The Walking Dead: "Made to Suffer" Review

The Walking Dead

Channel: AMC

Day and Time: Sundays at 9/8 CST

Release Date:

Buy Links:

Amazon

TV Show Description:

Police officer Rick Grimes leads a group of survivors in a world overrun by zombies.

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12/2/2012 "Made to Suffer"

Review by Angela D. Williams

A walker is making her way through the woods, toward the sound of screaming. Suddenly a man jumps out and kills her, and another walker, with a pick axe. He runs into a woman carrying a shovel, and they know each other. There are other people not far away, fighting more walkers. They run from the walkers, and one of them is bitten, but they all keep going. They make their way out of the woods and outside a partially downed fence. They argue about what to do about the woman who was bitten, and reluctantly take her inside with them. They make their way inside and the camera pans out to reveal that it is the back entrance of the prison.

Andrea is at a vanity, and she sees a picture of the Governor with his wife and daughter. She studies it for a moment, then sets it down as he approaches. She tells him that the people in the town aren't just there for protection, but they're there to help one another in general.

The Governor is in his secret room with the floating heads, and there's a secret door where he has Penny locked up, chained in, and head covered with a pillowcase. He is playing a song for her. She comes at him, growling. He pulls the pillowcase off and pulls her closer, singing to her along with the music as she growls at him. She seems to calm a little at the song, but is still feral. She starts getting angry again, and he puts the pillowcase back on her head and locks her away.

Cut to Maggie and Glenn. She is wearing his shirt, and he is half-naked now. Glenn asks her if the Governor raped her (without actually asking) and she quickly tells him no. "All the time, running from walkers, we forget what people do. What they've always done. Look at what they did to you." They hug. Glenn moves over to the walker he killed and yanks off his arm, breaking it and digging out the bone (as I try hard not to vomit). He hands it to Maggie silently.

Outside Woodbury, Rick and the others sit waiting and observing the entrance to the town. Michonne vanishes into the forest, returning a moment later, and pointing in another direction.

Merle and the Governor talk about the possibility of taking over a prison, and the Governor says they won't move Woodbury there, they'll use Daryl to spy on the others, kill them, and let the "pirates" take over the prison. Governor tells Merle to take Maggie and Glenn to the "screamer pits."

Michonne leads the group into the building where the Governor questioned her. Rick and Daryl are clearly annoyed that they haven't found Glenn and Maggie yet. Rick tells the others that if things head south, they are cutting Michonne loose. A guard shows up, and Rick holds a gun on him, demanding to know where his people are." He stuffs his mouth with a cloth and Daryl knocks him unconscious.

Back at the prison, Beth is holding baby Judith while Carl watches. Axel is asking if she has younger sisters, and then asks how old she is. Beth tells him she's seventeen and he smiles and says that's interesting. Carol interrupts and pulls Axel outside and tells him to stay away from Beth. He says it's not like that, that he's been locked up a long time, and there haven't really been any women around. He says that Maggie is with Glenn and she (Carol) is a lesbian. She stares at him dubiously and tells him that she's not a lesbian. Then he grins at her and says, "That's interesting." She smirks and tells him no, it isn't, and walks away.

Maggie and Glenn attack Merle and the others when they show up to take the pair to the "screamer pits."  Glenn and Merle struggle, Glenn at the point of Merle's knife-hand. Maggie pulls a gun on him and Merle lets go of Glenn, just as more guards interrupt, holding their guns on her.

Rick and the others make their way through the building, keeping out of sight when other guards pop up. The guards put bags over Maggie and Glenn's heads and make them walk out. Daryl and Rick throw smoke bombs at the group and Rick and the others rescue Maggie and Glenn as the guards try to recover from the smoke.

A woman is yelling for help, and the Governor and Andrea make their way over to her and another guard, along with a lot of other towns people. The Governor tells the townspeople to go home and lock their doors.

Rick gets them into a house. Glenn tells Daryl that Merle was one of the ones who tortured him.  Glenn tells Rick he's sorry, but they gave up the prison location.  Daryl reluctantly agrees he's still with Rick. Daryl says he needs to see his brother, and Rick says they need to get out.

The Governor, Merle, Andrea, Milton and several guards decide to start patrols. Merle says they killed "Warren" with a bone to the throat. Andrea argues that she has plenty of experience, but the Governor insists she go door to door to check on the people. She reluctantly agrees.

Michonne has snuck back into the Governor's house, and she sits down, sword in hand, obviously waiting for the Governor to return.

On the count of three, Daryl rolls two smoke bombs out onto the streets and the group begins running and shooting  at the guards, and the guards begin shooting back, as does Andrea. It is a firefight in the dark and a lot of rounds are fired. The Governor tells Andrea to get off the streets.

Daryl says he's going to lay down some cover fire, and Maggie says they need to stay together, but he tells her things are too hairy. He throws another smoke bomb and the group scatters into the street.

