The Walking Dead Recap 3.10: “Home”

February 18th, 2013 by Joseph

After a cute (slightly flirty) scene between Carol and Axel, Merle and Daryl bicker as they move through the woods, but stop when they hear screaming in the distance. Merle thinks its two raccoons going at it (SMH), but it’s really a Latin family is surrounded by zombies on a bridge. Daryl rushes to help, and Merle reluctantly assists. The family doesn’t speak English, so maneuvering is a little tricky, but, everyone (including a baby) manages to survive the ordeal. Good Samaritans still exist in this world. That is, until Merle begins to loot their car while saying all sorts of bigoted things in their direction. Daryl once again proves he’s fantastic: he defends the family further by threatening to kill his own brother with his crossbow. Merle is clearly taken aback by Daryl’s new and improved cajones. After the family drives away, the brothers argue some more- and not just about the family, or looting. This time fight ends with Daryl deciding to go abandon Merle by back to the prison. Daryl makes it clear that he knows what this all means and he walks awaym leaving Merle a little dumbfounded. I guess Daryl stood up to Merle earlier than I thought he would. Good on him.

Herschel stops Glenn (as he prepares to… what? Fight The Governor alone? Oh, Glenn…) to have a little talk about rage. At least someone is trying to reason with him. Everyone else seems to be avoiding him. This whole scene makes me a little uncomfortable… to me, they’re discussing Maggie’s assault, without her there, a bit like it’s 1950. Was that just me? Especially since Maggie is simultaneously sharing a domestic moment inside with Beth as they feed bay Judith.

Herschel finally asks Rick WTF is going on with him. Herschel looks rather worried (as well as pretty much anyone at home who watched this scene, I wager) as Rick gives uncharacteristically short, distracted, and distant answers. As we move to another part of the prison yard, Carol and Axel continue their conversation… I thought they may take happy couple role on… after all, they were starting to flirt some, but, then… Axel gets shot in the face. Fantastic. The Governor is attacking. After some gunfire exchange with Woodbury henchmen, The Governor sends a truck into the prison yard. After some “What might this be?” suspense, we see it’s filled with walkers. Then, the Woodbury attackers leave Michonne, Rick, and company to fend for themselves. It becomes clear that the attack was just an opening act. Hoo boy.

Image from AMC.com.

Image from AMC.com.

I’m really loving the pacing of the plot this week. How did everyone else like the episode? Were you as incensed at the cliched racism Merle was spouting at that family as I was? What do you think of The Governor’s special “Hello” at the end of the episode, and what do you think of Axel’s surprise exit? Do you think the way it happened was pointless, or poignant?

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Posted in Entertainment, Television | 5 comments

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  • Jamie Norwood

    Axel’s death was the first time that I remember in this show where I literally gasped at someone dying. It was remarkably done. I’d started to warm to Axel, too, but not enough that I felt cheated, just enough that his dying wasn’t a ‘He had that coming’ moment. Plus, we’ll never hear the end of that story!

    I notice with Rick gone, the entire concept of Michonne leaving seems to be gone. Glen is saying lots how he needs her, and how helpful she is. I think this contributes to her verbosity, speaking an entire sentance, in that she’s feeling more part of the group rather than the whipping bag of everything being her fault (A thing that was never true. Rick’s been pretty damned ungrateful for what she’s done for the group, like /feeding his baby/, the one I don’t think he even cares about.)

    I did love the Governor’s little invasion. I’ve seen commentary how they should have been able to wipe the prison out no problem, but that was clearly never the point. It seemed to me to be about overrunning the place with walkers. Lots of noise to draw the herds, drop a truckful in the now-ruined gate, and otherwise bring down the undead on the group.

  • Jamie Norwood

    Oh, and kudos to Merle’s actor in this one, as uncomfortable as his character makes me, the stricken look on his face when Daryl leaves to go bac to the prison seemed genuine, vulnerable, and scared. A glimpse under the mask, so to speak. ‘I can’t go with you!’ indeed. Daryl is a great man and walking away like that was the right thing to do, but man, that had to hurt.

  • Tamaya

    I love Daryl. As for Merle (portrayed by Michael Rooker) he is an a**hole. That is what I like about him. He doesn’t make any excuses about it. Maybe it has to do with being abused which we found out last episode. You can tell Rooker enjoys this character. It will be interesting to see how he interacts with Glenn, Maggie, and Michonne along with everyone else in the prison.

  • Pellinore

    I didn’t like Herschel complaining to Rick about Glenn. Clearly Glenn is quite capable and he had the right ideas all along since the Governor was planning to attack them. So the prison isn’t a safe place and they should be planning to get rid of him. And Glenn was much more inclusive and not so abusive and demeaning toward Michonne as Rick was. He just said he needed her somewhere specifically instead of saying he didn’t need her at all. Also they made pretty clear the hierarchy in racial, gender, and ability terms. I don’t see why Glenn or any of the women would make less capable leaders. I definitely see Carol being much higher in rank compared to Carl. Why does the male kid get more preference than adult women? I kind of thought Axel would get axed cause they started giving him much more to say. So it didn’t surprise me when he got shot. I figure if it’s good for the black characters it’s good for Axel, lol.

  • FX

    “I kind of thought Axel would get axed cause they started giving him much more to say. So it didn’t surprise me when he got shot. I figure if it’s good for the black characters it’s good for Axel, lol.”

    We’ve started joking that every time someone either starts talking a lot or mouthing off to Rick (especially the latter) that they’re about to get the axe.