Phil's bamboozling of his group of campers was disappointing. None of the people there, with the exception of Mitch, care much about taking over anything, and agree to do it with a complete lack of enthusiasm. They march away like school kids at the end of gym class, not like people about to kill for four walls. Lily is even more unenthusiastic, trying to talk Phil out of it. Oh, Lily, don't you know by now that Phil proves his love with body counts? Phil thinks he has two trump cards, Michonne and Hershel as prisoners. There's an awkward scene where he is trying to justify what he's done to the prisoners, by telling them that this way, he can take the prison with hostages and not kill anyone. Before Phil leaves, he has a hug scene with Megan, the one person who's not scared of Phil now. He takes the white king from the chess set, and puts it his pocket.
Michonne is all defiance, as she should be, and tells Phil she will kill him. Hershel actually tries to reason with Phil. It culminates with Hershel telling Phil he has two daughters in that prison. Why would Phil try to keep his own daughter alive by killing someone else's. Duh, Phil says. They're someone else's daughters, not his.
See, lives only matter if they matter to me
Maggie and Glenn have a touching moment. She goes outside to get Glenn some water. I puked. Bob is about to drink (yes, it was the bottle of hooch in the box), when Sasha interrupts to thank him. Bob, embarrassed at being treated like a hero when he nearly threw his life away for a bottle of booze, tries to give all the credit to Hershel, but Sasha is having none of it and bamboozles Bob into helping her outside for a walk. This puts Maggie, Sasha and Bob definitely outside. Glenn is in A Block.
Daryl is finally having the hissy fit we've waiting three fucking episodes for. It's totally unsatisfying, as Daryl is quickly mollified when Rick tells him that Carol was totally unrepentant. They decide to tell Tyreese the answer to the groovy mystery, but find him staring at a dissected rat nailed to a wooden board. Tyreese thinks this is the work of the same sicko who killed Karen and David, but Rick and Daryl just don't think Carol is that far gone, and are about to tell him when…. WHAM! There goes that entire sub-plot.
Lily is watching the river they're camped by, watching a zombie get washed away from the river current, when Megan digs through some serious mud to dig up a flash flood warning sign. Just when you think there's going to be a flash flood that makes all of Phil's scheming meaningless anyway, we see dead fingers rise from the red mud just next to Megan. We see a patch of mud behind her give way and a familiar rasp coming from the shifting mud. Megan hears nothing, until the fingers have gotten all the way out and latched on to her. She starts screaming, and tries to get away, but the creature pulls its mud-rotted head out of the ground, pulls her close, and chomps down on her shoulder. Lilly gets there too late, and can only yank Megan away and shoot the zombie. And, we presume later, put Megan in a car and drive off to the prison.
Rick, Daryl and Tyreese race outside to see a bunch of vehicles and a tank. And Phil. Beth has come out to see what's going on, so all major characters and some random dude in a dirty white sweatshirt are now outside by the inner prison yard fence. Rick tries to get out of talking to him, now denying he makes any decisions, and insisting Phil has to talk to Prisonville's council. So Phil drags out the council members he's kidnapped and forces them to kneel in front of the fence for all of Prisonville to see. Maggie and Beth start freaking out that their dad is in the hands of a paranoid psychopath. But it's Rick that Phil wants to kill. Maybe not as much as he wants to kill Michonne, but Rick can't be first in everything, can he? So Rick race walks down to the double layer of fences around the prison yard.
Our friends. And some guy who must have slipped in last night, I guess.
Phil makes of point of telling Rick he has a tank now. Which is great, because Rick hadn't figured that out. Also, Phil seems to forget that he had a rocket launcher on a truck before, and Prisonville repelled him then. If I was Rick, I would have had a good laugh at this new bunch of villagers who don't even properly invade the place. I would also have shot Mitch immediately, and the guy sitting next to him for good measure. After all, can Phil drive a tank? No driver, no tank. However, Rick actually thinks he can talk Phil out of: taking over, killing the hostages, and driving them out. To be honest, Rick should have known that Hershel and Michonne were dead already. Michonne is only alive because she slips away in the chaos of the attack.
