The Walking Dead Season 3 Liveblog! Episode 11: I ain't a Judas

Hey there!

We're certain that you, just like us, have been sitting on the edge of your seat since the end of last week's episode! It was a real nail biter, no? I mean, seriously... Who is it that's telling somebody else (in very poor grammar) that they're not a judas? Who, really, who? I mean, it could be Daryl, but we know that Reedus is a Judas, right?

i mean, unless the writers are willing to ignore such obvious things.

so we guess it could be Merle, right?

He's not going to betray anyone, right?

And he can't really do no talking not so good, huh?

Meh, just 'cause, here's Daryl again, before Z-Day.

life's easier now, huntin' squirrels.

Anywho, it seems like we're on the verge of a whole lot of messiness going down in these next few episodes, and it's a safe bet it starts picking up here, no? There are only five episodes left after all. 

Lots of questions to be answered (as per usual) in Georgia tonight.

Will Rick and the Prison Gang retaliate to the Governor's attack?

How will Andrea cope with the knowledge that her friends are alive, and were attacked?

Is Merle going to be able to adapt to life in prison? (heh, see what I did there?)

this guy clearly never saw any of the Evil Dead films OR Planet Terror

- excellent examples of coping with your new body during the zombpacalypse...

...or wait. maybe he's just confused, 'cause he has all those bad-ass stabby attachments

And seriously! Just who in the world isn't a judas, anyway?

We NEED to know.

8:15 - not sure if you guys are into this sort of stuff, but you're early, so what they hey.

we're doing an Oscars liveblog sort of, around our usual Walking Dead business. Feel free to check it out if you're interested. It's good fun!

8:30 - don't worry now, we understand the whole oscars thing is off-putting when you're watching biters get mashed. our focus will be here as much as possible. i mean, we've had some to drink, but that doesn't usually stop us. you better make sure you're stocked up though - today's episode is brought to you by james ready, mill st belgian witt and mad tom by muskoka brewery.

8:45 - hot damn, we're excited. we're told there's a special guest on The Talking Dead this week. Usually that means someone's dead.

8:55 - holee! yay. so soon. now.

9:00 - so, a lot of stuff has happened to bring us to this point.


whelp, the gang is discussing leaving versus staying.

merle tries to scare them off attacking the governor.

"that truck through the fence thing? that's him ringing the door bell."

merle paints a pretty dirty picture of what could happen.

they want to lock him up, but daryl doesn't want that.

9:01 - "we can't just sit here," hershel says. rick takes off.

"get back here!" hershel screams.

"you've been slipping, we've all seen that...you said this wasn't a democracy any more, so live up to that. i trusted my family to you. get your stuff together."

wow, hershel! nice.

9:02 - rick's outside, a bunch of walkers on the fences.
ever notice they all sound the same.

rick seems to be scouting the perimeter, searching for signs of others.
he sees something on the edge of the brush.

carl joins him.

"you shouldn't be out here," rick says.

carl takes his hat off.

"i'm a good shot."

"yes you are."

"hey dad, if i say something, will you promise not to get mad?"

carl goes on. "you should stop. stop being the leader. let hershel and daryl handle things. you need a rest."

mmm, and here comes that theme song.

wow, your boy is "manning up" more than you now, rick. given the conventions of masculinity in this show, that must peeve you. lori would be proud.

commercial

9:07 - back at Woodbury, the Governor and Milton are going over numbers of their population, trying to make an army it seems.

"maybe we include men and women ages thirteen and up," the governor says.
"you mean teenagers?"
"adolescents. a 21st century invention."

shit, andrea busts in, angry about the attack at the prison. Governor claims he went to negotiate.
She calls out Milton for knowing about it beforehand.
The Governor tells her not to drag him into it.

"I'm sick of this. Sick of the lies, and I'm not going to watch my friends and this town shoot each other down."

Andrea wants to go talk to the Prison.
The Governor wants to build an army.

He says the roads are blocked and they barely made it back themselves.

Andrea goes to leave and he calls her back.

"Andrea: you go that that prison, you stay there."

9:10 - People are catching wind of the Governor's army, and asking Andrea to intervene. Fuck.

9:11 - Back at the Prison, they're discussing fixing their fence.
Michonne talked!!!
we're so excited, we missed the actual line.

man, FUCK!

(link)

Rick's group seems in dire straights. They're held up, they're low on supplies, and half of the group is pissed that Merle is there.

"seriously Rick, I don't think Merle living here is going to fly," Glenn says. Then he goes on about never asking Rick to live with Shane.  Glenn wants to trade Merle to the Gov.

9:12 - Hershel and Merle have a moment as amputees.

Hershel is a boss.

Merle asks Hershel how he lost it.

"I got bit."
"And you chopped it off yourself?"
"No, Rick did."

