!!!!!!WARNING
SEASON 3 SPOILERS!!!!!!
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After last week’s non event of an episode,
E15 had a lot of work cut out for it to recover from the first weak episode of
a wonderfully strong season. Thankfully This Sorrowful Life is an incredible
return to form that mixes emotion, action and tension into a near perfect product.
As Rick doubts his plan to hand over
Michonne to The Governor in order to gain safety from an attack from Woodbury,
Merle takes matters into his own hands. He kidnaps the sword wielding heroine
and takes a trip towards the hostile town, a trip that adds some much needed
depth to these somewhat shallow characters. The conversation these 2 share is
interesting, giving is insight to Merle and he’s been moulded into a cold
blooded killer. Soon the kidnapping stops as Merle lets Michonne go free and
heads off on his own to The Governors meeting point.
After a string of almost action free
episodes, we are given a sublime payoff in the form of the episodes conclusion
as Merle launches a one man ambush on the would be Woodbury attackers. The 3
way battles that ensues is ace, but not in a bombastic or explosive manner.
Instead Merle shows some of his hidden intelligence by luring walkers to The
Governors men while picking off the confused soldiers from the discretion of a
barn. It makes for a riveting, punching-the-air scene that is exactly the taste
of violence the show needed to administer just before the series comes to its
deadly conclusion.
Beyond Merle and Michonne's trip, This
Sorrowful Life places little screentime on most of the remaining cast. The
little time we are shown is exclusively at the prison as Glen proposes to
Maggie and Rick states how the group should function as a democracy once again.
Both of these arcs gear up to the finale, but they feel like filler when
interspersed in amongst Merles act of evil.
Even as the tension rises, Season 3 still
feels like it’s ready to erupt all at once, saving the best moments till the
very last. The show feels like it's suffering from having an extended season
(16 episodes as opposed to season 2’s 13) and that an episode is either
explosive or story driven. Only there isn’t much story to drive after the mid
season finale, and the plot has bummed around, boosted almost solely by the
meeting between The Governor and Rick in Arrow on the Doorpost. Next week has
to be massive, it must conclude the Woodbury/Governor arc and there definitely
has to be blood. Until then, this fantastic episode will have to suffice.
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