Phil's giving the living of Prisonville until sundown, in about an hour, to vacate so his people can move in and take the prison. Rick is obviously crestfallen that a place he and his friends made home is going to be taken from him this day. He spends most of the next ten minutes desperately trying to postpone the inevitable, but he must have known that the only options are that they leave with their lives and the clothes on their backs, or that there's a fight that destroys the prison, kills most of the defenders and invaders, and ruins the prison for everyone. Phil has told his people he'll try to take the prison from a bunch of murderers and thieves via the hostages, and they'll kill "only if they have to". During the talking, some of the villagers start looking less like ready to storm the place and more like bored high schoolers at a museum. Good ol' Mitch, though, didn't sign on with Phil The Terrible so he could share. Phil promised him acts of questionable ethics, and Mitch is getting what was promised today. He tells Rick that Rick's group can't have what they worked for because - tank. So when Rick proposes they all just live on the grounds together in separate cell blocks, and maybe someday they'll figure out a way to forgive the past, Phil decides that he'll make damn good sure there's killing today. He takes Michonne's katana and hacks right into Hershel's neck. The violence starts immediately.
Phil makes an executive decision
Michonne scurries away as rifles and tank cannon blast away at each other, and the only person shot is Rick as he tries to get out of the crossfire. Phil takes Hershel off to totally decapitate him, blood on his face now, as Michonne can only watch in horror and cut her rope with a license plate. The fences are still up, but that is solved when Lily arrives, walking from the car she drove there in with Megan in her arms, dead or near it. Phil, with the same look he had when he handed Tyreese a machine gun and drove off from Woodbury, simply points his gun at her chin and completely shoots her head off.
So I guess you can lose all your humanity now
Lily is devastated. Phil is just getting started. Like a shopaholic in a mall, Phil orders Mitch to start the tank and bring down the fences. He utters his famous-from-the-graphic-novel "Kill 'em all!". And officially ruins the prison for everyone, ensuring that this will be a bloody battle for nothing.
Best part of the battle: is there even a contest? Daryl gets attacked from behind by a zombie, but after the commercial break, we see the thing stumble out, held in place by a concealed Daryl, who uses the zombie as cover to toss a grenade at the attackers. Second place is Michonne's save of Rick just as Phil is ending their knockdown, bare hands rumble trying to choke Rick. Third place is when Lizzy and Mika shoot Alicia, who was nice but on the wrong side, to save Tyreese. Tyreese is amazed at the save, but has to chase them when they take off in the wrong direction. And who was not totally satisfied when a meek and now humble Mitch has to evacuate the tank when Daryl grenades the cannon, only to be bow-shot by a pissed off Daryl. Oh Mitch, next time don't make friends with the guy who kills your brother.
Daryl officially has competition
Worth noting: the only ones remaining from the original group by the quarry near Atlanta: Rick, Carl, Glenn, and Daryl. All others are dead, parted ways early, or banished.
Phil's white king chess piece falls from his pocket, and zombies stomp it into the ground as they meander into the prison yard for the totally free all-you-can-eat buffet.
To wrap up:
Glenn, assorted Prisonville residents, Jean- on the bus, which left the prison as walkers invaded the area with the bus.
Lizzy & Mika: running in wrong direction with Tyreese following
Michonnne: ditched Rick for some reason after saving him.
Daryl & Beth: Beth was looking for the kids, but Daryl convinces her to just leave with him
Maggie, Sasha, Bob: while looking for Beth, Maggie meets up with Sasha and Bob, and they all watch the bus leave without them. The three decide to beat it on their own, with Bob shot cleanly and fixable if he can get some medical supplies soon.
Rick and Carl: after finding each other, they discover Judith's bloodied car seat. Assorted reviewers think that there's a chance Judith is still alive. Aren't they naive? Carl has a shit fit and shoots the rifle until he's out of ammo. Rick and Carl get out, possibly through the back, and ascend a hill.
Lizzy and Mika's kid friends? No goddamn clue. If they're not on the bus, they're dead, because all the other adults have gotten out.
Carol: better off, as she got out ahead of everyone by at least a few days, has a car full of stuff, and is armed. Poetic justice demands that it's she who finds Rick and Carl, and takes them in.
Tara: who knows, but her death wasn't shown and she seems to have lost the will to fight and just took off.
Phil: as he struggles to breath in the prison yard, Lilly shoots him, preferably in the head. Lily does who know what who knows where after.
Irish chick from season premiere: entering the prison as a zombie. Good for her. See, there's a happy ending in here somewhere!
Duh! Winning!
No comments:
Post a Comment