The Walking Dead: Say the Word Review

How does one characterize Rick Grimes? Well...

Spoilers.

So, after some major death and what-not last week, you'd think this'd be a repeat of the one from last season after Dale died, right? Wrong. At the end of last episode, Rick appeared to be losing his mind. And is he? Oh yeah, totally. The man is storming through the prison, ganking walkers and performing c-sections on their deader bodies. He only says one word the whole episode, and it's at the very end. Beyond that, its just grunts and screams. Andrew Lincoln just does such a great job with this character, that, only did I by that Rick was going crazy, I was disturbed. I was actually a little bit frightened by what I was seeing, and that speaks volumes about the actor and the script. As for the one word he said at the end, we'll get to that in a bit. By which I mean right now. His answering the ringing phone and uttering hello was certainly a good cliffhanger, one I can't wait until next to see resolved.

One of the main points of the episode was Woodbury, where you see the Governor's previously mentioned daughter. And she's a walker. And the Gov' was combing her hair and then put a bag over her head so she wouldn't bit him. Holy crap. And I reiterate, this episode was a bit on the disturbing side. As has been previously, Michonne doesn't trust the Gov' , as is demonstrated by her breaking into his house, stealing her sword and chopping up some zombies he's keeping in a cage. Say what you will about Danai Guirrera and her overacting, in this episode, or at least this scene, it works, because seeing her waste about ten zombies in under two minutes all samurai style was beyond badass.

As has also been previously established, Michonne and Andrea have been arguing about whether or not to stay. You want to think Andrea's right about Michonne just being paranoid, but Michonne's right, so I personally wanted to scream at my TV and tell them to get the hell out before they get their heads stuffed in jars (something occurred to me: if those heads got out of the jars, they'd be zombie heads and, you know, writhe around on the floor biting. Here's hoping for that by the end of the season). Michonne does, Andrea doesn't. Hopefully, Michonne will find our heroes at the prison and that'll lead to all sorts of interesting stuff. Andrea's staying leads to us seeing that Woodbury basically does gladiator fights in wrings of walkers. Yeah. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but I realized A., it's disturbing (their's that word again), and B., it shows just how much of a control freak the Gov' is, tricking people into thinking walkers aren't dangerous to maintain power.

Back at the prison, the main focus is on the newly dead and the newly born. They still haven't decided on a name for Carl's little sister, though Daryl's suggestion of "little ass-kicker" (for some reason reminded me of turnip-head) seemed to go over well. In the end, they'll probably decide on Lori, though. Just being realistic. There was a focus on Daryl and Maggie having to go get formula from a nearby town, but I couldn't help notice the plot-hole of "why couldn't they just have one of the girls breast feed it?" Just can't shake the feeling they did that to kill time. The scenes of Glen digging the graves were nice, and you find out he knew T-Dog before the outbreak (T-Dog's getting more interesting now that he's dead. Speaks volumes). It was all very sad and such, but you can also tell just how hardened the group has gotten due to the lack of tears being shed. Still no sign of Carol. Hopefully they'll bring her back with Morgan (they need to bring him back!).

Best developed character so far besides Rick? Daryl. The guy is the man, immediately stepping up to help, and he makes ponchos look cool. Who'd have thought that was possible?! Leaving a flower on Carol's grave shows just how complex the character is.

Overall, great episode, not as good as last week, but last week was the best episode of the whole series thus far, so that shouldn't be too big of a complaint.

Final Rating: 87%