Michonne may not talk much, but when she does, you can count on her to tell it like it is. In the opener of “Prey,” the minds behind The Walking Dead series choose to show us a brief conversation from the past, when Andrea and Michonne depended on each other (with Andrea probably doing most of the depending) for survival during the winter. Andrea asks about the ever-present Walkers, and Michonne is reluctant, as is the norm, to share too much.
“They weren’t human begin with,” Michonne replies when asked who her walker pets were while they were still living. It leaves Andrea (and the viewers) scratching their heads, though what little Michonne reveals seems pretty damn sincere.
Andrea has since fallen into the hands of a man dead set on keeping his secrets, one who will commit atrocious acts to maintain a web of lies. Andrea is now about as sick of hearing the Governor lie to her as he is of doing the lying. Ever since Michonne pulled back the curtain and showed Philip for what he was, taking his eye and his daughter in the process, the man has struggled to maintain control over Woodbury and Andrea as well.
After the opening credits, The Governor tests a pair of manacles he self-installed in a dark interrogation room. Milton takes one look at the surgical tools and restraints and decides he wants off of this crazy train. He runs to Andrea immediately, spilling his boss’s intentions to trap Rick and execute him along with the rest of the Prison group. While spying on the Governor, Andrea takes aim with her pistol, but Milton stops her. She decides to leave Woodbury, telling Milton “If you stay, you can’t keep looking the other way.”
It’s taken a while to get here, but now the most feckless dweeb in Georgia and Amy’s bitchy big sister are justifying the amount of spotlight they’ve hogged this season. The two are finally seeing clearly, and make more decisive, gutsy actions this episode than the rest of the season put together. They also seem pretty cute together, as Andrea confirms that she’s aware of Milton’s attraction to her with a parting kiss.
Andrea is all smiles when running into the Governor, using his own medicine on him before jumping the wall. The taste is not to his liking, and he goes off alone to catch her, furious. Before leaving, he reassures Tyreese with that smile of his, lying when he says Andrea is off her rocker from surviving the winter alone. Tyreese maintains his doubts, and come close to leaving when he sees a death pit full of Walkers being set up in Woodbury.
Tyreese and the single father that has been tagging along with him don’t see eye to eye about the Woodbury situation, and the two come to blows. It escalates to the point where Tyreese is nearly ready to let the guy fall into the death pit. The guy even begs for it. It comes out that he’s been nursing a lot of jealousy toward Tyreese, since his late wife looked to him instead of her husband for protection and guidance. So this guy accepts possible death at the hands of the man who aided his family and inadvertently emasculated him. He does it in front of his son, who he seems to have forgotten all about it. If that isn’t Walker snack behavior (along with general douchebaggery), I don’t know what is.
The Governor’s pursuit of Andrea is exciting, since the former has turned the bend into batshit crazy and the latter into someone we can actually root for. A walker ambush in the woods serves as a helpful reminder that running around in the backwoods like this is still extremely dangerous. The Walking Dead have been present this season, just in more enclosed spaces and in fewer numbers. Andrea has a few very close calls among the trees, then ends up prey in a cat and mouse game. The Governor stalks her in an autoshop, and she gets away in quite brilliant fashion, leaving the man trapped in a crowd of walkers.
Not nearly so brilliant, however, as to get rid of The Governor for good. Andrea makes it to the Prison, and is barely in seeing distance from Rick’s perch when The Governor pops up behind her and drags her back to Woodbury. Andrea ends up in the chair, restrained and gagged, and like her, we’re all waiting to see what happens next.
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