The Governor is holding a meeting of all the residents of the camp, telling them how they need to move in order to stay alive and safe.  He’s using a lot of revisionist history when he describes the group that occupies the prison, calling them thieves and murderers.  He adds that they mutilated him – okay, that one was true – and that they burned his camp and killed his daughter, both of which are self-serving lies.   He announces that he’s brought a couple of them back to use during negotiations and we find out that he’s captured Michonne and Hershel.   The Governor assures them that no one needs to get hurt or die, they can just scare the other group away and take over the prison as their new home.   Lily is looking at him in the same way Andrea did when she found out what he was really like and asks him if he’s one of the bad guys.  He tells her that the only interest he has is in saving the lives of his new group and that he loves her.  She says that she doesn’t even know who he is.  Neither does he.

The Governor then goes into one of the RVs where Michonne and Hershel are being held, their hands bound behind them.  He offers them something to eat and tries to convince them that nobody’s going to get hurt.  Hershel tells him that he doesn’t believe him.  Hershel is no one’s fool.  The Governor, wanting to make amends with Michonne, tells her that he knows his daughter was dead – you know, no hard feelings.   Never mind he just told the mob outside that his daughter was murdered by those bloodthirsty prison dwellers.   Hershel attempts to reason with The Governor, asking him how he can possibly put other people’s children at risk, after watching his own daughter die.  The Governor responds that those children aren’t his.   He then goes outside and tells the group to pack up and get ready to leave.  They move their camp near a stream where he tells Lily that walkers don’t do too well in water and they should be alright there.  She asks him what will happen to Megan in this world and he says that she’ll be alive.  He then walks over to Megan who’s making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of mud, picks her up and hugs her.

At the prison, Maggie is tending to Glen who looks a whole lot better than he did a couple of weeks ago.  She teases him about their upcoming anniversary.  Rick and Daryl are having the long-anticipated conversation about Carol.  Daryl can’t understand why Rick didn’t take the matter back to the council, but Rick is adamant that he did the right thing.   He tells Daryl that Carol is strong and will survive but Daryl isn’t quite so sure.  Rick also admits that he hasn’t told Tyresse anything about Carol and her part in the deaths of the two group members.   Daryl says that they should go find out what Tyreese thinks.  When they find Tyreese, he’s upset by something he’s found.  He shows the two other men a rat, dissected and splayed across a board, much like a high school biology project, and wonders if the same person who did this also fed the rats to the walkers.

Both issues are left hanging as the prison is rocked by an explosion.  Running outside, the group sees The Governor and his own followers – and a tank for goodness sake – just beyond the fence.  The Governor wants to talk to Rick, but Rick says he’s no longer in charge, they have a council now.  The Governor asks him if Hershel or Michonne are on the council, then shows the prison group his two captives.   Rick nods to both Daryl and Carl, a message that didn’t need words, and walks to the fence to talk to his nemesis.   Rick offers to trade places with Hershel and Michonne telling The Governor that they can talk without hostages.  The Governor insists that he does need them to show just how serious he is.  He then tells Rick that they have until sunset to leave.  He has more people and more fire power and things won’t end well unless they do as their told.  Ricks pleads with him, that they have sick children who may not survive if they’re moved.   Daryl has been passing guns to the others, including Carl who offers to take out The Governor but Daryl says that that could mean even bigger problems for them.  Lizzie has rounded up the other children and wants to make sure that they all have guns, too so that they van help.

Lily is sitting on the roof of the RV, waiting for The Governor to return and watching her daughter playing in the mud.  She spots a walker across the stream until he falls into the water and is washed away.  Megan, however, has pulled up an old “Flash Flood Area” sign and, in doing so, has also uncovered a walker.  Before Lily can reach her child, the walker bites the young girl.

Rick is still trying to convince The Governor that it isn’t necessary for them to leave.  He tells him that they can live together, but The Governor says that his family wouldn’t sleep well with Rick under the same roof.   Hershel also says that it could work but The Governor says that it isn’t possible after what happened at Woodbury and to Andrea.  Rick then tells him that they’re not leaving, if The Governor forces them to, they’ll fight back.   He tries to appeal to the RV group asking them if this is want they want.  He asks them to put down their weapons and join him.   When he says that all of us have done the worst kinds of things to survive but that you can come back and you can change, Hershel smiles at him.  The Governor raises Michonne’s katana and slices Hershel’s neck.   Rick screams “NO!” and shoots The Governor, hitting him in the arm.

Everyone opens fire, on both side of the fence.  Rick is struck in the leg.  Michonne, her hands still bound, rolls away, looking for cover and a way to free herself.  She trips one of The Governor’s group, crushing his throat with her boot.  Hershel, barely alive, is crawling away, too, but The Governor finds him and cuts at his neck with the sword, over and over, until he decapitates him.    The Governor may have been in the foreground but there was no mistaking what he’d done in that scene.   Lily then shows up, carrying her dead daughter who The Governor shoots before she becomes zombified.   He then yells to his followers “We’re going in!  Kill ’em all!”

With that, the tank rolls over the fence and Mitch starts firing at the prions and anyone still inside.   Maggie tells Beth to get the children together and get ready to drive the bus.  She wants to go back and get Glen, who is trying to make his own way out of the Cell Block.  Rick and The Governor are locked in mortal combat, with The Governor looking like he’s got the upper hand.   Just as it seems as if Rick is going to choked to death, Michoone runs her katana straight through The Governor and back out again.  This is when I talked to Michonne, telling her to cut his head off, but she didn’t hear me.   Maggie gets back to the bus with Glen but now Beth is missing.  She’s told that she went back to find the rest of the children and Maggie takes off after her.  Daryl is firing at the advancing RV gang when a walker approaches him.  He stabs the walker in the head and uses him as a not quite human shield.

Bob is hit with a bullet but it’s a through and through and he tells Sasha and Maggie that he’ll be okay.   Tyreese has come under fire from Alicia and another RV member.  It looks like he may not make it but suddenly the other man is shot.  When Alicia turns towards the shooter, she sees Lizzie and Mika, along with some of the other kids, armed to the teeth.  While she stares at them,  Lizzie takes aim and kills Alicia with a shot to the head.   Carol was a very good teacher.  Daryl tosses a hand grenade inside the tank, but Mitch gets out in the nick of time –  or maybe not.  He’s now facing Daryl’s crossbow and before he can finish his suggestion to talk things out, Daryl fires and kills him.  The Governor is still alive, until Lily finds him.  She looks down and fires a shot with his gun, killing him.

The scene is one of complete chaos and destruction.  The bus has left and not everyone from the prison were aboard.  Maggie, Bob and Sasha watched it pull away and couldn’t, or wouldn’t, stop it.  Rick, struggling to get around on his leg and barely able to breathe from the beat down by The Governor, is looking for Carl.  As he’s approached by two walkers, they’re shot down and Carl is revealed as their shooter.    Daryl finds Beth and the two of them run off together.   Rick and Carl now try to find Judith but all they discover is her bloody car seat.   The two are devastated and sobbing, and begin to make their way from the ruined prison as walkers – including Irish Carla-  move towards it.  Rick tells his son to keep walking and not to look back.

Hershel is dead (bad) and The Governor is dead (good).  I’m not sure about  the fate of baby Judith, but I’m holding out for some good news – maybe we’ll see her in Carol’s care.  Tara and Lily are out there somewhere, too.  Daryl, Michonne, Rick, Maggie, Glen, Beth, Tyreese, Sasha and a few others made it out alive but the group is splintered now, with no apparent meeting place that I’m aware of.  The Walking Dead will be back on February 9, 2014.   I’ll see you then. 

Empress