrea is at the Governor’s dresser. She sees a picture of him with his wife and daughter. He comes up from behind her. She tells him that she wants to help Milton cremate Mr. Coleman, but he assures her that she doesn’t need to do that. She’s still worked up from the experience, and Milton can handle it. But stubborn Andrea insists, talking about how everyone has their roles. The Governor kisses her. Woodbury is growing on her. After she leaves, he stares at his reflection in the mirror. It reminds me of that age old question of what a person could be capable of if he didn’t have to look at himself in the mirror and be reminded of the atrocities he has committed. It’s a very Dorian Grey concept.
Speaking of atrocities, the Governor goes into his trophy room full of human heads and unlocks the cage holding his daughter, Penny. He turns on some music and calls her out of the cage. She comes out, wearing her hood, and he’s able to calm her down somewhat. But then she gets a whiff of the food in the bucket and realizes that it’s dinner time. She reverts to her zombie self, and a pained look passes over the Governor’s face. It’s hard not to feel sorry for the guy…for about thirty seconds, until you realize that he’s his own kind of monster.
Back in the holding cell, Glenn tries to ask Maggie if the Governor did anything to her beyond the humiliation. She quickly insists that he didn’t. In fact, he barely touched her. Glenn goes MacGyver all of a sudden and rips off the dead Walker’s arm, pulling the bones from the flesh to convert them into a makeshift shank. He hands it to her. They need to be ready to make a move.
Outside, Rick and the gang scout the walls around Woodbury. They have a large amount of ground to cover. This won’t be easy.
Merle and the Governor discuss the obvious benefits of living in a prison. With those fences, it’s easy to ensure safety. Merle asks if the Governor plans to move the town there, but the answer is no. The people of Woodbury like it in Woodbury because it feels like a town. Why would they want to live in a prison, with cells instead of houses? The Governor wants to take out the people living there and let the Biters back in. No one would ever know. Merle agrees, but he wants to know what will happen with his brother. And what will happen to Glenn and Maggie? The Governor promises safety to Daryl, but he can’t risk having Andrea find out that Glenn and Maggie are there, so he tells Merle to take them to the Screaming Pits. I don’t know what those are yet, but they sound scary.
Rick, Michonne, Daryl and Oscar have infiltrated Woodbury. They move through a storeroom. It’s where Michonne was questioned. There are people out on the streets, and Rick is concerned that they could be spotted. Michonne is trying her best to help them, but the group is worried. Just as Daryl suggests that they split up, a man comes in off the street. He calls out to the people in the storeroom—he knows they’re in there and they’re not supposed to be; Rick ambushes him and demands to know where their people are. It becomes clear, though, that this man has no idea what Rick is talking about. They tie him up and knock him out, then they push on.
Meanwhile, back at the prison, Carl looks on while Axl watches Beth take care of baby Judith. Everything seems ok until he asks how old she is. That’s when Carol steps in and asks to speak with him privately. She tells him that this isn’t about him repopulating the species. Axl looks contrite for a brief moment before explaining that he hasn’t seen a woman in a long time…and Glen and Maggie are paired off, and Carol is a lesbian…wait, her short hair doesn’t make her a lesbian? He straightens up…but he doesn’t have a chance. Carol walks away. I’ll admit, there aren’t many funny moments in this show, but this was one of them for sure.
Merle and his men go to the cell to take Maggie and Glenn to the Screaming Pits. As they open the door, Maggie pounces on one man, thrusting the bone shank into his neck. Glenn tackles Merle and wrestles him to the ground. They struggle, but Maggie gets the gun and points it at Merle’s head before he rips Glenn’s throat open. She orders him to let Glenn go. Merle falters for a moment before deciding to pull back. He grins at her because his men have come up behind her. Busted.
The sound of gunshots has alerted Rick and his people to where Maggie and Glenn might be. They take off in that direction.
Merle forces Maggie and Glenn onto their knees. They grab each other’s hands as a bag is placed over Maggie’s head. But before anything else can happen, Rick’s gang throws a smoke bomb inside and grabs the hostages, whisking them out in the middle of the chaos.
Outside, Andrea is running toward the sound of gunshots while the Governor walks away from it. He tells her that some Biters might have gotten inside the walls, and that it’s nothing to worry about. That’s when a woman cries out for help. The man that Rick knocked out tells the Governor that he was attacked by men he’s never seen before. The people gathered around them ask if they’re under attack. The Governor assures them that they are not under attack. He orders the civilians to return to their houses, then he tells his security guards to find the intruders and shoot to kill.
Rick’s gang hurries off the street and into a house. Michonne has gotten separated from the group, but they can’t do anything about that now. They have to move on. Glenn tells Daryl that Merle is the one who beat him up and threw a Walker on him. Maggie explains that Merle seems to be a lieutenant to this Governor character. Daryl wants to find his brother, but Rick points out that if he’s willing to hurt Glenn so badly, the odds are good that Merle will turn on Daryl, too. It’s clear that Daryl wants to find him anyway, but Rick makes him see that he is needed right now. Their group needs him. Reluctantly, Daryl agrees.
