Friendly Fire

Recapped by M. Giant · Aired 03-31-2013 · S03E16

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.

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 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.

It's morning at the prison, and the gang is packing up. So after Rick offered them the choice of staying or going last week, it looks like they've made their decision. Carl puts his hard-won family photo with some other stuff into a ripped grocery bag marked "Judith" and stuffs that sad article into a duffel bag. Hershel packs a backpack of paltry medical supplies. Carl pockets his dad's old deputy's star, shoulders his bag, and puts on his stupid fucking hat. On his way to the car, Rick tries to talk to him, but gets shaken off. Glenn observes to Rick that he's never seen Carl this mad, because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to tell. "He's still a kid. It's easy to forget," Rick says. Before getting behind the wheel of the Hyundai, he pauses to look up at the catwalk, where the pregnant ghost of Lori is looking back down at him. Helpful as always.

Carol finds Daryl packing his motorcycle, saying, "Merle never did nothing like that his whole life." Carol says he gave them a chance. So that's Merle eulogized, then. Back inside the cell block, Rick's making a last dummy-sweep when Michonne comes and says they're ready. She says she's not mad at him for considering the deal with the Governor, and gets that he had to. She also thanks Rick for taking her in that first day when she showed. Rick claims it was the baby formula, and when she points out that he could have just taken it (which is probably selling herself short), he shrugs that it must have been something else. "It was Carl who made the call," he tells her. "He said you belonged here. You're one of us." Well, three cheers for Carl, then. Who'd have thought he'd turn out okay after all?

The governor is about to lead his men and women out of Woodbury for their attack on the prison, giving an angry speech about their enemies and those they've killed. They're all about to mount up, but Tyreese speaks up to say he and Sasha are out; they're here to fight walkers, not humans. He says they'll stay back to protect the children, and will be willing to leave after that, if that's what the Governor wants. The Governor glares hard at them, but merely takes a rifle from one of his men and hands it to Tyreese, growling "Thank you" in a voice deeper than the grave. Both Tyreese and Sasha look like they need a change of pants after that.

The whole convoy rolls up to the prison's open outer gates. Martinez announces their presence with an RPG to a guard tower, which blows up real good. Shump opens up with a deck gun, raking the walls with automatic fire. They drive on into the yard until the tires on one of the vehicles blows out on Michonne's spikes. Everyone is shooting from the backs of trucks, both at the prison and at the yard-walkers slowly converging. The zombies are cleared out in seconds, and messily. Most of the Woodburians jump out of the trucks and fall in on foot behind an SUV that crashes right through the inner gates to the inner yard, where they fan out, guns raised, until they realize nobody's here. At least not outside. So they use a truck-mounted cable to yank the grated door off the entrance to C Block, and Alan and Martinez are on point as they head on inside and find it abandoned. The Governor is disappointed to say the least, but pauses when he spots Hershel's Bible laid open to John 5:29 "And shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." The Governor tosses the Bible aside, because that's how evil he is. As for Hershel, I'm surprised he would leave the behind just to give the Governor one last finger. About to lead everyone out of there, the Governor hears a noise coming from the catacombs. He came here with a giant hard-on for a fight, and he isn't going back to Woodbury with blue balls, so he splits everyone up into two groups to head inside and investigate.

In the Governor's workshop, Andrea says Milton's name. Turns out he's not quite dead yet. Choking on his own blood, blood, he tells her about the pliers he dropped behind her chair and how she might be able to get them if she can just reach back far enough with her right foot. All she does is kick them further away, because this is Andrea we're talking about. Still, she promises Milton hat she'll get them both out of this, also because this is Andrea we're talking about. Milton offers a plan of his own: "When you get free, you are going to find something very sharp and you are going to stab me in the head. That is what you are going to do. Keep trying."

The Governor is still leading his forces through the catacombs, still not finding anything to shoot at. His day is just about ruined.

Back in town, Tyreese and Sasha are guarding the children and elderly in the supply depot. Sasha asks what happens when the Governor and his people get back. Tyreese allows that they might have to sneak out, like Andrea did. "If she's at the prison it didn't do her any good," Sasha points out. Actually, Sasha, Andrea should be so lucky. Wait, no she shouldn't.

Andrea has managed to get her boot on the pliers, but Milton is no longer with her. But then he chokes and his eyes open again, and he's still in there. And the self-appointed archivist of the human race asks the most urgent question on his dying mind: "Why did you stay after you found out your friends were out there?" Because it's all about Andrea. She says she wanted to save everyone, "Even the Governor, for a while." She tells Milton about her chance to kill the him, "but I tried to stop it all another way, because I didn't want anyone to die." It would almost be worth it if Milton's last words were, "How'd that work out, then?" Instead, he manages to gasp that he's still alive. No thanks to her, he doesn't add. "You need to hurry," he finally manages to say, a much-needed reminder that if Andrea can't talk about how awesome she is and try to rescue herself at the same time, she should probably concentrate on the latter. Or, you know, even if she could.

