The Walking Dead - S03E13 Arrow on the Doorpost (2013)

Sex :   Violence : 

Director David Boyd
Writers Ryan C. Coleman
Starring Andrew Lincoln, Laurie Holden, Steven Yeun, Chandler Riggs, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohen, Scott Wilson, Danai Gurira, Michael Rooker, David Morrissey, Chad L. Coleman, Sonequa Martin-Green
Genre Zombie
Tagline Fight the dead. Fear the living.
Country
The Walking Dead Season 3

Review

"You're the town drunk who knocked over my fence and ripped up my yard, nothing more." - Rick Grimes

Andrea has organised a summit meeting between Rick and the Governor away from both Woodbury and the Prison. Naturally neither side is trusted the other, though of course no one is quite aware of what a sociopath the Governor is, heads in tanks apparently not being enough to give the game away. Rick is prepared to concede to a cease in hostilities with each side staying on its own side of the river, no contact no trade; however the Governor wants the Prison's surrender. That isn't about to happen, which leaves something of problem with negotiations.

Meanwhile Daryl is getting to know Martinez while Hershel seems to intrigue Milton Mamet. Andrea is simply pissed that things aren't going according to her script, and with her exclusion from the big kids table. The Governor hands Rick an ultimatum, hand over Michonne and peace can break out. If Rick believes that then he really should hand over leadership to Glenn, who is proving adept at organisation. Speaking of Glenn, he has his own problems with Merle; the big Redneck wants to go pay the Governor a visit and resolve things once and for all.

Okay I checked the box set three or four times as it seemed I must have jumped an episode from events in Clear, but nope we are right on track seemingly. There's a quantum plot jump in Arrow on the Doorpost that was pretty jarring to this wild colonial boy. One moment Rick and team are scoring additional guns and hunkering down for the eventual attack by Woodbury, the next Rick is having drinks and a chat with the Governor! Just saying I thought there needed to be another episode between this one and the previous, it seems almost like they lost a whole script down the back of the sofa and no one could be arsed retrieving it. Okay for mine that's the bad, the rest is peanut butter sandwiches and cookie time.

Rick believes the Governor on the Michonne thing? There goes two sseasons of tempering by fire!

For those after some zombie action, we do get a few kills going down; Daryl and Martinez go all mucho over who has the best killing action much to the disgust of Andrea who is pissed off at their posturing. In fact the two dudes pretty much have a bromance thing going down as they show their zombie killing moves, a grudging respect develops between the two of them. In a similar vein Herschel and Milton Mamet seem to find some common ground in the intellectual analysis of the zombie apocalypse. Hershel is intrigued to read the journals Milton is keeping about what has gone down while Milton is intrigued by Hershel having survived a zombie bite due to the quick intervention of Rick and the selective use of a handy axe. About the only one not bonding is Andrea who once again proves unable to decipher the real meaning of the meeting she has apparently setup. While the boys get war is going to happen, regardless of their own desires, Andrea still thinks there is a solution, a common ground that just needs to be hashed out by Rick and the Governor. Andrea may be pretty handy in a zombie firefight, but she definitely hasn't evolved to accept the new world order, or realised that the Governor is a psycho.

Not bonding are Rick and the Governor due to Rick seemingly realising that there's something off about Woodbury's leader. I was enjoying this development and waiting on things to escalate, which they don't, until the script got real messy and I got to say losing all semblance of logic. Okay so Rick has what he considers a solution, the Governor wants nothing less than the Prison's surrender, I'm cool with that, conflict is going to happen. However toward the end of the episode the Gov changes track completely and simply demands that Michonne is handed over, say what! Even worse it appears, given the talk Rick has with Herschel towards the end of the episode, that he is contemplating agreeing to the Governor's terms. Even blind Freddy knows that handing over Michonne is not going to appease the psychotic Governor, Rick as a character is hard enough to realise this simple fact, ergo poor script writing to have him even appearing to be mulling over accepting terms. I just wasn't buying this development and am to a certain degree pissed with the Producers of the show for allowing this idea to have any sort of breathing space.

Back at the Prison Merle is the only one who seemingly grooves to the situation, get on out there and take the battle to the Governor, the final solution being to remove Woodbury's leader. Glenn naturally disagrees, seemingly preferring to harden up defences and prepare for the final confrontation. Merle not surprisingly seeks Michonne's help but is running up against a brick wall there as well. For once I got to say the big Redneck has the right idea, both Andrea and Michonne have had a chance to finish the Governor and for various reasons decided not to, time to do what needs to be done rather than giving in as Rick is apparently going to do. Merle knows the score, having dealt with the Governor's inner council before; it's time for the Prison to conduct a reality check.

With three episodes left I figure Arrow on the Doorpost is the calm before the storm, and also a last gasp effort to encapsulate what rocks in the zombie sub-genre. Two groups of survivors are going to head into final confrontation mode, the zombies having to a certain extent been nullified. Once again it's not the walking dead one needs to worry about in the brave new world. The question I guess is did we need the interlude this episode brings, and my answer would be yes. Rick is going to be forced to make a decision, is he becoming as deluded as Andrea? - which brought to mind the central premise of Zero, the Aussie short just reviewed. While Rick's decision would seem a no brainer, you can't trust the Governor friends and neighbours, it does underline the moral issues the Prison faces, do you sacrifice the one to save the many, has society devolved to that extent? One of the strengths of The Walking Dead for mine is the constant quest by Rick's group to maintain their civilised visage in the face of absolute savagery, is it plausible to do the morally correct thing in a world where that is viewed as a weakness. Cool stuff, raises the show above the normal horror quagmire for mine.

I'm just going to come out and say it, great episode though it has thrown out the pacing of the season. Real weaknesses in the season thus far are Andrea, who epitomises "dump blonde" and Rick who seems to a large degree naïve in his dealings with the Governor. Did enjoy however the interaction of the troops, Andrea's exasperation with Daryl and Martinez going mucho, and Herschel ensuring Milton didn't weasel out any information on the Prison, see comment re Doctors for example. The episode came out of the blue however, threw continuity in terms of overall plot out with the bathwater, and no doubt angered a zillion and one fans. Hey major score right there, one of the stronger episodes of the season, things are coming to the boil folks with Merle going loose cannon and Rick having to re-evaluate what his group are about. Recommended viewing kids.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...

Cool episode, some weak character development