The Walking Dead: 3.10 – “Home”

Last week marked the return of AMC’s The Walking Dead from their mid-season hiatus. It focused mainly on Rick’s return to the prison and him losing his shit. Well, that continued this week with Rick is still long gone mentally and seeing hallucinations of his dead wife. When we start, Rick goes out beyond the gate of the prison to stand with Lori. His mental break has been rather public and here, again, he makes no attempt to hide it…

The governor wants Andrea to take over Woodbury. Now, I would love nothing more than to see a good old-fashioned Andrea fight between her and the Gov. She never used to even trust the people in her own group! All of a sudden she is this trusting, obedient lady. I am not yet over that. The Governor then goes to Milton and tells him to keep tabs on Andrea. How that works, I’m not sure. I could snap Milton in half. And his poker face is laughable. My hope is that Andrea is going to come to her senses when she realizes that her friends are in trouble. OR better yet, when she realizes Michonne is with her friends, alive, and they are all in trouble.

MEANWHILE. BACK AT THE PRISON: Michonne actually has something to add about Glenn’s plan. Oh yes… he has a plan. He wants to go to Woodbury with Michonne and make a stand for the group’s sake. As I mentioned in last week’s review, Glenn should take over the group. Oh wait! That is currently happening! The group needs to find out how the walkers are getting into the tombs, and Maggie is lying in bed. She is unwilling to speak to Glenn… not exactly sure why. I guess she is upset that Glenn is upset about what happened to her, but I have no idea why that is pissing her off. The man with the awesome mustache, Axel, is pretty keen on Carol. I wonder if Daryl will come back all jealous! “That’s my mousey, scrawny she-man!”

The good man in Daryl goes to help a few stranded folks, of course against Merle’s wishes. Daryl crushing the walker’s head by shutting the trunk on it… just the most atrocious thing I have ever seen. Outstandingly grotesque.

Daryl turns his weapon on Merle, who was trying to take from the mother and baby they just saved. I mean… that man is putrid. Daryl and Merle get into a spat, which actually leads to a bit of back story between the two. Daryl says to Merle “You lost your hand ‘cause you’re a simple-minded piece of shit.” It then comes to light that the brothers Dixon were abused as children by their father, Merle left, leaving Daryl to continued abuse, which resulted in scars all over his back. So when Daryl had to walk away and was saying that Merle was the one leaving him… again… Merle seemingly realized who he needed to be, which is a good brother to the only family he has left.

While Glenn is gone looking for the breach, Rick claims to Hershel that he’s got “stuff” outside the prison gates, and that he needs to stay there. He explains to Hershel that he saw Lori and she was on the phone earlier, along with Shane, and the rest of the group that had been killed. He explains that there must be a reason and although it does not make sense now, it will in time so he refuses to come back inside the prison.

During a tender moment between Carol and Axel, a bullet rips through Axel’s head and so begins the Governor’s attack on the prison.

 The Governor’s crew smashes an armored truck full of walkers through the gates and onto the prison grounds and released its contents. While Glenn extracts Hershel, we get to see not only Michonne swinging her Katana, but Daryl and Merle’s arrival just in time to save Rick as well. This all out assault resulted in only one death from our prison group – Axel, who then acted as a human shield to keep Carol alive during the firefight. The Governor also suffered only one casualty when Maggie picked off the sniper who somehow got into the guard tower.

This episode was much better than last week’s, in my opinion. I love the development of characters that have been around since the beginning, like how we are just finding out about Merle and Daryl’s past. The action in this episode was a big part of what was missing from last week. There was the scene between the Dixon brothers resulting in Daryl turning a weapon on his brother. It was very exciting! And then, of course, the end of the episode, when the whole group had to grab a gun and try to stay alive. Honestly, when Daryl showed up just as Rick was about to become zombie chow, my heart skipped a beat! And then, Michonne’s beautiful Katana work made me cheer out loud. This was a great episode. I was still slightly annoyed with the Woodbury situation, making Milton look important and Andrea unlikable, but I have a feeling that will change.

Overall, I would give this episode a 4/5. This may be generous because the last episode disappointed me so much, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Animated Gif Credits – TWD-Gifs