The Governor's forces are still exploring the catacombs when suddenly gas and stun grenades and klaxons start going off, triggering immediate panic. The Governor screams at his people to hold their ground, but they run for it, blasting their way past the zombies drawn by the noise and pouring out of the buildings. Up in one of the catwalks, Glenn in full riot gear screams, "Get the hell out of here!" and opens up with an assault rifle at the confused people in the yard. Not trying to kill anyone, I assume, because he doesn't. Neither does Maggie, similarly outfitted and providing bracketing fire from the other catwalk. Hershel, Beth, and Carl are hiding in the woods, listening to the gunfire. "I should be there," Carl bitches. So at least we know what he's mad about now. Martinez, Alan, and the Governor make a break for it, exchanging fire with Glenn and Maggie while Shump covers them. Eventually most of the invaders, including the Governor and Martinez, make it back to their trucks and roar out of there, though the Governor is clearly not happy about it. "We did it?" Maggie calls over to Glenn. "We did it," he confirms. Just the two of them?

A young man from Woodbury flees on foot through the woods, only to run into Carl, Hershel, and Beth near the camouflaged Hyundai. Carl has his giant silencer pointed at the kid, and even as the kid is holding his rifle out to Carl, his finger off the trigger, Carl drops him with a bullet to the face. Well, okay, then. Look who's a killer after all. Hershel looks at Carl in horror, thinking there's no way he's giving him and Beth his blessing ever.

The gang reconvenes outside, realizing they did it. We didn't see Rick, Michonne, Daryl, or Carol during the firefight, so I assume they were all in the prison luring the invaders into the trap down in the catacombs and then setting it off when they walked into it. Michonne and Daryl want to go after them all and finish this. So do Glenn and Carol, but Maggie isn't up to bringing the fight to Woodbury. "We barely made it back last time," she reminds everyone. "I don't care," Daryl says. "Yeah," Rick says, and leads them to go check on the others. Back in the cell block, Beth carries Judith in, followed by Carl and Hershel. Rick hugs both his kids, and then Carl declares to Rick that he's going to Woodbury, all proud of having taken out "one of the Governor's soldiers." "That kid running away?" Hershel points out. "He stumbled across us." Carl lies that the kid drew on them, and Rick says he's sorry Carl had to do that. Carl just insists he's coming along. He leaves the room, and Hershel tells Rick what really happened. Rick doesn't want to believe it. "I'm telling you, he gunned that kid down," Hershel insists. And here Rick was having such a good day.

The Governor's vehicle catches up with the retreating convoy and forces them to stop. Most of the Woodburians aren't willing to go back there, saying it's not worth it, and while Martinez and Alan (still hungry to avenge the death of his son, who was stupid enough to walk in front of Merle's bullet) is arguing with the irregulars, a noise in the background is getting louder. At first I think it's Rick and his gang rolling up, but it's nothing but the roaring of the Governor's rage rising in his ears. And I say "nothing but," which isn't really appropriate given that it cause him to start shooting his own people dead. Horrified, Martinez and Shump back away. After everyone else dead, the Governor turns back to face his die-hards. Alan, who argued for going back, is still standing, but aiming his own weapon at Governor. The Governor grins at him, his rifle empty, and unholsters his sidearm as though he's going to drop it, but instead he drops Alan. That leaves just the Governor, Martinez, and Shump. So how you plan to take the prison now, Phil? Well, first thing's first: the Governor wades into the killing field and starts plugging heads. At least until his automatic is empty, at which point he can't be bothered to reload and finish the job. Instead, he gets behind the wheel of his truck, and with a look, commands Martinez and Shump to join him. The three of them head on down the road together, three travelers in more desperate need of a Dorothy than you can imagine. What neither of them knows is that a woman named Karen survived the massacre by staying still under the body of one of her dead compatriots. She's probably not going to want to hang there for long, though.

By M. Giant

Andrea pauses in her work yet again to look at Milton, who is starting to make those zombie throat noises. She gets one hand free, but he's already up and shambling toward her. She gets the other hand free just as he moves in, which means that if she had just spent five fewer seconds being stupid, she would have been just fine. As it is, we cut to the hallway outside as we hear screams and sounds of a struggle from the other side of the locked door, and a body hitting the floor. Whose we don't know yet, but we can always hope.

