With “Live Bait”, The Walking Dead reintroduces us to The Governor, surprising all of us with an almost re-imagined, rebooted, version of the character. Based upon the reaction that I’m seeing across social media platforms, a lot of people are either confused about how emotionally rooted they’ve suddenly become with the once hated character, or just more simply confused.
“Live Bait” stars off with a refresher on The Governor’s unspeakable actions against the people of Woodbury in last season’s finale. One of my biggest questions after the finale was why would Martinez and Shumpert (The Bowman) go with him, after just witnessing the mass murder he committed? What made them safe from his insane wrath? Well, we see that they spent the night together camped out, but they all go on their own separate ways the following morning. Ok, fine, I can deal with that.
We catch up with him in more present times looking ragged and hairy, with a full on beard, wandering on his own, looking defeated and abandoned of any and all hope. That is, until he stumbles across an apartment building, where he spots a little girl looking at him. At first I thought it was a trick of his mind, but after he inspects the apartment he finds that there is indeed a family living there. It consists of sister’s Lily and Tara, Lily’s daughter Megan (the young girl) and Lily’s grandfather, Don. They let him stay the night, fed him, but not without taking precautionary measures, such as asking for his back story and taking his guns. Tara says she’s a cop and threatens to kill him if he thinks about doing anything.
Oddly enough, this Governor that interacts with the Chalmers family is reserved, private, and lost. He’s not the mean spirited, intimidating leader, anymore. Now he just goes by the name Brian. He doesn’t eat the food that Lily gives him, and falls asleep peering over his old family photo. Hell, they show actually had me feeling bad for “Brian”, but then questioning those feelings, as I had to remind myself that he was really The Governor. Right? Well, not really.
Don asks The Governor if he would trek upstairs to find his old neighbors Backgammon set so he could play with Megan. He trusts that The Governor could manage against any walkers, and he’s right. The Governor finds the set, but also the undead-corpse of Don’s friend as well as a gun. It’s not the only favor that gets asked, as in the morning, Lilly asks if we would go and get a few much needed oxygen tanks for the sickly ill ridden Don. The Governor does so, and almost gets eaten along the way. After this, he’s practically welcomed into the family, although its never said out loud.
This becomes concrete when Don dies, forcing The Governor to step in and finish the job when the family gets to close not realizing that he would turn. Prior to that scene, we see a rather touching scene shared between The Governor and Megan. Both get to fill the father/daughter role that each other so clearly desire and lack. When Don dies, The Governor steps in as the only male in this family, which he’s now fully acquired.
This sends them off on a trip using the family’s old company work van. At night The Governor and Lilly hookup, solidifying his new familial role. Unfortunately the truck breaks down in the morning, and forces them to walk by foot. I thought that this would connect the dots to The Governor’s sudden arrival at the prison, but it turns out that they run into a hoard of zombies. We see another touching scene between The Gov/Megan as Megan finally embraces the Governor after being scared of him after he finished off her poor grandfather. During their escape they fall into a pit filled with zombies, ironically one that looks like something he would have built himself. The Governor bravely kills all them off, embracing in a awe-inspired hug with Megan, staying true to the promise that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Then suddenly Martinez, The Governors old friend, peers over the hole, responsible for the hole. They meet again.
Notes:
It almost feels like the writers are hitting the reset button with the character. While I will admit that they did a good job with him in terms of the episode (it all worked), it gets muddied up by the characters past, and is hard to believe that such a brutal character is suddenly this good hearted guy. I guess he may have been like this prior to the zombie world, but still, it just seems off.
What will happen with Martinez? What tell Lilly/Megan/Tara about The Governor? Is Shumpert still with him?
When will all this connect with last week’s episode at the Prison? Will The Governor bring them there?
Tara reminds me a lot of Maggie. I like her quite a bit. Lilly’s romance with The Governor was telegraphed a mile away, but I do like the character. I do like Megan. She teams up well with The Governor, oddly enough.
Credit to David Morrissey for making us feel conflicted about a character we know we hate. Sign of a truly good actor.
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