Well, well, well…seems like the writers/producers/directors of “The Walking Dead” were keeping the big ideas, twists and turns for the final few episodes. This week’s episode, titled “This Sorrowful Life,” is one of the best yet, of the series, let’s break it down…shall we?
We open in the prison with Daddy Rick telling Daryl and Hershel that he is going to give Michonne to the Guv’nah so there can be peace between Stepbury and the Prison Gang. Hershel is adamantly against it and Daryl is also not keen on the idea. Daddy Rick, YOU ARE AN IDIOT!!! I get that you are under tremendous pressure but if you actually believed the Guv’nah’s offer was in good faith perhaps you deserve to die. Anyway Daddy Rick is pushing forward against the objection of his inner-circle and tells Daryl he is going to get Merle onboard.
Daddy Rick finds Merle digging through prison mattresses on a hunt for the bad stuff aka Tina so he can take a little “vacation.” They proceed to have a chilling encounter over what the Guv’nah will do to Michonne which troubles Rick but he is staying on course. Merle, of course, is willing to help and tells him to go find wire to bind up Michonne.
Next we have an encounter with Daryl and Glenn about how Daryl is sure Merle will somehow make amends for the torture back at Stepbury (way to keep positive, Daryl). Glenn isn’t having it and I am not having Glenn. I am tired of his mawkish PTSD, GET OVER IT!!! The sooner the producers kill off Glenn the better but alas that probably won’t happen for some time.
Next stop on Daryl’s walkabout he finds Merle in a workroom ostensibly still looking for Tina (who knew that bitch would be so hard to find in a prison?). Merle tells Daryl that he has no balls and that neither does Daddy Rick and that Daddy Rick won’t give up Michonne. Daryl basically says “Whatevs.” After Daryl leaves we find out what Merle is actually doing is building a bag of supplies, including wire, to snatch Michonne.
Next we find Daddy Rick wandering outside looking through the trash for wire to use to bind Michonne. While he is wrapping cord around his arm who appears? That’s right folks the ghost of Lori but this time she isn’t driving Daddy Rick insane (well, she is because even in the afterlife she is harpy) she’s dissuading him from his stupid decision to sell out one of his best fighters.
Back inside Hershel is praying with his girls about doing no evil when Daddy Rick walks in sans wire and tells Hershel he can’t and won’t give up Michonne. Hooray! But oops, because in the next scene we see Merle tricking Michonne into the basement where he knocks her out and snatches her. When Daddy Rick finds out Daryl sets out to stop Merle.
The next scene finds Merle and Michonne walking along with Michonne on a wire leash. She doesn’t run when Merle kills a Walker with her sword because she wants it back before she goes and Merle laughs at this. During their walkabout Michonne relentlessly questions Merle about his motives intimating that he has a conscience. He plays the tough guy stating he has killed 16 people since the world ended.
Back at the prison Glenn asks Hershel for his blessing to marry Maggie and I puke at the banality of his character’s story arc.
Next Merle and Michonne end up outside a hotel where Merle’s attempt to hotwire a car brings on a zombie hoard which gives us our first real slaughter of the episode and it is awesome. Michonne manages to kill two zombies even though she is tethered to a beam, stomping one and beheading the other with her wire restraints. Merle kills another with a face slice move and then they drive off.
In the car Michonne continues her subdued yet relentless questioning of Merle, she knows he didn’t kill anyone before he joined Stepbury, and says he can go back. Merle says he can’t and then lets her go. This was a somewhat shocking turn of events. Instead of going back with Michonne he drives off to take care of something on his own.
Daryl finds Michonne killing a zombie head and asks her if she killed Merle, she says she didn’t, and Daryl takes off to find his brother.
Next we find Merle drankin’ whiskey and getting a pack of Walkers to follow his car by blasting some classic rock! It’s really pretty clever. And where is them you ask? That’s right straight at the Stepbury boys waiting to ambush Daddy Rick.
Merle dives out of the car before it reaches the Stepbury boys, takes up position inside an abandoned building and starts shooting the Stepbury gunmen. He finally gets the Guv’nah in his sites but as he shoots stupid Ben (the dumb kid of the equally dumb guy that is part of Tyrese’s group) steps in the way and takes the bullet that would have killed the Guv’nah. Merle is then attacked by a Walker and exposed to the Stepbury gang.
The Guv’nah beats the shit out of Merle and then when Merle tells him he won’t beg for his life shoots him. GOODBYE MERLE!!!
Back at the prison Glenn and Maggie get married or engaged or whatever, I really don’t care. I also don’t care when Rick tells the prison gang he was going to give up Michonne and it’s no longer a dictatorship at the prison and…YAWN!!!
We are back at the ambush site and Daryl is examining the bodies of the Stepbury peeps Merle killed, most of which have been devoured by Walkers. What does Daryl find next, that’s right, Walker Merle. What happens next is perhaps the best acted scene of the entire series. Walker Merle moves to attack Daryl who is having a breakdown and pushes him away several times. He finally looks into his brother’s dead eyes and kills him with about 1 million stabs to the head.
The episode ends with Daddy Rick watching Michonne return to the prison.
Such a great episode!!!
The season finale is next week and we can’t wait to see what happens. Here is what we hope happens:
- Andrea gets out of the torture chair and morphs into an interesting character.
- Glenn dies or stops being annoying
- Someone kills the Guv’nah (I really hope they don’t drag his storyline into season 4).
See you next week!
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