The Governor's Got A New Gang: 'The Walking Dead' Season 4, Episode 6 Recap

As we found out last week, with our parting glance at the episode, The Governor is back! The Walking Dead was a flashback episode this week though, so we don't know what he might be doing stood outside the prison for now, but at least we got a bit of closure on what happened between now and his mass slaughter of his followers at Woodbury at the end of last season.

It was 'The Governor Show' this week

We flash back a couple of months to the point when the Governor has just slaughtered a number of his townsfolk, and things pick up just after the killings. With his two henchmen by his side, Martinez and Shumpert, the three drive up in to the woods and set up a small camp to regroup. The Gov. seems distraught as he sits by the burning fire, too distraught to even kill a walker that managed to wander into the camp fire. As he wakes up the next morning, he has even more reason to be distraught, finding the campsite deserted, with Martinez and Shumpert having taken off with the truck, leaving him to fend for himself.

Making his way back to the old town, he finds it set ablaze, deserted, except for the herd of walkers grunting through the streets. The months pass as The Gov. drifts through the town, the memory of those heinous acts serving as his only company, until he collapses in the street from lack of water/food or exhaustion. The collapse though was a convenient one after all, as it lands him right across the street from a young girl.

Getting up, he walks towards the apartment block he saw the girl in and walks inside, with a gun pointing at his face to greet him. The Gov. is a ragged, unshaven, shadow of the man he once was, and as he feebly hands over his gun to the awaiting Tara - who turns out to be the girls aunt - you get that first glimmer of hope that he might still turn for good. Once inside, we and The Gov. are introduced to adult sisters Tara and Lilly, their cancer suffering father and Lilly's daughter, Megan, who we saw earlier as a ghostly figure, and who it turns out doesn't speak, but does enjoy a game of backgammon with her dying grandfather. Introducing himself as Brian Heriot - a name he saw on the side of a hotel - soon enough, as the episode progresses, he manages to befriend his new crew. Maybe he's human after all?

As the family and Gov. become more friendly, with the eye patch wearing mass murderer moving into the apartment block, the father asks The Gov. if he could go to a friends apartment and fetch a backgammon set for Megan to play with, in the hopes that it will prompt her to talk once again. He agrees, finding a handgun and bullets on his journey too, and returns the set to the delighted family, before announcing that he thinks it time for him to leave.

More conflict on the horizon?

Just as he's about to turn his back on the family, there's time for one more favour, as Lilly asks him to go to a nearby retirement home to fetch some oxygen tanks for their dying father. With his newfound good guy status in tact, The Gov. agrees to the daring misson. Finding a full crate of oxygen tanks, The Gov. only managed to escape with two of the suckers, thanks to a zombie attack as he was making his way out. Returning triumphantly, but not as triumphant as he could have, it looks as though the family have found a new protector, one who very nearly gave his life for them.

Whilst Lilly cleans up a wound on his head, Megan comes over and actually talks with him, asking him where the eyepatch is from. This marks a moment where walls are broken down around The Gov. and no longer does he see Megan as another reminder of Penny, but he's actually taken a shine to her. Soon after, he even cleans up, combing back his hair and (somehow) shaving off his epic beard.

Teaching Megan how to play chess, she asks whether a player loses if a pawn dies, to which he replies, “You can lose a lot of soldiers, but still win the game.”

Nothing that ominous or foreboding can't have been said in The Walking Dead without it meaning something. Surely!

Sadly, the time has passed for grandpa, but not before he can reanimate and try to kill the whole family, only for The Gov. to bash his brains in with the oxygen tank he had earlier retrieved. Tara is grateful for what he did, no matter how brutal, but now Megan is absolutely terrified of him. After much (not much really) convincing, the girls and The Gov. team up and head on the road, climbing into a box truck awaiting them outside. Whilst the gang sleep, Lilly and The Gov. get steamy with some making out, and the lights go dim for the night.

Come morning and there's walkers aplenty coming down the road for them. Megan runs into The Gov.'s arms and the group disperse into the woods, only for the newly reformed Gov. and Megan to fall down a ditch where, of course, there are three walkers. In what might be his most badass act to date, The Gov. beats them all to death with his bare hands! Promising Megan he will "never gonna let anything happen to you,” he looks up, awaiting more walkers, only to see Martinez! What happens next? We'll have to find out next week.

We should be back in the prison next week