'Walking Dead' recap: Andrea's big decision
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” is all about Andrea, as the time comes where she finally needs to make a decision and take a side: Is she going to fight for Woodbury and the Governor or rejoin her original group at the prison?
“I Ain’t a Judas” begins as Rick’s gang sits inside their cell block, mulling their options after the Governor’s attack.
“That truck through the fence thing? That’s just him ringing the doorbell,” Merle says. “We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he’s got the guns and the numbers.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rick has a fit of his typical craziness and begins to march away from the group mid-conversation. Hershel screams at him to come back and, for the first time, directly calls Rick out for acting nuts.
“You’re slipping, Rick,” he says. “We’ve all seen in it. We understand why, but now is not the time.”
In the emotional conversation that follows, Carl — who has grown up shockingly fast — goes outside to speak with his father.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Dad, you should stop being the leader,” he says.
Back in Woodbury, the Governor is having Milton put together a list of able bodies to fight Rick, including young children.
Andrea bursts in.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“What’s this I hear about the prison? You said no retaliation!” she yells.
She poses going to meet with Rick to work out the conflict.
“Andrea, if you go to that prison, you stay there,” the Governor says solemnly.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Later, Milton insists to Andrea that he didn’t know about the prison attack until after it happened (lies!), so Andrea asks him to cover for her while she slips away to meet Rick.
Of course Milton immediately retreats to the Governor to fill him in. The Governor encourages Milton to help Andrea out, so we know he has something evil up his sleeve.
As Milton is helping Andrea catch a walker that she can drag beside her as a diversion on the way to the prison, the two bump into Tyrese and his group in the woods. Milton invites them back to Woodbury. Uh oh.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Andrea successfully escapes to the prison. It is clearly very uncomfortable for everyone—she is required to be frisked and the group looks her in a completely different way. To make matters worse, she asked where Shane and Lori are. Awkward.
She also finds out that Rick’s group did not in fact fire on the Governor first, and the Governor was the aggressor.
“I can’t excuse or explain what Phillip has done, but I’m here to bring us together,” she says.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, Milton brings Tyrese’s group to meet the Governor and it isn’t long before they discover they have a mutual friend, so to speak. Rick. The Governor can’t hide his glee as he asks Tyrese to describe the prison’s layout, realizing he now has an in.
Back at the prison, Andrea speaks with Carol, who suggests that Andrea sleeps with the Governor and kill him when he least expects it. The group equips their former friend with a gun and car, and Rick tells her to be careful. It is unclear whether her visit made any progress.
In the episode’s final scene, we see Andrea begin to take Carol’s advice, but as she stands over the Governor’s sleeping body with a knife, she chickens out and doesn’t kill him when she has the PERFECT chance.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As it fades to black, we have to wonder if Andrea will ever side with her own group again, or if the Governor’s effect on her is too strong. Either way, she is going to have to make her decision soon because a war is brewing.
“The Walking Dead” airs Sunday night on AMC.