The Walking Dead--Too Far Gone--Episode Review

Well, it looks like I couldn't have been more wrong about The Governor being a series-long adversary, huh?  That, and more thoughts of the half-season's last episode:

--You had to know that Hershel wasn't long for that world after he said his now-famous (amongst fans, anyway) line (and sorry if I butcher it a little here): "You can't control how you die.  The only thing you can control is what you die for."  Having said that, you knew he was going to die for what he felt was a good cause.

--And his little smile at the end tells you that he did.  Or, at least, he thought so.

--I was more surprised that The Governor bought it there.  It is courageous of the writers to write two episodes that focused exclusively on him (to the chagrin of a great many fans) and then kill him off.

--That tells me that the writers care very much about character arc, and characterization in general.  It was important for them to show the viewers that The Governor was, indeed, "too far gone" to ever come back to decency.  See: Rick's speech at the end.

--It was impressive, in a character-development kind of way, to show how decent The Governor had been in his past, pre-Zombie Apocalypse, and then to show how he was never going to be able to go back to that, even when given the chance.  The last two episodes, especially the previous one when he killed Martinez and the others, could have both been called "Too Far Gone."

--With this kind of character development, and this kind of ratings and following, I would love to work on this show, if I was an actor.

--And if I wasn't.

--One of The Talking Dead's clips showed that David Morrissey, who played The Governor, always thought that Michonne was his real adversary.  Of course, he's right about that.

--The Governor was about to choke the life out of Farmer Rick.

--Where's Carol been the last few episodes?  I'm surprised she didn't turn up at the end of this one.

--Anyone know if the plot development of casting Carol off was always supposed to happen, or if the actress who played her had a movie role, or something personal, or something else that she had to tend to?

--Speaking of Carol, she apparently taught those kids to shoot really, really well.  Turns out, that may not have been a bad thing for her to teach them after all.

--Sorry to see Alisha go.  Why couldn't we keep her and lose the whiny, scaredy-cat one?

--But the guy in the tank always annoyed the hell out of me.  Good-bye.

--I think the baby's fine.  They wouldn't kill off a baby just a few months old, right?

--Not surprised to see the little girl go.  In writing parlance, that's book-ending.  The Governor couldn't save his real daughter, so why would he be able to save his adopted daughter?  Very thematic and character-building, but that's what the show has been doing for the past few episodes with The Governor.  So, yeah, I called that one.

--And I called Hershel, but The Governor, as I mentioned, was a surprise.  But it's good to know that I can still be surprised after watching three and a half years of the same show.

--Great shot with Rick and Carl with the prison in the background, and Rick saying not to look back, a la Lot and Lot's wife.  And the destruction of the prison does indeed seem like the act of angry gods.

--See you in February 2014.  If you can believe that.  2014?  Did I just say 2014?!?