Walk With Me
- Andrea and Michonne are welcomed into the peaceful town of Woodbury by the charismatic Governor, but is all as it seems?
Several soldiers aboard a National Guard helicopter are flying over a forest. Suddenly, their engine fails and the aircraft spins out of control before crashing in a forest. Watching this from a distance, Andrea and Michonne see the crash and head towards it.
As they near the crash site, Michonne ties her pet walkers to a tree and tells Andrea to wait while she investigates. Before she gets far, she hears vehicles approaching and returns to hide. The vehicles arrive at the site and several armed men exit. They rescue the pilot and quietly kill the two soldiers who died in the crash and have turned. Michonne's pet walkers begin grunting and straining at their collars. Michonne quickly silences her walkers by beheading them, but their hiding place has been compromised and she and Andrea are soon discovered - by Merle Dixon, who is now sporting a bayonet where his hand used to be.
Andrea passes out in shock, and drifts in and out of consciousness in the back of a car. The car passes through a fortified gate and Andrea finds herself in a lit room receiving medical attention from a woman wearing scrubs while Michonne watches. Merle enters the room and tells them about how he survived the events in Atlanta, and asks if Andrea has seen his brother. Andrea says that Daryl was still alive when she last saw him months ago.
When the group's leader arrives, his men address him as Governor. Michonne asks to have her weapons back, but The Governor insists that he will return their weapons if they choose to leave. The Governor brings both of them outside and shows them where they are - Woodbury, a fortified community.
Michonne and Andrea are shown to a room and given clean clothes. Despite the apparent safety of the surroundings, Michonne is highly skeptical of The Governor. The next day, the two are given a tour of the town by Rowan, one of the residents. Meanwhile, The Governor visits the injured helicopter pilot and asks for the location of the other army personnel so he can send a rescue team.
Afterwards, The Governor visits the lab of his top science adviser, Milton, who is arguing with Merle. The Governor tells Merle to find out more information about Andrea. Milton speculates that Michonne's mutilated walkers may have acted as a repellent for other walkers.
The next day, The Governor and Milton invite Andrea and Michonne to breakfast. Michonne is still skeptical of The Governor's intentions and demands her weapons be returned, but The Governor urges them to rest a while longer. After breakfast, Michonne tells Andrea that she doesn't trust The Governor, but Andrea wants to stay in Woodbury longer.
Elsewhere, a convoy of National Guard personnel are checking their coordinates when The Governor drives up alone, waiving a white flag. He gets out and tells the squad leader that he found their helicopter pilot and offers to escort the rest of the convoy to his fortified community. Suddenly, the Woodbury men pop out from hiding places and gun down the soldiers. When The Governor and his men return to base with the military supplies and equipment, they give the townspeople a story about the convoy being overrun by "biters". Andrea asks The Governor for his name, and he replies that he'll never tell.
Later that night, The Governor sits in his apartment and sips brandy while Rowan sleeps in his bed. He enters a private room and sits on a chair, staring at an aquarium full of decapitated zombie heads, including Michonne's pet walkers and the now-deceased helicopter pilot...
Tropes:
- The Bus Came Back: The episode marks the official return of Merle Dixon.
- Call-Back: Merle asks for a "show of hands" from Michonne and Andrea, much like his initial appearance in "Guts".
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Merle, in his first conversation with Andrea and Michonne, nonchalantly dispatches a walker that was shambling toward him.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Michonne.
- Continuity Nod: The infirmary scene with Michonne and Andrea has the latter recite a list of everyone who had died in the series to date (sans Shane, whose death Andrea was not aware of) for Merle's benefit, while Merle himself expresses sympathy about Amy's death.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Andrea, Michonne and Woodburry as a whole.
- Every Helicopter Is a Huey: The National Guard helicopter.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Governor.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Andrea and Michonne confront Merle about him confronting them with a gun, he replies that that's just normal, and that it's the unarmed man who should terrify you. ... In walks the Governor.
- Upon watching The Governor and his men in action for the first time, Andrea is immediately ready to show themselves, foreshadowing her being a Horrible Judge of Character in trusting The Governor.
- Insistent Terminology: The Governor and the rest of Woodbury refer to the undead as "biters".
- Internal Reveal: Andrea and Michonne learn that everyone is infected.
- I Surrender, Suckers: The Governor does this while "surrendering" to the National Guard, giving his men the opportunity to pop out of the forest and gun the soldiers down.
- Mercy Kill: The Governor dispatches of the two dead soldiers at the crash site in this fashion, as he explains later to Andrea.
- No Social Skills: Milton displays his here for the first time, first casually insulting Merle (intentionally) and pushing Michonne about the identity of her Human Pack Mules.
- Perpetual-Motion Monster: Discussed. The first scene with Milton and his research establishes that walkers can starve, but at a much slower rate than normal humans.
- Pet the Dog: Merle expresses his condolences over Amy's death, remarking that she was a good kid.
- Room Full of Crazy: The Governor's study has a nice, comfy, overstuffed armchair that lets him leisurely study fish tanks full of severed walker heads. Creepy as fuck.
- Spoiler Opening: The opening credits and "Previously on…" segment spoils the fact that Merle is returning to the narrative, despite his appearance in the episode itself supposedly being a surprise.
- Sword and Gun: Merle when he meets Andrea and Michonne.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Andrea when she sees the crashed helicopter.
