“Welcome to the Tombs” caps a Walking Dead season of
untimely deaths, power grabs, and redemption to this saga-esque Season 3. The episode opens just like the
beginning of the season—the shot of an unblinking eye. Only this time it’s not a walker, but The
Governor, who’s completely transformed into a psychotic leader, brutally
pummeling Milton, who’s revealed to have torched the baiter walkers.
The Governor tests Milton’s loyalty by ordering him to kill
Andrea, still bound on a dentist’s chair inside the darkened tomb. But Milton, having left a pair of
pliers behind Andrea’s chair, lunges at The Governor instead, losing the fight
after The Governor mortally knifes Milton in the chest, leaving him in an
agonizingly slow death but not before saying:
“In this life now you kill or you die,” said The
Governor. “Or you die and you
kill.”
That line certainly resonated with me, particularly since
this externalizes The Governor’s evolved mantra of survivalism. Or it could be he’s simply drunk with
power, refusing to let anyone overpower him. With Milton left to slowly die and eventually turn, The
Governor heads off to try and kill the Grimes crew, who prepares an impending
attack against them.
Carl is now completely off-the-rails. After seeing all the killing, the
disappointments, the struggle Carl is at his wits end. He stares at the picture of his family,
a life that’s become a far memory to Carl. Clearly, Carl has unraveled. Like Glen earlier in the episode, Carl’s kid-like nature is
now gone, and a hardened one has replaced him, one that’s ready to fight. And while Carl’s unhinged nature begins
to unravel, Rick’s disturbed episodes begin to subside, once again seeing
Lori’s apparition.
So the fight begins.
The Governor rallies his troops, though a skeptical Tyrese is unwilling
to share in The Governor’s depravity in killing people. Tyrese appears to be a man of honor,
knowing there’s something off about The Governor.
Back inside the tomb, Andrea works the pliers, all the while
explaining to a wounded Milton why she never made a move in killing The
Governor—“I didn’t want anyone to die.”
Her passion points to her law days, trying her best to mend fences,
though her passion is misplaced in a zombie-apocalyptic world.
But as Andrea works through her handcuffs, The Governor and
his troops are launch an onslaught on the prison, firing at posts and walkers,
ramming their cars into the gates, and infiltrating what looks like an empty
prison. The Governor’s attack on
the prison, however is short-lived as his troopers are booby-trapped inside a
dark portion of the prison, just like the first episode of the season when
Rick’s group tried to clear out sections of the prison. Turns out Rick’s group, namely Glen and
Maggie, didn’t leave after all, instead launching a counter-attack on The
Governor’s army, which eventually flee.
In the outskirts, Hershel, Carl and Beth hide out. One of The Governor’s troopers stumbles
upon him and Carl’s cold dead hand.
The young man, afraid, is shot in cold blood by Carl much to Hershel’s
shock. Carl makes an excuse, claiming
the young man shot first. Hershel,
consistently noble throughout the season, tells Rick who confronts Carl. But Carl is not ready to hear it from
dad anymore, insisting that this is a world where it’s killed or be
killed. He runs through a list of
mistakes Rick’s made throughout season, indirectly blaming Rick for killing
Lori.
But The Governor commits his own form of cold blooded
murder, more like genocide. After
escaping the prison he’s confronted by the townspeople turned troopers, who
refuse to follow The Governor’s killing streak. The Governor, enraged by his third betrayal of the season,
wipes out his entire army, killing everyone in a nasty show of bloodlust. But he doesn’t realize a woman has
survived the shootout that’s stunned even The Governor’s most trusted
allies. They flee, though they
don’t come back to Woodbury where Andrea is still working through her shackles. But by this point Milton has fully
converted into a walker, and lumbers towards Andrea, her fate uncertain.
Rick, Michone and Daryl eventually head back to Woodbury to
finish the job and stumble upon one of The Governor’s survivors, who leads them
back to Woodbury. They eventually
find Tyrese who is now convinced of The Governor’s depravity. The crew soon find Andrea who is now
bitten. Andrea’s once again
reunited with Michonne, who started as friends in the beginning of the season,
become distant and were once again whole again. But Andrea’s been bitten by Milton, who realizes she’s not
going to survive. She decides to
kill herself, with Michone being there to see her end.
The season wraps up with Rick taking several of the Woodbury
refugees back. They join the Rick
camp, much to crybaby Carl’s chagrin.
But The Governor’s out there, and he’s coming.
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