This week’s episode of The Walking Dead, Dead Weight, focused on The Governor again. This time, we are in for a surprise. Curious to find out what happens in the new camp? Check it out below. Also check out Violet and Josh’s thoughts after, and let us know what you think of the Governor’s decision! Let’s get started on this week’s The Walking Dead episode recap!
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The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 7: Dead Weight Recap Overview
Need a quick The Walking Dead episode recap of Season 4 Episode 7, titled Dead Weight? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed The Walking Dead episode recap for Dead Weight if you need more information!
- The Intro scene bounces back and forth between Meghan and the Governor and when they are found by Martinez. The Governor is “thinking” his next move out.
- The Governor helps with a supply run, with Martinez and 2 other guys. One of them, Mitch, gives “Brian” a hard time. Meanwhile, they find a cabin that has had some terrible murder suicide go down. The Governor seems to be affected by this.
- The group parties after their supply run. Martinez talks with The Governor alone which is a mistake. The Governor murders him.
- The announcement of Martinez’s death is made, and the group thinks it was an accident. Pete assumes leadership, but the group is hostile. On another supply run, Pete opts to leave a survivor camp that Mitch wants to take. Later they find the group dead, angering Mitch further.
- The Governor makes his play for the camp, killing Pete and talking Mitch into backing him. He immediately begins his plans of leading the camp
- The Governor leaves Pete as a zombie, dropping him with an anchor to the bottom of a lake. He then pays a visit to the prison, remaining hidden as he takes aim at Michonne with his pistol.
The Walking Dead Episode Recap: Dead Weight, the Details
The Governor Thinks
On Season 4 Episode 7 of The Walking Dead, titled Dead Weight, we continue following the Governor’s storyline. It begins with the little girl, Meghan, playing chess with the Governor. It also cuts back and forth between Martinez finding him in the pit we ended with last episode. Martinez accepts them into his group. The Governor tells her while playing chess that “you can’t think forever. Sooner or later you have to make a move”. He also makes a comment about his father beating him. Going by Brian now, Martinez catches on, and lets him keep up his charade. Martinez offers to take them to his camp, but his new buddy, Mitch, protests. Martinez tells the Governor there will be “no dead weight” from his people. Back at the chess scene, Meghan asks if they all are good, to which the Governor doesn’t reply. Meghan follows up with telling the Governor it’s his turn. He responds “I’m thinking”.
The Supply Run
Inside their new trailer home, Lilly is concerned about “Brian” going on a run. Meanwhile, the Governor examines his leaking roof. Lilly plans to set up a nurse’s station, to which “Brian” protests at first, but she insists.
On their run, they are going through the forest, and Mitch is a little passive aggressive towards the Governor. They find a cabin, and several people are dead, all with signs on them, of their “sins” they committed presumably–liar, rapist, and murderer. The murderer is not missing his head like the others, but it’s shot out with a shotgun. The Governor finds a photo…eerily similar to his own family photo he burned last episode.
The Governor checks the house, and they are surprised by a zombie. The Governor takes it out in a grisly manner, and another that surprises Martinez. Martinez tells the Governor that he wouldn’t have brought him into the group if he didn’t have those girls with him. Martinez also thinks that the Governor has changed. Meanwhile, Mitch has found some beers to enjoy. They then begin thinking about what happened in the Governor’s and Martinez’s camp. Martinez gets close to telling his history, but “Brian” changes the subject. We learn a little background on the other guys. Pete, Mitch’s brother, seems to be the honorable one of the group.
The Governor Makes His Play
Back at the camp, Lilly is tending a girl named Alisha. Tara and Alisha have a back and forth as Alisha’s wound is tended. Alisha calls her out on BSing, and Tara admits to it.
The group has made it back to the camp, and Martinez and Brian’s group are chit chatting, and seem to be getting along real well. Lilly wants to know more about the past, but Brian says, “the past is the past”. Alisha and Tara go off to hang out, and Martinez is heading back to his trailer, quite tipsy.
