This elongated, two-part season of "The Walking Dead" has seen an incredibly split reaction amongst fans.
There’s no doubting its extraordinary popularity and success, but there have been those who have questioned its lack of action, excitement and tension, especially when compared to the previous two seasons. Still, others have praised the character development (namely, the growing distrust between the show's humans) and the introduction of the loathsome Governor.
Michonne’s personal walkers, or pets, or whatever you want to call them, are the smartest thing anyone’s ever done in the zombie apocalypse thus far. Michonne has cut off their arms and mouths so they cannot bite or scratch. She not only uses them to carry her belongings, but also to conceal her from other, more aggressive walkers (their presence is somewhat of a camouflage). And it just looks bad-ass. Who would want to mess with her? It was a real shame when she was forced to kill them to try and protect herself.
Yeah, I know, I don’t like him either, but the show has needed a character that really gets under your skin since Shane’s timely demise. He's the kind of guy you can't quite make sense of, but just when it looks like he’s about to help a soldier wounded in a crash, he slaughters an entire national guard solely to take their weapons, ammo and supplies. He becomes even more unlikable immediately after, when he’s staring at a shelf full of severed heads he’s collected — yeesh. Needless to say, from this point on, you knew who you were rooting against.
After he FINALLY got some recognition, and FINALLY got some lines in the show, T-Dog was sadly killed off after being bitten by a slew of loose walkers inside the prison. After his initial bite, he soldiers on and sacrifices himself to save Carol from the walkers in a heroic send-off.
Watching the Governor put on a UFC-style spectacle (complete with zombies) in front of a bloodthirsty crowd at Woodbury finally let everyone know just how much power he had over his people. Two fighters would square off, while zombies nipped at their heels and the audience roared. It made us think differently about the people who lived within Woodbury's walls, too. These weren’t just the Governor’s “citizens," these were a loyal army of supporters who would follow him into almost any situation. Even Andrea, who at first was appalled by the spectacle, finally admitted to the Governor that she enjoyed it, making the spell he cast over her complete.
Michonne versus the Governor was a battle for the ages. After sneaking into his bedroom, she not only found the collection of heads sitting in tanks, but she discovered his daughter bound up in chains. His daughter, of course, had been bitten, but he held on to the sad illusion that she was still somehow alive. After Michonne killed his walker daughter, she squared off with the Governor and eventually stabbed him in the eye with a glass shard. And Andrea, after seeing this sad display, began to realize how evil and twisted the Governor really was.
Seeing Daryl leave on his own to stick with his brother was just painful. He was only away from the group for an episode, but it felt like FOREVER. So when his arrow came flying across the scene in the middle of the zombie attack on his old friends, it was enough to make any fan stand up and cheer.
Love in the zombie apocalypse: It’s a tricky thing to come across, but Glenn and Maggie seem to have found it. With permission from Hershel, and with no Kay Jewelers in sight, Glenn procures a ring by finding a married walker and cutting off her finger. He later walks up to Maggie, and without saying a word, he hands her the ring. No getting down on one knee, no full name pronunciation, no nothing. But of course she says yes.
Not only did Merle turn heads by letting Michonne free, he decided to take his new-found sense of pride one step further. After boozing up, he lures a horde of walkers toward a spot where the Governor was supposed to meet Rick and call a truce. He ends up single-handedly killing a sizable chunk of the Governor’s army before the Governor himself feeds Merle to the walkers. And in a tear-jerking moment, Daryl finds Merle fully turned into a walker, and struggles to come to terms with this fact before mercifully ending his brother’s life. At least Daryl can know that Merle died a hero.