Getting On Track With "The Walking Dead:" Season Three So Far
It’s almost time.
There’s only ONE week left before The Walking Dead returns for the rest of its third season run. Are YOU ready? I know I am. But for those of you who still aren’t quite caught up on what was going on but want to tune in when it returns on Feb. 10th, let me give you the rundown of what’s happened so far this season. Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
The season starts out eight months after the season two finale, so some time has passed. Rick’s group has been traveling throughout that time-span. They don’t even seem to require much talking at this point because they’ve been working together for so long. Rick and Daryl come across a prison that is overrun with walkers, and Rick decides to clear it out and make it the group’s new home. It is well protected with fences and walls and Lori is due very soon. Speaking of Rick and Lori, they aren’t getting along. They’re barely on speaking terms, though Lori is pained by this and Rick is standoffish. They overtake one of the prison blocks, killing the zombies and clearing them out. Then Rick, Daryl, Hershel, Maggie and Glenn go farther into the prison to look for supplies. Hershel’s leg is bitten and it’s not looking good. Rick decides to cut off his leg to keep the infection from spreading, managing to save the older man’s life. They also discover several prisoners who are still alive, and locked in the prison’s kitchen.
Though reluctant at first, Rick agrees to help the prisoners they found alive clear out another cell block on the condition that they split the food, and that the prisoners stay away from Rick’s people at all times. The “leader” of the group isn’t happy about either condition, and makes it obvious that he’s going to be a problem for our gang. During a fight with walkers, the man almost gets Rick killed—and it’s not an accident. Rick kills him, and when one of the other prisoners starts to take a swing at him in retaliation, he locks the man outside with the zombies that are lingering around. The other two prisoners—Axel and Oscar—are both spared since they had no real involvement with the two trouble-makers.
Andrea and her mysterious savior from the season two finale, Michonne, witness a helicopter crash, and then are surprised when one of the other people checking out the crash turns out to be Merle Dixon, Daryl’s brother. He and the others take the women to a community dubbed “Woodbury.” It’s run by a man called “The Governor.” At first Andrea and Michonne are both wary of the man, but Andrea quickly warms up to him, while Michonne remains skeptical and wants to leave. She doesn’t trust the governor, or the other people in the community, especially when the man refuses to return her weapons unless she’s leaving. Turns out she has good instincts: a team of people led by the governor slaughters the rest of the helicopter pilot’s convoy. And the governor is keeping some pretty dark secrets of his own: his young daughter is a “biter” (as the Woodbury people call them), and he’s keeping her locked up in house. And he has a bunch of aquariums filled with zombie heads.
Andrea fills Merle in on the last place she’d seen his brother: at Hershel’s farm. Merle wants to take a team to check things out, but the Governor refuses to let him do that unless he has more concrete facts about where Daryl might be. Back at the prison, there is a sudden and deadly attack; the prisoner that Rick threw outside for walker-bait is still alive, and he’s set a bunch of zombies loose on the group as revenge. T-Dog is bitten, and he dies saving Carol’s life, though she is assumed dead when she has to hide in a closet for several days. Lori goes into labor right in the middle of the attack chaos, and Maggie is forced to perform a C-section on her. Lori dies from blood loss, and Carl is forced to shoot her to prevent her from turning into a walker.
When Rick learns of Lori’s death, he is catatonic with grief, and goes off by himself, slaughtering zombies one after the other and threatening Glenn when the younger man tries to get through to him. Maggie and Daryl leave in search of baby formula and manage to find some at an abandoned daycare near the prison.
Michonne gets into trouble at Woodbury when she breaks into the governor’s place and takes her weapons back. She and Andrea argue about leaving, and Michonne tells Andrea she’ll be better off without the blonde anyway. She leaves the community. Andrea is horrified when the community’s main form of entertainment turns out to be Merle and another man fighting each other while walkers, though restrained, are a little too close for comfort. (Picture the old time gladiator fights.) The governor tells Andrea that they removed all the biters’ teeth before allowing them in the fighting area.
Rick begins hallucinating that the prison’s phone is ringing, and then hallucinates that he’s talking to people who were part of his group until they died, including Lori. The governor sends Merle and a couple others after Michonne, determined to kill her before she can get too far and “threaten” their community. She is grazed by a bullet, and manages to kill one of the men and escape, thanks to a group of walkers that attack. Daryl consoles Carl over the loss of Lori, and then is shocked when he finds Carol alive and safe, though she’s exhausted and hungry. Glenn and Maggie go off in search of more baby formula and supplies, and Glenn is stunned when they run into Merle, who takes them both hostage. Michonne witnesses the entire situation, and when she shows up carrying the bags of formula at the prison, Rick is caught off guard. Merle tells the governor that Michonne is dead, and that he has two people for him to talk to.
Rick and Carl rescue Michonne from walkers, but Rick tells her she can’t stay at the prison. Michonne tells him that a couple of their people—Glenn and Maggie—are being held in Woodbury. Rick leaves Carl in charge of the prison while he, Daryl, Oscar, and Michonne head to Woodbury. Merle interrogates Glenn, even tossing a walker into the room when Glenn refuses to give up the rest of the group’s whereabouts. The governor has more luck when he interrogates Maggie, forcing her to undress and intimidating her by telling her he’ll kill Glenn if she doesn’t tell him what he wants to do. She reluctantly tells him about the prison. The governor then organizes a team to head toward the prison, even as Rick and the others are just outside the community, waiting to rescue their friends.
Another group of survivors makes their way to the prison, led by a man named Tyreese. Carl saves their lives and ushers them into a cell block, locking them in to keep the rest of the group safe. Rick, Daryl, and Oscar search for Maggie and Glenn, who fight against the guards who are about to kill them. Michonne, off on her own, finds the governor’s daughter and kills her in front of him. The two get into a violent confrontation and Michonne stabs him in the eye, leaving him blind in one eye. She and Andrea come face-to-face immediately after the struggle, and though Andrea lets her leave, it’s clear she’s stunned. Oscar dies while the group is fleeing Woodbury, and the group can’t find Daryl. The governor calls everyone to come out and hear him give a speech about how he couldn’t keep them all safe, especially since there was a traitor in their ranks. Much to Merle’s surprise, the governor identifies him as the traitor, and then guards bring Daryl out. He tells the community that Merle was helping his brother’s group all along. As the crowd chants for both men’s deaths, Andrea stares on in horror.
Tell me what you think of the season so far by leaving your comments below. Or follow me on Twitter at @WalkinDeadAngie!
“The Walking Dead” (2010)
Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies, Norman Reedus
Creator: Frank Darabont