The Governor convenes a meeting in Milton’s lab. They have been breached by terrorists. Milton wonders if anyone has confirmed that the walls have been breached. No one pays attention to him. Instead, the Governor tells Andrea to go house to house, making sure people are safe. She feels that she can be more useful with the search parties because she has experience and she can use a gun (haven’t we all heard that before?) The Governor ignores her and sends everyone out to find the intruders. Andrea protests (of course) but he silences her with a look. She doesn’t argue.
Michonne heads to the Governor’s apartment. She has been suspicious of him since she arrives at Woodbury. She sits in his chair, sword drawn, waiting for him.
Rick’s gang lets off some smoke bombs and makes a run through the town square. The square erupts in gunfire, but the smoke makes it hard for people to see what is happening. Andrea sees Oscar and takes a shot at him. The Governor finds her and asks what she saw. He’s relieved to find out that she still doesn’t know who the intruders really are. He urges her to leave: “We’re survivors, not fighters,” he tells her. Of course she doesn’t want to leave…but he runs off and she follows.
As the Grimes Gang makes a run for a bus parked nearby, Rick sees a man approach and thinks it’s Shane, and during his moment of hesitation, Oscar gets shot. Rick kills the man and head for the bus.
Back at the prison, Hershel says that they finally got Judith to sleep. Carl wants to know how much formula they have, and though they have a month’s worth of food for her, he says he will make a run with Carol. Judith is the only family he has, and none of them know whether or not Rick will be back. He’s interrupted by the sound of screams coming from inside the prison. Carl goes to investigate…and he finds the group we met at the beginning of the episode fighting off a herd of Walkers in the boiler room. Carl shoots one of the Walkers, drawing the attention of the group. He tells them to follow him, and they do. Imagine seeing a boy in a deputy hat with a gun in the middle of a prison full of zombies….There’s a moment when they almost drop the lady who had been bitten, and Carl tells them to leave her. They press on, picking her up and running her down the hall.
Michonne hears a noise coming from the Governor’s secret room. Here she finds his trophies…and his zombie daughter. She opens the cage and finds the girl wearing her hood and straightjacket. She unties her, not realizing that she’s a Walker. But then it becomes clear that the girl is in fact a Walker. Michonne’s face fills with horror and revulsion at the secrets the Governor has been hiding. As she moves to kill Penny, the Governor walks in and sees her. He immediately surrenders his weapon, begging Michonne not to hurt his little girl. She shouldn’t be made to suffer any more. Michonne can’t believe what she’s hearing. She thrusts her sword through Penny’s mouth, killing her and sending the Governor into a frenzy. They fight, and the aquariums go toppling over. Walker heads loll around, biting aimlessly now that they have been freed from their watery prisons. Finally, Michonne is able to gouge the Governor in the eye. As he screams, she whirls around to kill him…and that’s when Andrea walks in. She levels her gun at Michonne. What have you done? Andrea asks. Oh, Andrea…you’re in the dark as usual. Then she sees the Governor cradling Penny in his arms, and she sees the heads. She starts to cry…and she goes to comfort him. Oh, lord.
Carl leads his new group to safety. Just as they get out of harm’s way, the woman dies. Carl matter-of-factly moves to take care of her when they say they’ll take care of their own. While they tend to her, Carl locks them in. They have food and water. The woman demands to be let out, but her husband (?) tells her that this is better than they’ve had in weeks. They have other things to worry about. Beth asks Carl why he didn’t help them. But he did, he tells her.
The Woodbury doctor tells the Governor that she can’t do anything for his eye. He gets up and has to face Andrea’s questions. Why did Michonne come back? She’s trying to kill him. What’s with the heads? That’s how he comes to terms with what’s going on outside the walls. Andrea is confused…but she’s not completely dissuaded by what she saw. I think she’s delusional. Merle and Milton burst in. Milton is concerned about the Governor’s eye, while Merle seems to be more concerned about covering his ass and making it clear that Glenn and Maggie may have gotten over the fence with the others…but he’ll find them in the morning.
Rick and the gang have reached the wall. That’s when Michonne shows up. Rick takes her sword and demands to know where she was. She won’t tell him the truth. I don’t know why she won’t just tell him about Andrea. It doesn’t make sense. But it seems like the group has a bigger problem. Daryl is gone, and Oscar was killed. So now it looks like they do need her help…but they still don’t trust her.
The Governor has gathered the town in the makeshift arena to tell them that there hasn’t been a night like this since they completed the walls. He is a master when it comes to rhetoric, and he tells his people that tomorrow they will bury their dead, but he can’t promise that they will be safe. He can’t promise their safety…because one of their own is a member of the terrorist group. Merle.
Holy shit.
Merle, to his credit, doesn’t seem too surprised by this turn of events. Neither he nor his brother ever trusts anyone fully. That’s when the Governor pulls out a man wearing a hood. It’s another terrorist, he proclaims. He whips off the hood and reveals that it’s Daryl. “You wanted your brother…now you’ve got him,” the Governor laughs. He looks on while the people of Woodbury chant “kill, kill!”
Well, that was unexpected. Or was it? What’s going to happen? Please share your thoughts and predictions below.
See you in February!
Sarabeth Pollock is a contributor for DarkMedia. She covers True Blood, Doctor Who, Fringe and American Horror Story, as well as the True Blood comics and whatever movies and books happen to catch her fancy. She’s an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan, with interest in everything from True Blood to Doctor Who to Anne Rice to Deborah Harkness. Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com
Comments are closed.