If you haven’t seen the latest episode of Walking Dead, then beware…spoilers ahead.
Michonne can run, but she can’t hide. Of course, as it turns out, she doesn’t really NEED to hide, does she? She even offers a warning for those on her trail, a “biter-gram” as Merle calls it, that spells out “Go Back” in decaying body parts. Merle leads the Governor’s posse on a hunt for the katana-wielding bad-ass, but not surprisingly, she gets the drop on them, taking out two of them immediately. Merle manages to get in a shot that nicks her in the leg as she darts back into the trees, but the damage is done. Merle is frustrated, and the other remaining posse member, a curly-haired kid named Neil, is literally sick with fear and anxiety.
The ongoing puzzle of this episode is Rick and his mystery phone calls. The first one is from a young woman, saying she’s somewhere safe, that she’s been trying to make a connection, that she’ll call Rick back. And just like that, she’s gone. Rick is left with more questions than answers, and, still distracted, tells the group he’s going back in to the block he just cleared, presumably to start gathering up the bodies. But we know Rick’s mind isn’t on clean-up. He is only interested in one thing: haunting that phone until it rings again.
Back in Woodbury, Andrea tells the Governor that despite the fact that the brutality of the walker fights bothered her, she’s still committed to staying and she wants to help and contribute to the community. When the Governor starts to suggest a couple of jobs, she cuts him off by proclaiming, “I want to work the wall.” She’s confident she can learn to shoot a bow and arrow. Although it would seem that’s not as easy as it looks. She’s paired with a younger girl with a really fancy bow. A walker appears and the girl takes action but misses her first three shots. Andrea leaps off the wall in frustration, stalks over, knocks the walker down and stabs it in the head. She turns around proudly, but her partner is angry. “What do you think you’re doing? This isn’t a game!”
Poor Rick, literally waiting by the phone. Herschel comes down to talk to him, reminding him that Lori was sorry, and had let go of any bad feelings. Rick tries to explain the phone calls to Herschel, who picks up the phone, hears no dial tone, and looks at Rick with a mixture of pity and confusion. He wants to believe him, but you can tell he’s seriously worried. This is a moment where we grow more convinced the phone calls aren’t real, because the more Rick tries to explain them the crazier he sounds.
Daryl is leading Carl and one of the prisoners through one of the lower levels of the prison. He tells Carl the charming story of how he lost his own mother when she burned to death in her own house because she smoked Virginia Slims in bed and how it never seemed real. “I shot my mom. I ended it. It was real.” Carl responds. “I’m sorry about your mom.” “I’m sorry about yours,” Daryl replies. Not exactly major emotional catharsis, but it’s the zombie apocalypse…you take what you can get.
