‘The Walking Dead’ season 3, episode 8 review: Will Michonne get revenge on the Governor?

Things in Woodbury are definitely unraveling quickly on “The Walking Dead”, as Rick and a small group (including Michonne) are on their way to save Maggie and Glenn from the clutches of the Governor, but will their mission be successful?

Glenn and Maggie unsuccessfully try to escape Woodbury and once captured, Merle is ordered to kill them both by the Governor. Maggie is able to kill one of her attackers and Rick’s group shows up to help with the rescue, which is successful. Glenn tells Daryl that his brother Merle is there in Woodbury and he wants to stay and find him.

We learned tonight a lot about the Governor’s past, like that he has a daughter named Penny who was turned into a walker that he keeps locked up in his creepy man cave full of zombie head trophies, but what we really learned was that losing his family and his lost connection with his daughter has really brought out an ugly painful side to him. We love layered characters like the Governor, who aren’t just evil to be evil.

The battle between Michonne and the Governor was pretty epic when she sneaks into his apartment, finds Penny and kills her in front of him. He attacks Michonne (while destroying his creepy man cave and all the walker heads in the process) and she stabs the Governor in the eye. Just as she is about to finish him off Andrea shows up and forces Michonne to leave him alone. Michonne leaves, and the Governor is overwhelmed with grief over losing Penny, but also enraged at Merle for not killing Michonne when he had said he took care of it.

Seeing Daryl and Merle reunited at the end of the episode was wonderful but also tragic since Daryl is a prisoner and Merle is basically a traitor to the Governor in his eyes. This was easily our favorite episode of the season so far, but we are worried for Daryl. Episode grade: A-