It's nightfall, and Rick and his team have proceeded all the way to Woodbury, with their hostage Karen in tow. If she is a hostage, that is. Lucky for them, there's still no one on the wall but Tyreese and Sasha, and he's still a lousy shot. His first bullet goes wide, allowing them a chance to get under cover and return fire. During a lull in the shooting, Karen breaks cover and tells, "Tyreese! It's me, don't shoo--" Rick pulls her back down, but she won't stay down, and Tyreese calls out to ask if she's okay and where the Governor is. "He fired on everyone," Karen yells back. "He killed them all." The siblings exchange a shocked look up on the wall, and Tyreese asks why she's with Rick and the others. "They saved me," she calls back. After a pause, Rick hollers -- rather prematurely, if you ask me -- that they're coming out. He approaches the gate with his hands raised, Daryl and Michonne reluctantly following his lead. Tyreese opens the gate for them and, with neither of them bringing up the last time they saw each other, asks Rick why they're here. "We were coming to finish this," Rick says. "Until we saw what the Governor did." So now, since Karen told them Andrea left but never made it to the prison, they're here looking for her. Michonne must have insisted, otherwise I can't imagine going to the trouble.

The first place they check is the dungeon where the Governor was holding Glenn and Maggie. "Did more than hold 'em," Daryl tells Tyreese grimly. Sure enough, there's the corrugated metal door to the Governor's workshop, locked from the outside but with a puddle of blood spreading out from under it. Michonne draws her sword and Daryl levels his crossbow, and Michonne asks Rick to open it. He does, and inside is Milton's re-dead body on the floor in front of the dentist's chair where it fell. Andrea collapse just inside the door, still barefoot and looking like hell. Michonne goes to her and observes, "You're burning up." Food poisoning? No, Andrea pulls her collar aside to reveal a gory bite wound covering most of her shoulder, which would have been totally preventable had she only spent a little less time flapping her yap.

By M. Giant

Rick goes back to the away team, and Glenn says he and Maggie are staying in case the Governor comes back, which I figure is probably Maggie's idea. "Just the three of us? All right," Daryl nods gamely, hefting the crossbow that he apparently plans to mow down dozens of Woodburians with. Cut to Carol and Beth head-stabbing walkers through the inner fence while Glenn & Maggie struggle to open the broken inner gate for Daryl's bike and Rick ∧ Michonne in the pickup. They close it back up behind them, but not without Carol taking out a few more for good measure.

Soon, Rick's away team finds the Governor's killing field along the road, with a few former Woodburians back up and chomping on the bodies of their ex-neighbors. Blades and arrows quickly take are of those, but they're startled to find a live one inside the cab of one of the abandoned trucks. They let her out, and this should be an interesting conversation. Which may be why we never get to hear it.

By M. Giant

Obviously everyone in the room knows she's done, as does Tyreese out in the hallway. Andrea asks about Judith and Carl and the rest of them. "The rest of us," Rick corrects, because the top priority now is making her feel wanted. Andrea wants to know if they're alive. Rick says they are, though he looks like he's lying, and Andrea smiles like it was all her doing. "It's good you found them," she tells Michonne. "No one can make it alone now." Plus Andrea for Michonne represents a tremendous trade up for Rick and the group. Andrea makes one last bid at self-justification, telling Rick, "I just didn't want anyone to die." And then she raises up and says, "I can do it myself." Michonne says no, but Andrea insists on doing it while she still can. What, she doesn't expect anyone to make her wait around until she comes back dead, like she did to her sister? Michonne's face crumples, and Rick gives Andrea his service revolver, which is probably the greatest salute he can offer. Michonne says she's staying with her. Andrea looks up at Daryl, who doesn't offer to return that favor he still owes her from the farm, and says, "I tried." "You did," Rick says ruefully. He and Daryl step outside to rejoin Tyreese on the other side of the closed door, leaving Michonne and Andrea alone. The three men wait outside, and eventually hear the gunshot. Okay, let's talk about Laurie Holden for a minute. Here's an actor who played Marita Covarrubias on The X-Files, one of the most irritating characters in genre television. But she looked back at that and thought, "No, I can top it." And thus, Andrea. Here's to you, Laurie Holden. Can't wait to see the last of whomever you play .

By M. Giant

It's morning at the prison when they return, the convoy now including a school bus that Tyreese must have liberated from Woodbury. The members of the group who stayed back home assembles in the yard around the arriving vehicles, and watch as the too-old and too-young of Woodbury start pouring off it. "What's this?" Carl demands of Rick. "They're gonna join us," Rick tells him, and Carl goes storming off in a snit. Man, regardless of biological paternity, Carl is more Shane's kid than Judith will ever be. Maggie and Carol and Glen seem to wonder how they're going to take care of all these people, who by definition aren't exactly able to fend for themselves or else this wouldn't have been their first trip here. But Rick only has eyes for the catwalk overhead, which for once is empty even to him. And we close out the season with a shot of the golden morning sunlight dreamily limning the walkers in the outer yard, and the crooked cross over Lori's grave. Which, one hopes, is where she'll stay from now on.

M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.