Rick has a hallucination that Shane is walking toward him with a shotgun. He shoots and kills the man, seeing that he is just another guard after moving to the fallen man's side. Maggie is screaming for Rick; Oscar has been shot. He is dying. Maggie shoots him to keep him from turning. Everyone but Daryl has made it to the buses where the escape route is.

Back at the prison, all is quiet except the chirping of crickets. Hershel tells Beth and Carl he finally got Judith to sleep, and that they have enough formula to get through the month. Carl tells them he will take Carol to get more at the end of the week, but Beth says his dad and the others will be back by then. He tells her they don't know that. There is screaming from somewhere inside the prison. Carl insists, to Hershel's dismay, that his father would check it out, and so he goes off to do just that. He sees the room where his mom died and is momentarily distracted. Then he finds the people from the beginning of the episode, fighting off walkers. Carl shoots one of the walkers, and then tells them to hurry. The woman who was bitten can no longer walk, and Carl says they have to leave her. One of the men says no way, picks her up, and they all run down the corridor.

Michonne hears movement inside the Governor's secret room. She kicks open the door and steps inside, staring at the aquariums of heads in shock. Then she looks pissed off. There is movement again, from inside the caged door and she approaches it warily, opening it. She sets her sword down, seeing that it is a little girl (with a pillowcase on her head and her arms tied where she can't scratch). She unchains the little girl and removes the pillowcase, jumping back when the girl growls. She is about to kill Penny when the Governor screams, "NO!" and holds her at gun point. Then he puts the gun down, and approaches slowly, begging for Penny's life. "Don't hurt my little girl." She is glaring at him and she puts the sword right through Penny's head. The Governor and Michonne begin fighting, and at one point he strangles her. Then she strangles him with her sword case. They fight more and he puts her head through one of the aquariums, where a head spills out, still trying to bite. She reaches for a sharp piece of glass and stabs the Governor in the eye with it, retrieving her sword and going to kill him when suddenly Andrea shows up, with a gun. They hold each other at weapon's length, Andrea asking what she's done. Michonne lowers the sword and walks away, leaving Andrea there with the Governor. She looks over to the broken glass, to the zombie head on the floor still trying to bite, and to the walker heads in the aquariums. Then finally to the Governor who is holding his daughter and crying, and she kneels down beside him.

Carl lets the new people into the safe area of the prison. By now, the woman who was bitten, Donna, has died. He tells them he'll take care of it and aims a gun at her head. Tyreese, the man at the very beginning, takes the pick axe and goes to finish her off. Carl locks the group inside a cell block, telling them they'll be safe, and will be given food and water. The woman, Tasha, begins demanding he let them out because they're not animals. He says he can't. Tyreese tells her to calm down. This is Carl's house, and they have other things to do. He tells Carl he doesn't want any trouble. Beth asks if they should help them, and Carl says he did.

A doctor is looking at the Governor's eye, and saying the glass has done a lot of damage. Andrea asks for the doctor to leave, and wants to know why the Governor was fighting Michonne, and he says she came back to kill him. He tells her he kept the heads to prepare himself for the horrors outside. "And Penny?" she asks, and he doesn't respond. Milton comes in, Merle right behind him. Merle asks what happened and the Governor turns around and says, "I was attacked." Merle says they made it over the wall, and he'll go after them in the morning. The Governor stares at him. (Remember: Merle told the Governor that he had killed Michonne and that her body was destroyed by walkers).

Rick and Maggie and Glenn have escaped behind the line. Michonne shows up and Rick and Maggie hold her at gunpoint. Rick takes her sword. He asks if she got what she came for. She tells him she brought them there to save Maggie and Glenn, and that he's going to need her help whether it's to get back to the prison or to save Daryl.

There is a gathering where the Walking Dead Gladiator fight was. The Governor stands in the middle of the crowd, looking around with one eye (the other behind a patch). "I thought we were past it. Past the days when we all sat huddled scared in front of the TV in the early days of the outbreak." He tells them they felt it again tonight, and that he failed them. "I should tell you that we'll be okay. That we're safe. That tomorrow we'll bury our dead and endure, but I won't. Because I can't. I'm afraid." He tells them he's afraid of terrorists who want what they have, who want to destroy them, or worse. Because one of those terrorists is "one of our own." He points to Merle, and several turn their guns and bows on him. The Governor tells them that Merle led the group here, that he let them in. "You lied, betrayed us all." They bring in another man, who has a pillowcase over his head. They remove it. "And this, is one of the terrorists. Merle's own brother." The crowd begins yelling for them to kill Merle and Daryl. Andrea is staring, utterly shocked, and Daryl and Merle look at each other, and around at the crowd.

"Kill them," the crowd is yelling.

"You wanted your brother. Now you got him," the Governor tells him as the crowd continues to call for their deaths.

The camera focuses in on the Governor's face and then the screen fades to black, leaving us, quite literally, in the dark until the show returns with a new episode on February 10, 2013.