Season three of AMC's hit horror series "The Walking Dead" continues to follow through on its promise of finding every character's limits and eviscerating them.
Killing off T-Dog, and Lori - and possibly Carol, as well - episode four pushed Rick to the brink of sanity. Episode five, "Walk With Me," pushed him over the cliff.
We'd wondered how Rick would deal with the recent loss of his wife, and "Walk With Me" was not coy in providing an answer. In the midst of a complete and total nervous breakdown, the only thing that could calm the hell storm fire raging inside Rick was good ol' fashioned zombie blood lust. Even for a show that often prides itself on piling on the gore, episode five plunged deep into such a primal, dark place it's unclear whether or not its possible for Rick to come back from this.
Based off the monthly black-and-white comic book series written by creator Robert Kirkman, "The Walking Dead" follows a gang of lost souls just trying to survive day-to-day life in a post-apocalyptic U.S. overrun with the living dead. The show is striking its own path at this point, deviating at free will from the narrative in the comics, but still includes a fair amount of detail from the source material.
Kirkman had hinted that episode five would pack a surprising punch for fans of the comics, and introduce viewers to The Governor's daughter in an opening scene that could leave the audience dumbfounded.
"I don't want to reveal too much," Kirkman said to AMC. "But I will say that the opening scene of Episode 5 is, uh...It's going to be a pretty memorable one. So be on the look out for that."
Kirkman's promise rang true. Episode five introduced yet another element from the comics, Penny, The Governor's zombie daughter.
The episode's surreal final moments could provide yet another possible gateway into the world of the comics, Kirkman recently revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
After an hour that found Rick seeking catharsis via gruesome displays of violence on walkers, the phone rang near the boiler room where Lori died. But was the phone call just in his mind? Readers of the comics might remember that after Lori's death, Rick continued to talk to her through imaginary phone calls in his head.
When asked if we could see that element playing out in the show, Kirkman responded to the Hollywood Reporter with a laugh and said, "There are certain hints to certain storylines that you can get from the comic book series. I'm not going to reveal one way or another, but there's a chance that if you have taken the time to go out and buy the comics, you may have a leg up on the television show. But I'm not going to say anything."
Can we expect this to continue? "He's definitely not in a good place. This is a guy who has had the weight of this entire world on his shoulders for a very long time, and what we've witnessed in this last episode and the one before it is his breaking point. And now that he's broken, it's a question of whether or not he comes back from that or if he continues to go down the dark path. That's what we'll be seeing moving forward.
We also saw a surprising new sensitive side to The Governor in the episode's first minutes, when we were introduced to his zombie daughter Penny for the first time. Kirkman says the Penny relationship will reveal a lot about The Governor, but it will tell us just as much about the people of Woodbury and why he values them.
"That's really the answer as to why he puts so much stock in Milton (Dallas Roberts)," said Kirkman referring to Penny.
"He is desperately clinging to Penny despite her status of being a zombie, and he's got this guy who's saying, 'Look, there are certain things about these creatures that we don't necessarily know, and I'm going to study and find out more things about them.' The Governor is certainly hopeful that there will be some kind of thing discovered that tells them that that is in fact still his daughter and he hasn't lost her. But who knows where that'll go or what his reaction will be when he gets the news."
Just why is The Governor keeping Penny a secret? "He's an intelligent person, and the idea of keeping a zombie in the closet is going to be somewhat strange for a community to take. That news is not going to go over well in a community with that large of a group. So I think it's very wise of them to keep that as under wraps as he can."
Episode six of season three, "Hounded," airs Sunday Nov. 11 at 9/8c on AMC.