Back inside his trailer, the Governor begins working on his leaky roof, when Martinez wants to show him something. They head to the roof of a trailer, and Martinez hits some golf balls off it. We learn one of Martinez’s buddies died. Martinez talks about living with their demons, and then offers to “share the crown” with the Governor. This doesn’t go over well with the Governor, and he whacks Martinez with a golf club. He kicks him off the trailer, then drags in to the zombie pit, head first, where they pull him in. All the while screaming, “I don’t want it!”
To Pillage or Not to Pillage
Inside his trailer, Brian is upset, and he tells Lilly and Meghan he had a bad dream. Lilly asks what the dream is, and he says he can’t remember. Mitch makes the announcement the next morning that Martinez was found dead. Pete wants to take the lead, but the crowd is a little unruly. Pete makes a rousing speech, and says that a vote will be done in the next few days.
Pete, Mitch and “Brian” head out on a hunt again. Pete asks him for some help with the leadership, as they spot a camp of survivors. Pete wants to take them in, but Mitch wants to rob them. Pete refuses, and the Governor remains quiet. They leave them alone and continue their search. The Governor pauses, but follows eventually. They find some supplies, but Mitch isn’t happy with the turn out. The Governor checks out the survivor camp again, and they are now all dead–supplies stolen by another group. Mitch is angry, and tells Pete that their death was going to happen either way, and now they’re out the supplies. Mitch then kills a survivor that was not dead yet and Pete is angry with him for it.
The Governor Wants to Save the Camp
The Governor comes back to the trailer, and tells Lilly to get packing, saying that the camp isn’t safe anymore. The Governor tells her that the camp is going to turn ugly. They eventually all agree to leave that night, and take off in a vehicle. The Governor suddenly stops the car, and we see why–a pit of zombies stuck in mud block the road. The Governor looks at them for some time.
They return to camp, and Lilly asks what the Governor is doing, to which he responds, “Surviving”. He pays a visit to Pete. Upon entering Pete’s trailer, The Governor stabs him, and chokes him to death. He then visits Mitch’s trailer. He aims his gun at him, and ushers him inside. The Governor tells Mitch his brother is dead. Mitch thinks it was over the guy he killed at the other camp. The Governor tells him that he thought Mitch was right about that camp. We learn more about the Governor, that he had a brother–who defended him from their abusive father. Oddly, the Governor demands Mitch smoke a cigarette despite Mitch saying that he quit. The Governor tells Mitch he will do whatever he can to save the camp, and makes his reasoning that he will do “the only thing” that will save this camp.
The Timelines Meet
The Governor then takes Pete’s body to a lake–leaving him as a zombie. Meanwhile, we hear Mitch and The Governor discuss what to do about Pete–to which The Governor says that they will say he died on the supply run.
The camp has begun putting up walls. The camp has a meeting, to maximize the effectiveness of the camp. The Governor also tells the camp to tell him of any strangers in the camp.
Talking with Lilly, the Governor tells her they can find a better place–if they fight for it. Lilly is content with where they are now though. Outside, Tara and Meghan play some tag. Still inside, the Governor tends to his eye, and Lilly comes in and helps. Back outside, Meghan runs into a zombie, which chases her under trailer. Tara tries to help, but it is the Governor that has to come and shoot it in the head.
The Governor returns to the lake, and we see the zombie Pete reaching for him from the pit. He has been anchored down, stuck there forever. The Governor then takes a drive. We have now caught up to the Prison Group from two episodes ago, as The Governor watches the group from afar. He sees Michonne, pulls his gun out, and takes aim at her.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 7: Dead Weight
So, my sister and I had a big discussion prior to the episode as to The Governor, and his motivations, and not asking if he was a good person, but rather if he thought he was a good person. Prior to this episode, it was hard to say, I feel. We both seemed to be not fully convinced either way, although she certainly wants the Governor to burn. Our conversation was interesting, which turned into talking about the definition of “good” and “evil”, and how those terms can be applied to certain people–or if they can be applied to people at all.
