luke kalamar is a bird of prey…
Plot: Deciding she has had enough, Andrea (Laurie Holden) leaves Woodbury for good and heads to The Prison. The Governor (David Morrissey) will do whatever he can to prevent that from happening. Meanwhile, Tyreese (Chad Coleman) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) start to become skeptical of The Governor and his methods.
Three weeks ago, Andrea got her very first full episode focus with “I Ain’t a Judas.” That episode saw her travel from Woodbury to The Prison in an attempt to convince Rick (Andrew Lincoln) to make peace with The Governor. If you recall, I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of that episode. I found that it overall didn’t really change anything with the show and did nothing for me to change my opinion of Andrea. With this in mind, I entered “Prey” with some apprehension. If Andrea couldn’t carry an episode before, how could she carry a second one? Well, I’m happy to say that I was completely proven wrong. “Prey” turned out to be an incredible episode and it brings the Andrea character back to her former glory.
It took almost an entire season, but Andrea has finally grown sick of The Governor and set out to leave Woodbury for The Prison. She was fine with his arena battles, torture of her friends, obvious lies, and blatant maliciousness, but apparently torture room is where she draws the line. I’ve wanted Andrea to leave The Governor for a very long time so obviously I was ecstatic when she finally did. Her character has been completely underutilized as both The Governor’s lover and some peace broker. Now she has the freedom to be the zombie killing badass comic fans know she should be.
This is The Walking Dead though, so nothing ever works as planned. A lot of the episode was focused on Andrea traveling back to The Prison, but a huge chunk of that was The Governor hunting her down like the most dangerous game. The scene where these two were playing cat and mouse in an abandoned factory was both intense and terrifying. It was reminiscent of a classic slasher film where the female protagonist is being hunted by a seemingly supernatural murderer in a very enclosed space. In classic form, The Governor was in control the majority of this scene and drove Andrea from hiding place to hiding place with ease. Andrea isn’t stupid though, and plays an extremely clever tactic in order to get herself out of danger. It was probably the first time I’ve cheered for Andrea all season and boy it felt good. Overall this was one of the better scenes this season.
Milton (Dallas Roberts) also continued his growth to becoming a much better character. Last week we saw him conveying his motives to Hershel (Scott Greene) and expressing his desire to maintain a record of their lives. It provided some very nice depth to this recurring character. This week we saw Milton grow a pair of balls and stand up to the extremely intimidating Governor. This is a complete 180 from how he was at the beginning, and I love the idea of Milton possibly becoming a traitor in The Governor’s midst. If anything he’s no longer a mindless lackey who does whatever his leader wants.
Tyreese’s growing skepticism of The Governor was nice to see, but I hope this wasn’t a one time thing and that Tyreese’s agreement at the end was simply to keep up appearances. When Andrea warned Tyreese that The Governor isn’t what he seems, I got excited of the idea of him leaving Woodbury. I still want that Rick and Tyreese friendship and I don’t want the latter character to die in the coming war, at least by Rick’s hand. Tyreese’s conflict with Allen (Daniel Thomas May) was a nice touch in this episode and I want that to come back again in some form.
The ending of “Prey” was completely unexpected and I refuse to mention what happens here to keep the surprise fresh. I will say though that in true Walking Dead form, a happy ending is completely ripped away. I cannot wait to watch and cringe at what happens next week.
“Prey” was the second Andrea centric episode of the series, but thankfully she changed enough to make this episode amazing. There are only two episodes left this season and things have officially escalated thanks to the last few minutes. Let the insanity begin!
Rating: 9/10
All Photos Credit: AMC
One thing I truly love about the Walking Dead over other series is that it never feels it has to shoehorn in other story lines. This happens a lot in shows like Game of Thrones where in mid-episode the focus is suddenly placed on a side story which has no effect on the main story line (and probably won’t for years).