The Walking Dead: Live Bait (4x06)

This is an extended flashback episode that deals with the character of the Governor. I've gotta be honest, I liked the Governor okay as a villain, and as a complex villain at that. But since I was waiting to see what would happen next at the prison, I'll admit that this episode was a bit of a letdown for me. Let's take a look at the plot.

The Governor has fled, along with two of his men, after his slaughter of the people from Woodbury. Martinez and Shumpert, the two men, eventually abandon him and leave him to fend for himself. He goes back to Woodbury and burns it, and then just wanders around aimlessly for a considerable amount of time. Eventually, he catches a glimpse of a little girl in a window. When he goes inside the building, he meets a family. Two sisters, Lilly and Tara, live there, along with their father David and Lilly's daughter Meghan.

Although Tara is wary of the Governor, the family does allow him to stay in the building. While there, at first he is extremely reticent and says he's staying just for the night. However, he does eventually spend a bit of time with the family. He tells them that his name is Brian, and he agrees to go upstairs to another apartment to get a game of backgammon for David and Meghan to play with. He manages to retrieve the game, although he finds a Walker inside the apartment. "Brian" makes to leave, but Lilly asks him for a big favor. David, the sisters' father, is dying of cancer, and he depends on oxygen tanks to live. They are running out of tanks, and Lilly asks the Governor to go to a nearby old folks home to see if he can get some more. The Governor does so, and although he is attacked by Walkers, he does manage to get two oxygen tanks back to the family. Meghan and the Governor then begin to form a bond, as she questions him about his eye patch, and he begins to teach her how to play chess. Then, Lilly comes in with bad news: David has died. David reanimates and nearly bites Tara, but the Governor manages to stop him and save her. 

The Governor then decides to leave, but Lilly says that whether he likes it or not, he's become a part of their family, and they want to come with him. The whole group leaves, taking a delivery truck as their means of transport. Lilly and the Governor have sex, which solidifies his connection to the group even more. When the truck breaks down, they go on foot, but things start to go very wrong. First, Tara hurts her leg. Then a group of Walkers shows up, forcing them to flee. Meghan gets scared and freezes, but the Governor convinces her to run to him, and he carries her away. However, the two of them fall into a ditch, where three Walkers are also trapped. As Meghan cowers in the corner, the Governor kills the walkers with his bare hands. Gunfire is heard outside of the pit, when suddenly Martinez appears. The Governor holds Meghan, promising to keep her safe.

Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I'm not all that interested in the Governor as a protagonist type character. He was interesting as an obstacle for our heroes, but I don't find him compelling in this situation. And I have some other problems with this episode as well. First of all, logistically the actions of these people make no sense. When "Brian" shows up, the family is initially skeptical, but then they warm up to him. Okay, I guess I can see that. But then, when he leaves, they want to come with him. Why?! They have an amazing setup. Security, tons of food, and actually a few things for entertainment. Even if the family was still hopeful enough to wish for something better, surely the Governor could have told them how bad it was out there? Then, they take a moving van, ostensibly with plenty of the family's supplies, but when it breaks down they just ditch most of the stuff and go walking to the middle of nowhere. Why on earth?! I guess I just got really caught up in the stupidity of their plans.

Also, I think the relationship between Meghan and the Governor was really forced. It's obvious that he's using this girl to replace his daughter, but it's unclear why she is latching on to this weird man so much. Possibly he's meant to replace her father, but he seems unsettling to be around, especially for a young, scared child. For that matter, Lilly and the Governor having sex is a bit out of the blue as well. He doesn't do anything in the first half of the episode that justifies the family's connection to him in the second. Yes, he helps them out in several ways, which certainly explains their gratitude. But it doesn't explain their new found familial loyalty to a man they've only just met.

But it wasn't all bad - the scene with the Governor killing the three Walkers with just his bare hands was really gruesome, but in a good way. It showed this character in an animalistic light, which I think it's important to reinforce. Also, I do like the characters of the two sisters. Tara pretends to be tough-as-nails, but really she's just as scared as anyone else. Lilly is practical but deeply protective of her family. The setup with this family being isolated from the Walkers reminds me a lot of what it was like when our heroes first found the Greene farm, and how idealistic Hershel and his family were. Since I liked that plot before, I'm okay with seeing another version of it played out here.

I guess ultimately this episode came at a time where I was really looking forward to learning more about the prison. I was wanting to see Rick tell Daryl about Carol. I was wanting to learn more about the little girl Lizzie, check in with Glenn after his near-death, see how the group plans to reinforce the newly collapsed fence, and more. All of these questions are much more important to me than anything the Governor has been up to. This episode's job was to make me feel something for a character that's not normally the focus of this show. Although there were some strong moments in the story, I think ultimately it failed in its main objective.

5/10