Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 7 Recap: “When the Dead Come Knocking”

The latest episode just aired and I am already having withdrawals from watching The Walking Dead. Next week will be the last episode of this half of the season. But I’m getting ahead of myself, first we have to talk about what happened in episode 7 titled “When the Dead Come Knocking.”

Hit the jump for my recap, but beware; there are SPOILERS.

The two separate factions are almost at full confrontation, but I will still share what happens at the prison separately from what happens at Woodbury.

The Prison

Rick is staring at Michonne still unsure of what to make of her. The zombies that were previously ignoring her because of the guts covering her now smell the blood from her gunshot wound and begin to attack. Michonne defends herself well enough but the loss of blood causes her to slowly lose consciousness.

Rick is hesitant to help her but Carl quickly pulls his gun and kills a few zombies. Rick finally opens the gate and kills the surrounding zombies before they get to Michonne. He pulls her into the prison and carries her to the visitor’s area next to their cell block. Michonne wakes and instinctively reaches for her sword but Rick kicks out of reach. Rick tells her that Hershel will treat her leg, but she is locked in that area.

Rick then walks back to the cell block where Daryl now shows him that he had found Carol alive. They are able to share a moment of joy and reconnection before Carol realizes that Laurie is not there. Michonne watches everything from the barred door.

Rick then heads to question Michonne. He wants to know how she knew where they were and what happened to his people. Eventually he lays a hand on Michonne’s wounded leg and threatening her. After a tense moment, Michonne tells the survivors about Woodbury and the Governor.

Hershel begins his work on Michonne’s leg while Rick gathers a group to head to Woodbury, Oscar and Axel volunteer to help.

Before they head out, Rick finally has a talk with Carl about Laurie and how Carl has to protect the others. Carl suggest the name Judith for his sister, weirdly after his third grade teacher.

Michonne leads the survivors to the outskirts of Woodbury. They leave the car behind as to not attract attention and move towards the town on food through a path in the woods. The survivors surrounded by walkers begin the grisly work of dispatching the walkers like a well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, there are too many walkers and the group has to retreat. They run into a boarded up cabin while the walkers begin beating down the door.

Once inside the cabin, the survivors find a crazed individual that seems to have lost the concept of what is happening in the outside world. He points a shotgun at Rick until Rick disarms him. After a scuffle, the crazy guy heads to the front door to leave but the walkers are still there. Michonne has no other choice but to kill the man. Rick comes up with the plan to throw the dead body out the front door to distract the walkers while everyone escapes through a rear door.

Woodbury

Merle begins questioning a restrained Glenn about the other survivors. Merle is trying to find the prison and his brother, but Glenn is unwilling to cooperate. Merle threatens Maggie and as he leans in towards Glenn, Glenn headbutts Merle. With a wounded pride, Merle retaliates and beats Glenn. All of this is heard in another room by Maggie.

After being beat to hell, Glenn threatens that the others will come looking for him. He bluffs and tries to add to the survivors’ numbers by mentioning dead survivors as well as Andrea which Merle knows to be a lie.

Meanwhile, the Governor is showing Andrea more about the behind the scenes of Woodbury. He introduces her to an experiment that Milton is performing. The Governor asks for Andrea to stay and help Milton.

Milton’s experiment consists of repetitive memory cues that may stay with an elderly man named Coleman after he had died and turned into a zombie. Coleman soon passes away and Milton and Andrea strap him down to the bed. After Coleman turns, Milton begins the memory sequence. When Milton does not get the results that he wants, he suggests that they loosen the bonds to allow Coleman to fully move in reaction to the memories. Against Andrea’s wishes, he starts to remove the bonds and then the zombie lunges at him. Andrea quickly reacts and stabs the zombie. Milton confesses that he had never seen someone turn before.

Attempting to scare Glenn to give up information, Merle brings in a walker on a leash. When Glenn continues to resist, Merle leaves the room and lets the zombie loose. Glenn breaks the chair that he was duck taped to. He uses a piece of the broken chair still taped to his arm to pierce the zombie’s head.

Afterwards, the Governor takes his charm and tries to get answers from Maggie. While still acting well-mannered, the Governor orders Maggie to disrobe. If Maggie refuses, Glenn would lose a hand. The Governor then stands behind Maggie and pushes her down on the table. Maggie strongly accepts her fate but luckily the Governor bluffs in his threat. He leaves without going anything to Maggie.

Later the Governor has Maggie pulled into the room in front of Glenn. He threatens the death of the other if one of them does not reveal the truth about everything. The Governor holds his gun to Glenn’s head and Maggie reveals everything about the prison. The Governor and his men leave Maggie with Glenn.

The Governor questions Merle about where his loyalties are. Merle relies that he is loyal to Woodbury.

Outside Woodbury, the survivors creep up to outside the area beyond the wall.

Next week, we will finally see the ultimate showdown between these two communities.