They go on to argue about whether or not Rick is a good guy before Hershel pulls a bible on Merle. They share some psalms. Merle knows the goodbook.

Blegh, screw the bible, guys.

Merle goes on the explain the order in which the Governor will murder people, and how evil he is

9:14 - then we cut back to the Governor and his draft.
Andrea stands in the background like a pinup model on an urban fantasy book cover as the Gov surveys his troups.
He turns away an elderly woman but takes a young asthmatic.

9:15 - Carol thanks Daryl for coming back to the prison.

"For what, coming back to all this?"
"This is our home."
"This is a tomb, " he replies.

Carol tells Merle to not let Daryl bring him down.

Hey, how does Daryln maintain that beard?

aww, there's a cute laugh and the scene breaks.

9:16 - back at Woodbury's walls, Andrea is quite attractive and Milton tells her the wall is safe.

"I'm going to ask you something, and I need you to be honest," she says. "The fight at the prison, you didn't know about it?"

"I would never advocate a move like that, it's just posturing."
Andrea!!  That is not a no.  Weren't you supposed to be a lawyer?  Seriously.

Andrea asks him to cover for her while she visits the Prison as a result.
She pleads with Milton to realize the error of Woodbury's Child-Soldier ways.

Milton needs to realize Andrea wants to mediate.

9:17 - nice, fun scenes with the Gov and that eye. He really ain't keeping that so clean.

Oh, man. Milton's here. He's here to narc on her.

"She's going back to the prison and is requesting my assistance in doing so, her words, not mine."

"Help her."

"Do you really want to help her, or is this a test?" man, Govs is scary.

"She asked for help, help her." wow.

scary. then we go to commercialz.

9:23 - we're back with a walker strolling through the field.

andrea is heading to the prison with help from milton, who is like a weak-ass blue ranger.

anyway, andrea hacks the arm off?

i think she's creating her own pets, ala michonne? nice nice.
it's nasty and brutal. this show's pretty awesome.

oh fuck, she's curb stomping it.  on a skull.  that's fucking rough.

another phil dunphy looking motherfucker shows up and she axes it.

a loose walker seems to be on them just as she's claiming her pet, but tyrese et al show up and lend some helping hands.

9:25 - Michonne is doing hardcore sit-ups in the prison.
Carol is watching?
Merle goes to make peace.

"smart to stay fit. keep up the cardio."

he says trying to kill her was just business.

"i done a lot of things i ain't proud of, before and after... anyway, i hope we can get past it. let bygones be bygones."

she doesn't look like she's biting.

9:26 - tyrese's crew is pretty weirded out by andrea's tactic.
they tell tyrese's group about woodbury.
Milton offers to take them back, and Andrea carries on on her own.

These poor people.

Tyrese offers help for her, but she's got her guardian angel and is okay.

commercial time.

9:31 - shit. Andrea is approaching the Prison. Carl might see her.

Nice shots.

He alerts hot shot Maggie to take a look through her rifle.
Shit, Maggie recognizes Andrea. She tells Carl to get the others.

9:32 - great scene of Andrea rocking through the courtyard with her pet.

Rick and his group run to the fence, armed to the teeth. everybody's on high alert for Andrea.

"ARE YOU ALONE?!" Rick screams at her.

9:33 - they open the gates and Rick cop frisks her, cause he's good like that.
A walker almost gets her through the fence.

RIck gets her down on the ground in front of everyone.

"I asked if you were alone," Rick says.

Then there's a bunch of awkwardness before Rick barks "welcome back," and tells her to get up.

9:34 - inside Carol acts as though she's seen a ghost. nice. a proper reaction.

"we thought you were dead."

Andrea reacts to seeing everyone.

"Hershel, what happened."

she looks around.

"Where's Shane?" nobody responds.
"Where's Lori."
"She had a girl, she didn't survive," says Hershel.
"Neither did T-Dog," Carol says.

Andrea doesn't know who to comfort.

"You all live here?"
"There in the cell block," Glen says.

9:35 - We play some he-said she-said between the Governor and Rick, about who shot first.
Glen's pretty angry about what happens.

Andrea's angry at Michonne now.

"What have you told them?" she asks

Fuck, she refers to the Governor as Phillip.

"we have to work this out," she says.
"There's nothing to work out," Rick says, "we're going to kill him."

Andrea says there's room at Woodbury for everyone.

"You know better than that," Merle says.

Andrea breaks down and explains that she came to tell them The Governor is gearing up for war. Daryl says he's taking his other eye. Glenn says they're ready for war. The Prison is angry and ready.

"You want to make this right," Rick says, "get us inside"

"No, there are innocent people," Andrea retorts.

Yeah, and these people in the Prison are criminals, right?

heh.

commercial.

drink.

