Fair warning: There may be spoilers for those of you who have not seen Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead or even for those who haven’t read the comics.

When both Robert Kirkman and Glen Mazzara stated they wouldn’t be pulling any punches this season, they weren’t kidding. “Walk With Me” started out interestingly enough, low and slow, and then wound up with a jaw-dropper, so to speak.

Having read this particular story arc, I saw The Governor’s (David Morrissey) depravity coming and I was still creeped out by it, especially when we got the full-on view of chopper pilot Lieutenant Wells’ decapitated head floating in the tank. I wasn’t expecting the “viewing wall” scene to come quite that quickly. It definitely set a tone going forward and made everyone watching sit up a little straighter in their chairs, I imagine. But … I’m “getting ahead” of myself a tad …

Here’s some lowdown on The Governor that made this episode brilliant for me: The guy is shrewd as all get out. He’s got an underlying smarm that hovers right underneath his cool-as-a-cucumber veneer. It’s perfect in that it keeps you guessing where his intentions might lead, but his congenial nature wins you over. At least that’s what’s happening with Andrea at any rate. (Michonne is having none of it; shes keeping her guard on the alert.)

But what makes The Governor so affecting? It’s pretty evident he holds sway over his rather mousey Girl Friday scientist Milton. He can get away with pushing ever so slightly and questioning The Governor to a degree, but he knows his limits. That right there tells me The Governor is ruling with some kind of iron fist, though we don’t quite know what shape it comes in precisely. But … Merle? At mere mention, it was as if Merle did a little kowtow dance after being reprimanded by him. That was a surprise. It was revealed by Merle himself that he was on his last leg when Woodbury found him and patched him up, but there’s something much more there, something we’ll get to soon enough.

So … what makes The Governor so bad ass? What kind of virtual cattle prod does he wield over his charges that gets them to perform at his beck and call? Because he wasn’t that way previously by evidence of the family photo he sneered at in passing as he was en route to his “viewing room.” (Anyone notice Andrea bears a striking resemblance to The Governor’s wife?) And speaking of Andrea, she percolated one of the most chilling moments of the episode for me when she asked The Governor’s name and he refused. His two-syllable response (“Never.”) was disturbing. And even Andrea caught wind of that.

So … is what we’re seeing coming to light in this character some of the worst that could come out of humanity? With this “walker apocalypse” about a year in on The Walking Dead, could someone become that twisted? You could roll up the degeneracies of Shane and Ed Peletier (Carol’s former husband) in a tidy ball and it wouldn’t come close to what we’ve seen in The Governor to this point. Because just that little glimpse at the end of the episode shows us he’s harboring some pretty sordid and debaucherous tendencies. And (spoiler) it’s only going to get worse.

But what I really want to know is what does The Governor have that keeps everyone in line? And I’m going back to what we saw with Merle when he knuckled under at a few simple words. Merle, as we’ve seen in the past, is all about Merle. He doesn’t give quarter to anyone. Yet … there he was practically cowering in front of The Governor. I’m having a difficult time believing he’s exemplifying servitude to Woodbury and, specifically, The Governor for nursing him back to health. Is there some kind of pact between the two? Does Merle owe The Governor something were not yet privy to? I’m just as perplexed as anyone what could possibly have Merle metaphorically shackled.

I had a discussion about the point of The Governor’s massacre of the military contingent. Wouldn’t it have been just as easy to garner the confidence of those troops rather than lay them low in the way he orchestrated? No. That’s not the kind of man he’s revealing himself to be. There’s a big difference in dealing with Michonne and Andrea all nicey-nice as opposed to the way he did with the guys in camouflage. Do away with them and he simply takes the spoils, i.e. their armored transports, weapons and other supplies. Talk about ruthless. It’s just a taste of The Governor’s sick methodology and how he keeps house.

Have we seen this kind of villain in a while? No … I don’t think so. Not since the outstanding characterization of The Joker portrayed by Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight at any rate.

But even the Joker — unbalanced as he was — didn’t keep “souvenirs” …

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