All good things must come to an end. Especially when it involves an intrinsically evil character such as The Governor pretending to be good. Last week’s episode “Live Bait” deserves credit for actually making me consider if The Governor (or now shall we say, Brian), could actually stay the changed man that we saw in the last episode.
“Dead Weight” begins with The Governor playing a game of chess with Meghan. He tells her that you can’t think forever, because sooner or later you have to make a move. This could have been the motto for the episode as there are many moves to be made.
The Governor tells her about his tough daddy, who used to beat him when he was a kid. Meghan contemplates if they’re good as people, and we see some hesitation from The Governor who seems to come to terms with who he really is. In between this interesting conversation they show Martinez’s reaction to finding The Governor in his trap from the previous episode. Martinez is now in charge of this new camp, and they receive some opposition. Martinez doesn’t want any dead weight. “Contribute or be cast out. Can you live with that…Brian?” Martinez asks. Oh, how the tables have turned.
The Governor, now a member of their group, accompanies Martinez and on a supply run along with two brothers from Martinez’s camp, Mitch & Pete. They find a cabin, but also find a bunch of dismembered bodies with signs on them such as “liar” or “murderer.” Spooky stuff. When they get into the cabin they find various walkers as well as the dismembered heads. The other survivors have a few close calls, but The Governor is there to save the day. Once things settle down they have a chat around the fire. Martinez admits if The Governor wasn’t with the people he was with, he would have left him in the pit. But he also notices how he seems different now. They find some beer and talk about their past. Both Mitch & Pete were in the army. The Governor is the only one to hold back from sharing information. He cuts off Martinez when Martinez almost brings up what he was like back in the day.
Back at the camp everyone seems to be settling in. While hanging out, Lily tells Martinez that being at the camp is “the first time I’ve felt safe since all of this started.” This didn’t please The Governor at all. What also didn’t please him was Martinez hitting golf balls on top of a RV, asking The Governor to hold his booze and pass him some balls. Martinez remarks how family changed him, and he couldn’t imagine having a family to tend to with all that’s happening again, worried about losing them. “I couldn’t sleep at night knowing I was going to lose them.” The Governor doesn’t like this, and then worries that Martinez won’t be able to keep them all safe. Martinez is happy The Governor is back, telling him “Maybe we can share the crown.” This was all The Governor needed to hear, as he whacks Martinez over the head with a golf club and feeds him to the zombie pit while shouting “I don’t want to die.” I’m sure Martinez felt the same way, dude. The old Brian is long gone. The Governor is back. This disappointed me quite a bit to see, but no surprise really. But credit to David Morrissey for making us actually believe there was some hope to be found within this character.
Lily and Meghan come back to the RV to find a shaken up Governor saying he had a bad dream. For a second I wondered if what we saw was just his dream, but the next scene threw that theory away immediately. They found Martinez’s remains in the pit, and think he fell in drunk. Pete then puts himself in charge. On a supply hunt with Pete and Mitch, Pete admits to The Governor that he may need help leading. Mitch finds another camp and wants to take the supplies from the camp by robbing them, but Pete can’t do it. You can tell The Governor agreed with Mitch, but Pete has them move along. When they return back, they find the camp robbed and their people killed. They Governor realizes that they clearly missed an opportunity here, something he would have done much different back in the day. This sends him back to the trailer, seeing the flaws in the camp and urging Lily, Meghan, Tara, and Alisha to leave with him. Only when they try to leave they come up to a muddy road block full of trapped zombies. Back to the drawing board.
“What are you doing”? Lily asks The Governor as he goes out to take care of some early morning business. “Surviving,” he responds. The Governor goes to Pete’s RV to talk to him about the previous day, but really is just there to kill him once his back is turned (how he killed Martinez as well). He goes to Mitch’s RV to have the same chat (but Mitch never turns his back on him), but gives Mitch a chance to go along with The Governor. He agreed with Mitch that they should have taken over the camp, and wants to keep him along when he’s ruling. He convinces Mitch, who seems surprisingly calm and collected about the death of his brother Pete and how to lie about it to the people. The Governor does sell him pretty well (“We will do the only thing”), but still.
They tell everyone Pete died on a supply run. The Governor is now full on leader, with Mitch as his new Martinez (ala Woodbury). In a late night chat with Lily, The Governor tells her maybe we can find a better place, “if we’re willing to fight for it.” This is home Lily says, but lets be real, The Governor has had the prison on his mind all along. Meanwhile Tara and Meghan play a game of tag, only to have Meghan almost get attacked by a walker. It was a close call, but of course The Governor was there to save the day. We see The Governor go off to where he dropped Pete’s dead body, only to see zombie Pete in the water, horrifically put there by The Governor. He then drives to the prison, stares off at Rick and Carl, and then finds Michonne and Hershel hanging outside. He takes out his gun, and points it at them. End scene.
For the first time this season, I can’t wait to see what happens next week. It’s the midseason finale. so hopefully things will go down. It looks like the show is making up for the disappointing “attack” on the prison last season, as this seems like version 2.0 of that. They’re promising a few significant deaths this time around, and for some reason I actually believe it this time.
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