The Walking Dead S03E06 Review: Weird-Ass Phone Calls

The Walking Dead, Season 3, Episode 6: Hounded

Okay, this is a bit of a stranger episode that maintains the slower pace of the previous one. This time around, the cast is divided into three major groups -- Rick's group at the prison, the Governor's settlement at Woodbury, plus random people running around the wilds. I honestly thought I missed an episode because this one started with Merle leading a group of people hunting down Michonne, whereas last episode didn't mention anything about the Governor or Merle sending people after Michonne. And anyway, why even bother? It's a bit weird, really. 

It's still the strongest part of the episode, though, aside from the weird jarring-ness of this particular plotline being focused on. We get some katana badassery from Michonne, and after Merle's brief attempts to bond with Garguilo, Merle coldly shoots the kid in the head simply to get home quicker when there's an argument on whether thye should continue to pursue Michonne or just lie to the Governor. Merle's back to his old degree of psychopathy, and it seems the Governor's leash isn't quite as tight as it should be. 

Merle just happens to meet Glenn and Maggie while they're on a supply run, and while the two of them are wise enough not to let their guard down at all and not trust Merle at all, they really should've jumped into the van and driven off. Or shot Merle. Of course, the two of them aren't as cold-blooded as Rick (before his breakdown last episode, anyway) and Merle gets the drop of them, forcing them to drive to Woodbury. That's two people from Rick's settlement that has fallen into the hands of the Governor now, finally getting the two groups in contact. Sort of. Michonne just happens to see all this, and covered with zombie guts and ignored by the horde, she shows up at the prison as the final scene of the episode.

It is a bit of a contrived coincidence for Merle to just happen to meet Glenn and Maggie right at that spot, especially when Merle establishes that he was going to retreat back to Woodbury and not pursue Michonne... but eh, I'll let this one slide. 

The rest of the episode felt... weak and haphazard. There's the pretty good scene of Daryl and Carl bonding over their mother's deaths, with Daryl being respectful while not overtly mushy, and the slight hints that despite the first season portraying Daryl as seemingly being the alpha, scarier sibling, apparently Merle is the dominant one? Bit weird, but okay.

The rest, though... Daryl randomly finding Carol in a closet, huddled and alone, is very anticlimactic, but I guess it's better to have it happen now than, like, at the end of the season? It's a bit strange why they even went with the 'oh no is Carol dead?' subplot, to be honest.

Meanwhile, Andrea is... all over the place. I don't blame her falling in love with the Governor enough to sleep with him, because so far the Governor has honestly been nothing but charming to Andrea. The random revelation that she's apparently into fights, and her getting off on rushing off the walls and stabbing zombies in the face just felt... underwhelming. Andrea is just such an impressionable character that I really don't care all that much. Thing is, she has so little personality of her own beyond being bullheaded and naive, and whether it's Dale, Shane, Michonne or the Governor, she is a character that just kind of is there and latches on to a stronger, more defined character and fawns all over him/her.

Rick, meanwhile, has a very weird phase of grief as the phone that rings last episode... turns out not to be the Governor's people calling him, but rather a hallucination? I'm not sure. It's weird. The first few phone calls seem to be genuine, but on the other hand the Governor seems to be unaware of where Team Rick is settling, and the fact that the caller on the other end of the line seems to know things about Rick might imply it's information from Andrea. But then it morphs into Lori's voice telling Rick to move on, so, um, yeah, Rick's apparently hallucinating. It's a scene that's just bizarre and has so little impact, especially compared to last episode's rage/grief-fueled zombie-stab rampage. Is it supposed to be touching? I feel absolutely nothing at this scene beyond a mild bout of confusion. I dunno. It just doesn't work for me.

So yeah, there are a bunch of very weak plotlines -- Andrea and Rick in particular, just failed to resonate properly, but at least Rick got over his grief and Andrea's fully bought into this Governor nonsense. Some pieces are moved on the board and the two settlements finally come face to face, so at least next episode we'll hopefully have Rick meet the Governor.