The Walking Dead Season 4 ‘Dead Weight’ Recap: ‘The Monster Inside’

The Governor returns with a vengeance this episode as we run full force towards the mid-season finale next week…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

The path of the Governor back to our heroes at the prison continued this week on The Walking Dead as creator Robert Kirkman and show runner Scott Gimple continue to recreate and craft the once vibrant universe these characters lived and breathed in the comic books into wholly new versions for the television show.

As it was pointed out to me by a Twitter follower last week, the story of The Governor aka Brian Heriot that we’ve been following is in some part a version of The Walking Dead novel released a few years ago ‘The Rise of the Governor’, which showed how the evil one-eyed masochist came to power in the town of Woodbury in the first place.

While many of the story points are different than in the book, the general idea is the same except this time we are seeing The Governor after Woodbury has already fallen, as he crumbles and then finds redemption in the last episode after walking a lonely road for several months. I criticized the show mightily for last week’s episode and again this week in the beginning for humanizing a character that I believe in many ways was the epitome of evil incarnate. The Governor of the comic books was a sadistic mad man, who was just this side of Hitler when it came to his unrelenting cruelty. Much like Hitler, we didn’t really want to know there was a human side of this monster — only that he was capable of heinous, sick and twisted deeds.

So last week’s episode, which showcased The Governor befriending a pair of sisters and a young child before ultimately saving their lives made me somewhat angry. This wasn’t a character we were supposed to care about. He was supposed to be the vision of evil that we had to eradicate to survive. Somehow Kirkman and Gimple in their ultimate wisdom (and I can only assume love for actor David Morrissey who portrays The Governor) decided that the character should stick around even longer and have a much bigger impact over multiple seasons.

In the latest offering titled ‘Dead Weight’, the Governor runs into his old pal Martinez from the Woodbury days, and it turns out his former No. 2 is now acting as leader over an entire group of people camped out near where their town once stood. Martinez has formed a group with a couple of ex-Army brothers named Pete and Mitch, and those three together are hunting and foraging goods to help the group survive. The Governor is welcomed in with his new family so long as he understands that Martinez is in charge.

Well that only takes about 10 minutes before Martinez invites The Governor to do a little drinking and golfing via a mobile home driving range. At one point Martinez finally says ‘hey maybe we could share in this (leadership)?’ and that quickly earns him a smack with a golf club and a response from The Governor saying ‘I don’t want it’.

He quickly feeds Martinez to a pit full of zombies, and the next day when he’s found, Pete — the sweet, nice, not quite ready to deal with this world soldier — is put in charge of the camp. His leadership quickly fails as well when he chooses not to overrun a small group of survivors and take their supplies because as he and the other hunters circle around a few hours later, somebody else looted and killed the group taking the vital necessities that they could have had if not for Pete’s indecision and caring.

So The Governor decides to whack this guy as well.

Now The Governor has a heart to heart with Mitch — who is of course the solider that wanted to sack the group and take their stuff — and he puts him in charge as his No. 2. Oh yeah about Mitch — while he was a soldier in the Army he just so happened to be a tank commander and when he left the base he took one for his own transportation.

Just as The Governor and Mitch seem to have a perimeter guard set up, little Megan soon comes face to bloody face with a walker that’s slipped through the walls and he’s just itching for some flesh. Luckily, The Governor happens by and shoots the walker in the head and that’s when he realizes that his new group needs a better, safer home than this and so with that he heads back into the woods and runs smack dab into the prison. This is the scene we saw two weeks ago when The Governor is peaking his head out of the woods. He’s found Rick and his clan of survivors along with Carl, Herschel and of course Michonne — who he quickly takes aim at with a pistol before the show comes to an end.

The preview for next week’s episode, which also serves as the mid-season finale, shows one of the most iconic scenes in the comic book’s history as The Governor gets ready to charge the prison with his tank. In the comic book, many of the events that have already happen go down, such as Lori’s death, etc. Still it’s nice to see a show that has completely veered away from the source material can find a way to slip something back in there every now and again.

The Governor’s attack on the prison, which will kick off next week in some form or fashion (we assume anyways), will lead to the winter break before the show returns in February. The problem with this entire storyline is that it should have been carried out last season when The Governor first appeared and attacked the prison. It’s not to say this character only had a one season arc, but the entire scenario seems elongated just for the fact to save the actor from being killed off on the show. While it’s easy enough to kill off Dale, who was an integral part of the series well past the stand in the prison, or Andrea (who is still kicking today in the comic book) — for some reason Kirkman and Gimple just can’t get rid of The Governor (although it may happen by season’s end).

I fully admit I’m a huge fan of the comic book as I’ve been following it since it started, but there are so many great storylines, characters and bad guys that haven’t even been touched upon yet that I’d love to see come to life yet we only see The Governor thus far. Now in terms of comic book villains, this guy is pretty iconic from the eye patch to the sociopathic streak he carries like a sword, but even I’m fed up with seeing him after two full seasons. We still haven’t seen a fully developed version of Michonne, who I believe is one of the most compelling characters in the books, but we are getting plenty of The Governor.

Maybe there’s some feedback from fans that I’m not seeing or some great demands from AMC that the show executives have to follow, but as much as I adored the malevolent force known as The Governor, at some point we all have to say enough is enough.