The Walking Dead Review: “When the Dead Come Knocking”

“There are walkers outside!”
–Oh, great! A tie-in with Elementary.

In the final episode before the “mid-season finale,” the two camps come closer to direct conflict.

Title: “When the Dead Come Knocking”

Cast and Crew

Directed by Daniel Sackeheim

Written by Frank Renzulli from the graphic series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Robert Adlard.

Cast
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes
Danai Gurira as Michonne
Laurie Holden as Andrea
David Morrissey as the Governor
Michael Rooker as Merle Dixon
Scott Wilson as Herschel Greene
Steven Yeun as Glenn Rhee
Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene
Norman Reedus as Darryl Dixon
Melissa Suzanne McBride as Carol Peletier
Emily Kinney as Beth Greene
Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes
Vincent Ward as Oscar
Lew Temple as Axel
Dallas Roberts as Milton
Alex Van as Hermit
Peter Kulas as Mr Coleman
Jose Pablo Cantillo as Caesar Martinez

Additional cast and crew information may be found here.

Premise

Michonne informs the group at the prison that Glenn Rhee and Maggie Greene have been taken to Woodbury, though she provides far less information than she could. Rick seems to be back to his old self, Glenn and Andrea get subjected to brutal interrogation, and Rick leads a posse to round up his missing people. Milton performs an odd experiment; Coleman poses a threat, but Andrea is able to stove it off.

High Point

The interrogations, although not nearly as disturbing as they could be, prove suitably disturbing. We see how effective Glenn can be in conflict, and how vile Merle can be in general.

David Morrissey, meanwhile, brings real menace to his role without chewing scenery.

Low Point

1. I know Michonne is a guarded individual but, given that she deliberately sought out the prison and then goes on the raid to Woodbury, I would expect her to share more information than she does.

2. I can accept a crazy hermit surviving, holed up in his cabin, for this length of time, but I have a hard time believing he could do it less than a mile from Woodbury. He’d have been discovered and his cottage, ransacked.

The Scores

“No, Mister Rhee. I expect you to die. Ah, ha, ha!”
Not actually said by anyone in this episode

Originality: 3/6 To be fair, they take the cliché of having the group take refuge in a small cottage in a slightly different direction, and they actually make some sense of the cliché of having the interrogator set someone in a death trap…. And then leave.

Effects: 6/6

Story: 4/6

Acting: 6/6 The actors had to deal with both difficult challenges, and some contrived script business.

I prefer the quietly crazy version of the Governor to the graphic novel’s overt psycho/thug.

Emotional Response: 5/6

Production: 6/6

Overall: 5/6

In total, “When the Dead Come Knocking” receives 35/42

Final Comment

Next week’s will be the last we see until February 10, 2013.