‘The Walking Dead’ season 4, episode 8 review: Did the Governor take the prison or die?

For the past few weeks we have been seeing things from the side of that Governor on “The Walking Dead” season 4. He’s got a new make-shift family that includes a little girl named Megan (roughly the age of Penny who he’s adopted as his own) and a new woman that looks a lot like Maggie. When the Governor realizes that the camp they are staying at isn’t safe, he assumes the leadership role (meaning he kills everyone in charge and takes over) and is scoping out the prison as a safe house for his group.

Back to his old tricks, the Governor kidnaps Michonne and Herschel and brings them as prisoners back to his group convincing the group to use them to negotiate for the prison. As usual everyone follows him like sheep to the slaughter.

The Governor shows up to the prison with his group, ready to negotiate with Rick for the prison. He gives them until sundown to get out… Rick tries to reason with him, saying that they have sick children inside, but he’s not budging. Rick also suggests that they should share the prison, that their group could be in another cell block, saying that he knows it’s not going to be easy, but that it’s workable. When the Governor says no, Rick pleads to the rest of the group, telling them to put down their guns and walk through the gates and they will become one of them and they will all work together.

Rick’s speech is compelling and honest, but the Governor doesn’t believe him and kills Herschel in front of everyone including Beth and Maggie. A giant gun fight breaks out and the Governor orders the tank to roll through and take the prison. As the fight gets worse, some of Rick’s group gets on a bus and leaves, but it separates Glenn and Maggie leaving her behind with Rick, Tyreese, Daryl , Beth, Michonne and Carl.

The fist fight between the Governor and Rick was pretty intense and just when we thought the Governor had Rick, Michonne stabs him with her sword and later Lily shoots him in the head.

We lost a lot of people tonight. Not only did we lose the Governor and Herschel, but before the Governor died he lost Megan after she was bitten by a walker. The saddest death was definitely the loss of Rick’s daughter Judith.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for was to see how Daryl reacts to Carol being sent off by Rick. Daryl is not happy about the decision to say the least, but we expected him to take the news way worst then he did and maybe even go after her. We did like that even though Carol isn’t at the prison anymore her influence with the children were still very much present as they grabbed guns and saved lives.

The weirdest thing about this whole episode is that the Governor wants the prison and will take it with a tank, but in doing so he’s destroying the fences that keep the walkers out, blowing holes in the walls and destroying all the resources. In the end, no one got the prison and it’s completely destroyed leaving Rick’s group scattered. Grade: A –

What did you think of the mid season finale of “The Walking Dead” season 4? Were you satisfied with Daryl’s reaction to Carol being kicked from the group? Are you sad to see so many people die? Leave us a comment and tell us what you think is going to happen in the second half of the season when it returns in February.

Photo: AMC