9:41 - Andrea and Michonne have a nice chat upon their reunion.
Andrea claims the gov ain't so evil and that Michonne is wacked.

"You chose a warm bed over a friend."

Michonne tells Andrea that the Governor sent Merle after her, and would have sent Merle after Andrea if she followed along. Michonne says that's why she went back: to expose the Governor for what he really is.

9:43 - oh, man. Tyrese's group is at Woodbury.
They're skirting the issue of the prison group, and how they're dangerous.

Gov obviously paints the Prison crew as evil.

"When you leave, don't go north, go west."

"We just came from there, met some whackjob in a prison."

Oh, the Governor perks up at the mention of all of that.
Wow, Tyrese's group pledges allegiance to Woodbury in all of this.

"Whatever we gotta do to earn our keep," Tyrese says.

Milton goes on trying to get a layout of the Prison.
Oh, this probably isn't good for Rick et al.

9:45 - back at the Prison, Andrea meets L'il Asskicker.

"Let me guess, Daryl named her Asskicker."
"That's not her real name. It's Judith," Carol tells her.

Andrea asks about what happened to Lori, she explains the C-Section gone awry.
Andrea then asks about Shane and Carol explains that to her too.

"Rick's become cold, and unsteady," Andrea says.
"He has his reasons," Carol says.

Then she suggests that Andrea fucks the Governors brains out and then kill him. Or at least let the Prison Gang do it. Whoa.

9:47 - Rick offers up a car to Andrea, who is apparently headed back to Woodbury?
Yeaaah, that's a great fucking idea.

"Can you spare it," she questions.

"Yeah." Rick says.

"Well then, take care."

Rick stops her before she goes and gives her a gun.
That's kind of sweet, but why the fuck are they sending her off?
Is this exile or infiltration?

9:48 - Merle opens up the gate for her and she drives off into the wilderness, Walkers lagging behind.
Finally a dirty car.

Nice shot here. Quite cinematic.

commercials. drink.

9:53 - back at the walls of Woodbury, a car approaches.  It's Andrea, obviously.
They tell her to get out of the car with her hands up.
This is obviously going to play out well.

9:53 - okay, sure. we cut to her in the Governor's suite, him listening to a cool-ass retro tape deck.

"I went to the Prison," she tells him. "They're broken. Living in terrible conditions."

"Is Michonne there? Merle?" he drinks. "What about Rick? He send you back there?"

The Governor is a real prick, eh? and this is creepy.

"No, that was my call," she tells him.

"Why?" he asks.

then he takes a swig and gets up, wiping the tear off her cheek.

"Because you belong here," he says.

Then they start making out, 'cause that's...awesome.
Is this what Carol advised?

9:55 - back at the Prison, it's night time. People sit around silently and Rick walks around with little Judith. Then Beth starts singing, and I guess it's time for another one of those heart-warming "everybody sing!" scenes that walking dead has once a season. except, it's happened this season.

oh well, beth can sing pretty well.

9:57 - the group's elders discuss the dangers of Andrea.
Rick says he's going on a run tomorrow.
Daryl offers to come with him, but Rick tells him to stay back and watch a Merle.

"I'm really glad you're back, but if he causes a problem, it's on you."

Rick says he'll take Michonne.
Whoa, speaking lines and actual responsibilities? It's almost like Michonne is a useful member of the team.
(and a fan favourite from the comics?)

These dudes talk shop a little more. Carl's outside by himself, evidently, watching the walkers. Carl is awesome.  though i still find it weird how he's given so much responsibility compared to some of the adults.

Then we get some dude singing the song that Beth was singing, and a montage of the two camps.
Andrea's clearly just having "ummed" the governor.

(link)

Man, this half Leonard Cohen, half Bob Dylan dude is weak. What a crappy song to use for an outro. I'm quite disliking the concept of so much source music in the show - please, you have bear mcreary - just let the dude write music for you.

Oh shit, naked-Andrea goes for a knife and goes at sleeping Gov at the end here.
It turns out she can't do it though, and after standing over the Governor for a little bit she walks to a window and the episode ends. Nice.

10:00 - well, I guess they have, in their way, continued moving the plot along ever so slowly. Continuing to have different groups of people meet up slowly is pretty awesome, and the various issues of infighting are pretty neat, but this one felt like it could have moved a little more quickly, and maybe cleanly, 'cause it had some iffy bits. also, it's pretty frustrating the the writers have literally zero idea of what to do with Andrea, and basically have her chasing dudes during the entire zombpacalypse. Smooth. Between Lori and Andrea, it's pretty obvious someone on the writing staff isn't a big fan of the "women folk."

10:11 - hey, we hope you're enjoying the talking dead, but if you're so inclined, we've returned to our Oscars liveblog, which you may enjoy too, y'know?