“The Walking Dead” Episode 6 Analysis

SPOILERS AHEAD

The first thing that strikes me with the episode is its title and how it plays a central theme. Who is/are the Live Bait and how is it made clear?

I like the little time warp of this episode that showed us what the governor went through; those situations that happened parallel to Rick’s story.

Quickly into the episode, it’s apparent that the governor has no fear. It seems that he would have let himself be eaten by that walker at the camp fire and that he has changed, losing his will to live. His two remaining men see him for what he has become and abandon him. Don’t get me wrong, the governor is a bad guy, right? I mean, he’s someone we should hate… but then I started thinking… what about all he lost, or at least feels that he lost? How have those losses affected him? This man lost all his people… he lost his daughter. I come to believe that part of his evolution into this sick demented character has been due to what happened to his daughter.

Throughout the episode, it’s clear that he’s undergone a transition and that he’s in the process of reinventing himself, especially in that opening dialogue where he talks with the unspecified woman (who is later revealed to be one of the survivors).

Speaking about those survivors, what do you think about the family befriending the governor? Did they do the right thing with the information that they had? Did they do the right thing in the apocalypse?

Back to the governor, he seemed really lost, which is what I expected from a man in such a situation. I became very interested in what the governor would do when he came across those survivors, especially the little girl who resembled his own deceased daughter.

Isolation gives you a whole lot of time to think about the things you’ve done. And that’s what we see in Live Bait. What do you think about the governor folding over his own face in his family’s photo? It’s like he was trying to forget who he was or what he had become. He seemed like a pretty sympathetic figure. It was very interesting to see him operate as this totally different person.

The chess part seemed like a eye opener, no pun intended. It was a great analogy where he was able to say that one could lose all his pawns and still win the war.

I was really rooting for the governor’s redemption. I guess you can say that there’s tons of opportunity to create and recreate who you are in the zombie apocalypse.

On a sadder note, the whole old folks being left to die is something people have to be cognizant of in emergency situations. When things go bad everyone forgets about the most vulnerable in our society.

I definitely loved the episode. I kept wrestling with this question during it: despite all the terrible things someone may have done, is there still a chance where that someone can change for the better?