Review: The Walking Dead ‘Dead Weight’

After last week’s episode, one that focused solely on The Governor and attempted to flesh out a character that we were previously only given a two-dimensional look at, I was really hoping that this week, ‘Dead Weight’ would have brought that story arc to a satisfying conclusion. And while many seem to have enjoyed the way it played out, I was left feeling like the entire two-episode block could have been condensed to 20 minutes and left there.  In the end, the story of The Governor seems to do little to enhance this season of The Walking Dead at all.  Read on to listen to me whine and complain.

As the story begins, we have a return of The Governor to the company of his old friend and former right-hand man, Martinez.  Turns out that Martinez has been organizing his own group of survivors, taking over when old Guvsy went on mental hiatus.  But now that “Bryan” is back, he isn’t in charge.  Still, he’s so good at making decisions and jumping into the thick of things that people start to look to him for advice.  So will The Governor join up and live happily ever after with the new group?  Nope.

Things so south fast when Guvs goes mental and batters a poor, drunk Martinez to death with a golf club.  Then, when someone else takes command, he kills that guy too.  Eventually, The Governor is back in charge with a new group to (presumably) lead up against Rick’s gang in the prison.  And this time they have a tank.

I can see where the writer’s were going with this one.  They wanted to show that even though The Governor was human inside (last episode), that his need to protect the people he cares about continually drives him to be a brutal and sadistic bastard.  His idea of making things better is to take from the weak and give to his own.  It’s pretty much the old Governor all over again, although it took them two weeks to get him there.

While some may appreciate this story progression, I’ll have to see it go somewhere before I can give it my approval.  If the writers really wanted to bring back Guvsy for round two of the prison brawl, they should have just introduced him straight-out with a new group.  Honestly, do we have a reason to care how he got new bodies and bullets to throw at Rick and his gang?  The non-redemption story was, in my opinion, a waste of time.  The only thing that could redeem it in my eyes is if the remainder of the season goes back and forth between the two camps and does a good job of developing both sides of the conflict, including - in fact, highlighting - The Governor himself.  If they just have him turn into the big, mean baddie again and do no character development, I will be very upset.

So, all-in-all this would be the low-point of the series for me thus far.  After such a great first half-dozen episodes, to slip into something that seems mostly irrelevant leaves me a bit worried about how the season will shape up during its second half.  I suppose that the next episode, ‘Too Far Gone’ will be the one that sets the defining tone of what we can expect.  For a quick look at that one, head over to this site and check out the trailer.

Photo Credits -           

Dead Weight courtesy of collider.com