Then this episode happens, and The Governor doesn’t help his case. However, there are a few things this episode that happen to make me wonder about him. First outside of the show–how many people are truly evil for the sake of being evil? What makes people do bad things in the first place? These are tough subjects, what makes a serial killer…kill? What makes a man rob a bank? Or any other crime for that matter? Sure, there is not one simple reason for all criminal activities, but I guess that is what makes it so complex.
Now, back within the show, there are two moments that make me wonder about the Governor. The first is when he is killing Martinez–he repeatedly says, “I don’t want it.” What doesn’t he want? If I were to make a deduction, I would say he doesn’t want the responsibility/leadership of the camp.
The second thing he does, is when he talks with Mitch, he says, “We will do the only thing to save this camp”. He specifically says that they will not worry about the “right” thing or the “wrong” thing. This makes me think that what he has done, in his mind, is the only way they can survive. I get the feeling, he has convinced himself he is this camp’s savior, and apparently, he will do anything–anything to keep it going.
I guess the conclusion I have for the Governor is still muddled, but most certainly–he is not what humanity should be. Many people within the show and viewers seem to throw “conventional” laws and thoughts out the window. I find that hard to swallow, and would like to think the best of humanity would be what perseveres in such a catastrophic event. Given what we have seen during natural disasters, I believe that while there will certainly be the “evil” present, the overwhelming majority will step up, and not become twisted like the Governor, and his thought processes.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 4 Episode 7 of The Walking Dead: Dead Weight
As I mentioned last week, the Governor didn’t fool me for a second that he had “changed.” It was all too clear to me that he was just biding his time until he found the right time to strike. That being said, I didn’t see the Governor’s sudden attack on Martinez coming. At first, I thought it was in response to Martinez’s comment that he would “share the crown” with the Governor, because the Governor wanted the whole crown to himself, but then, interestingly, as he was killing Martinez, he kept yelling, “I don’t want it!” which is the opposite of what I thought. I’m not sure why killing Martinez would solve that problem, because all it did was cause him to retake the crown — that he said he didn’t want.
Again, I thought it was unnecessary to devote another whole entire episode to the Governor, but at least we saw it coming this time. Just as I thought it would, this episode ended the way the last episode with the prison group left off, with the Governor showing up outside the prison. In any case, it was interesting to see the dynamic of this other group that’s out there fending for itself, and what’s more, see another group on top of that. We’re so wrapped up with the prison group, that we don’t really know what else is going on in the world, not even in the vicinity, besides what’s going on with our little group. What I found interesting is that we learned that there are apparently several other groups of survivors in the area, as the Governor’s new group personally encountered one other group, the one that Pete decided not to attack, and then that very group was attacked by yet another group of people. It surprised me that there are this many survivors in such a small area.
It looks like the Governor may be starting a new collection of walkers in the lake to replace his collection of walker heads that was destroyed. His first specimen is Pete. Will he have a chance to add more to his lake collection?
I’m not really sure how this episode is going to go, although it advertises that we finally get the showdown that we’ve been waiting for between the Governor and Rick’s group that we were expecting at the end of last season. For some reason, I get the feeling that this episode may just build up to the showdown, and then leave us with a cliffhanger until it returns in February 2014, since this next episode is the midseason finale, and The Walking Dead likes to give us cliffhangers.
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 8: Too Far Gone
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Walking Dead, titled Too Far Gone:
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 4 Episode 8: Too Far Gone
What did you think of Season 4 Episode 7 of The Walking Dead, titled Dead Weight? How do you think the midseason finale will end? Let us know in the comments below!
The Governor is a bastard through and through, no matter what he calls himself. I do think he was trying to change himself in some way at some point there, but he can’t escape his nature.