Monday, November 18, 2013

The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 6 "Live Bait" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            Now that we know that The Governor is back from the very last shot of the episode before this one, we will now get an episode showing what happened to The Governor after he went away with his two friends.

            As the theme started, I thought that the idea that we were getting to know what happened to The Governor was a good idea that I actually did not think of. We get to see that after he goes off with Martinez and the other guy, The Governor just sits there by the fire and stares. Even the walker heading toward him did not bother him. The next day, he wakes up to see that his friends have left him, which surprised me because I always thought that he killed them. Then, we see that he is wandering around the streets for a while, until he finds a very small group of people that he joins. This episode is essentially about the chemistry between The Governor and the new people he finds.

            We get to see that he does not talk very much now, and does not answer most of their questions. And when he does, they have to make him answer. That is what I would think a secretly insane person, or any person, would be like after experiencing everything that just happened to him. We then see him interacting with the people throughout the rest of that day/night. He is very quiet and does not want anything they give him. I was enjoying that, just because I was interested in what was going on with his character and what he was thinking and what he was doing. And I was also ready for him to kill all of them. Though, that never happened.

            After he puts the old man to bed, the man asks for him to go get a backgammon board, and he does it. After he gets the board, he sees a walker in the bathtub that he kills and he notices that someone shot it in the chest, and then gets the gun. He brings back the game board, and the old man takes it. I was very interested in that scene because I did not know what The Governor was to come in counter with, and I was wondering if would really get the board. The episode, for me, stayed enjoyable, because I was interested in the great chemistry between The Governor and these people.

The next day, he wakes up and is able to leave when one of the sisters asks him to go get a tank for her dad, which is dying of lung cancer. The simplest thing as a very small character having lung cancer is great for the show, because it makes the show seem more realistic. Anyway, he goes to the hospital, and gets an oxygen take, but has many encounters with walkers in a very impressively intense scene in which he has to get out of the hospital. The scene was not riveting, but any slight bit of intensity regarding The Governor in trouble is very impressive. Though, that is when I realized my biggest problem with the show: They try to make you feel for The Governor. Even though they were able to make me feel intensity with that scene, I will never feel for The Governor. He did a huge number of awful things to a huge number of people. Though, that is my only true flaw with the episode.

Then, he comes back with the tank, drops it off, and then gets cleaned up. Though, he has some great chemistry with the granddaughter after that. We see that he is replacing her as his daughter and over the next few scenes of this episode; we get to see him build up a great relationship with this girl, as he burned his family picture. I was as well very interested in this small portion/side story of the episode to see him progressing (or regressing) as a character. Because even though The Governor does awful things to people, he is an interesting character. Then, the grandfather dies and The Governor is in the room in time to save one of the sisters that are the daughters of the grandfather. I will not lie; this episode sucked me into it enough for me to think about that people turn into walkers after they die. That caused for an intense scene in which The Governor slams the oxygen tank on top the grandfather’s head, as the daughters are freaking out. Then, they decide to go with him, and The Governor takes them with him. On the night they sleep in the car, we get to see where the relationship between The Governor and one of the sisters is going. I then became interested in the episode because of the chemistry between The Governor and these people.

The next day, they have to abandon their car and go on foot. But they have to run, because a huge group of walkers is after them in another intense scene. The little girl will not go until she finally goes with them, and The Governor has to pick her up and run with her. But then, they fall in the hole he used to use to get walkers in. The shows them brings upon the great theme: When you do bad, it will come around back to you. The Governor is killing those walkers like crazy (which was awesome) trying to protect his “new daughter” and everything is going crazy. It heightens the show even more. But then Martinez comes back. That was a great ending to the episode.

Now I will talk about my overall enjoyment of the episode. I never really started to get into this episode, but I enjoyed the whole entire thing. This episode really had no moments of not being enjoyable, but it never got past being enjoyable. It is just a steady line with no improvement or declination. Though, this episode as a whole was really good. For one thing, the episode was really well paced (which is one the reasons why is stays just enjoyable). And, it has that theme and it has those elements in the last scene that tied in to Woodbury. It even had some intense scenes with The Governor. It was an interesting episode. It was a really good overall episode.


            I give this episode a 7.8/10 and a B+.

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