I guess we can put to rest the "was the Gov bit" theory. It was daylight when he captured Andrea and the meeting was noon the next day. At least thus far, everyone turns rather quick.

Both were indeed awesome. Reedus sold that last scene. So much so, it made you feel sorry for a racist asshole like Merle.

Zombie Merle was probably the worst thing about this episode for me. Not a fan of the makeup and he was too human, licking his lips and walking too well. I'm sure that sounds silly(and can be explained away as he's a "new" zombie and still has a hint of Merle in there), but for how great Rooker was the rest of the episode he just didn't sell "walker" for me.

Daryl's a smart cookie. I think he knew what went down. Shootout with Woodbury folk and Merle got shot/zombified in the process. The meeting was set so he knew they might have been there and he stumbled onto fresh bodies. Of course he has no idea the Gov was behind the trigger.

On the flip-side Daryl wasn't so bright when he bragged about being able to track better than Rick. They both knew exactly where Merle was taking her. They both looked like idiots on that one.

And that leaves us with Rick, the asshole. I'm really not enjoying what they're doing with his character. Being flawed is one thing, but the writers have turned him into a really unlikable dickhead.

That would have been awesome.

I picture this conversation in the writers' room:

Writer 1: "Okay, so our viewers have been complaining about groups of zombies that appear out of nowhere and take our heroes by surprise, like the zombies have invisibility shields until they're up close. We need to write a scene where we can see a bunch of zombies slowly gathering and shambling up to our heroes, who are stuck somehow."

Writer 2: "Great! So what's the stupidest way we can write that scene?"




Other than that, I generally liked this episode. Norman Reedus did a great job there at the end.

I hate Rick. I really really dislike him even more after this episode. The change of heart rang completely hollow to me. I just hated that whole aspect of this storyline. It was a very ham-fisted way to show the difference between the prison group and Woodbury.

I'm glad that others saw that too, I thought I might've been reading too much into it.

It's been a while since we actually saw walkers take someone down and finish him off. I was hoping the Governor's right hand man would get eaten too, but no such luck.

It was the son of the guy in Tyrese's group that got shot instead of the governor at the end, right? What a useless group of characters.

I was hoping Merle would get his own spin-off called My Name is Merle where he would discover his brother's long-lost twin so he could introduce them as "my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl."

Why did this show just kill off Michael Rooker's character? He was acting circles around the rest of the cast in this episode. Was anyone surprised he would end up dead, once he took off with Michonne? I surely wasn't.

This was easily the best episode in a long while.

I think this was the best episode in weeks. Loved the Merle Michonne stuff when they were together. She actually did more than just glare.

The Latino dude, right? He's an asshole. I hope he gets it like that one guy got in Day of the Dead, where they rip him to pieces.

As soon as Merle started getting his drink on and lamenting the fact that he was going to go in guns blazing, I knew it'd be on. Gov biting his fingers off only cemented the fact that Merle was toast.

I'll eat some crow here. I thought she was a terrible actress for her first 6-8 episodes. It was apparently the writing and direction, not the acting.

It was a pretty good episodes, especially in comparison the the last 2. If this is the guy who wrote the episode with Lennie James a couple episodes ago and is supposedly taking the show over, then it is in good hands.

Michonne has been great in the past few episodes. Loved the wire-through-the-neck zombie kill.

I like how they keep coming up with fresh new ways to kill zombies.

Merle and his hand-dagger should have easily stabbed the Governor in that fight, but the writers wanted Merle dead, so that's what happened.

It rang false to me that Merle would go through all that trouble to abduct Micchone, only to let her go.

I don't understand how him finally admitting that he should not be the solitary leader who makes all the decisions makes him a "really unlikeable dickhead".

She's been doing more than just "glaring" for the past four episodes.

Much better episode compared to the last few. And 0 Andrea this time, which is always a bonus.

I agree, but for me that ain't sayin' much. I think they wasted so much time on Andrea, left Rick kind of floundering around. It was a good ep., but now it feels like there's just not enough time to turn Rick into the fearless William Wallace to lead them into battle.

the spoilers were true which is good....

next week will be interesting... there is no way that group can take on the governors group but they most surely will have a plan...

it wont be a happy ending next week...

Wow, terrific episode!

I think this was one of the best, if not THE best, "bad guy redemption" bits I've ever seen. Usually the bad guy has an epiphany and becomes unrealistically squeaky clean good, or simply an unlikeable good buy.

But Michael Rooker did an amazing job with Merle. He really portrayed the helplessness and hopelessness of Merle's situation. Merle didn't single-handedly take out the entire army of Woodbury, nor did he fail completely. That was all amazingly capped by Norman Reedus' Daryl... wow.

The last time that I was moved by the death of a character was in Last of the Summer Wine and before that, in the Sopranos.

Uh, that's not what made him a dickhead. That was him finally coming to his senses after a season of dumb ass behavior.

Him going ahead and deciding to turn over Michonne sealed it. There's no coming back from that, and it rang hollow in his "poor 'ol me" speech to the group. I'm not sure why she would want to return knowing that information. Same for Tyrese and his bunch(they left one crazy fucker for another crazy fucker, why go back?). Fuck Rick, he's been as bad as the Governor this year. They're both crazy SOBs in different ways.

We all knew Merle was going to die after having that conversation with Carol etc, But Merle definitely did not go out like a pussy, which was awesome. Having Daryll kill him was expected, but still was great.

Final episode spoilers should be out soon, need to be aware of that heh.

Dude, I've never seen the Sopranos before & am currently on season 2. Thanks for ruining that for me. Use a spoiler tag next time when mentioning other shows please.

Daryl cannot blame Rick or anybody else for Merle being caught in the situation that caused his death. Rick didn't pussy out and send Merle with Michonne, so no way Daryl can be bitter towards the group (as someone suggested he might be).

Daryl really killed Zombie-Merle in the harshest, hardest way possible. Hands-on killing is always more difficult, but when the zombie is in the physical form of your own brother, how can you have the nerve to stab it repeatedly in the face? Very hard. An arrow to the head from a distance would have been easier, but Daryl, of course, didn't have the range or the time to do that, so this is going to haunt him for a long, long time.

Earlier in the episode, when Daryl said to Merle, "I'm waiting to have my brother back," I don't think Daryl ever had a "nice" Merle as a brother. He always had a drug-addicted asshole brother, so what kind of brother was he waiting to get back, exactly?

The brother who killed off top Governor guys and sacrificed his life for the Prison Group is not Daryl's brother returned. So far as I was able to ascertain, a complete stranger did it in the guise of Merle Dixon.

One question about actor Michael Rooker - he was the only established movie star (aside from Scott Wilson) in the whole cast. When I first saw him in Season One, I figured he cut his salary demands in half or something, as he's the only really famous person on this show.

And speaking of poor Scott Wilson, what the hell does it take to get your name in the opening credits of the show?!

Yeah it was spoiled for me on FB too. Gotta remember to stay away from FB on Sunday nights. Shit, she didn't even mention the name, but I knew right away who she was talking about. She posted something like, "You hate a character but when they finally get killed you're all tears". I knew it wasn't The Gov....

Anyway, that funny part is she is someone who complains each week on FB about not being able to handle the GORE on the show, but who apparently can't stop watching the show.