3. Live Bait (Episode 6)
This episode's source material was largely taken from the first novel, The Walking Dead: Rise Of The Governor, interestingly enough. It is also the episode with the lowest amount of main characters in attendance, with just David Morrissey's Governor appearing. In fact, if you haven't read the first novel (which, if you haven't, you should), then the only familiar characters here are Caesar Martinez, a corpse of Allen and an inkling of Shumpert. You know Shumpert, he's the guy who survived the Woodbury massacre who wasn't Caesar or The Governor. For a self-contained story, this really is a superb effort and it's great to see David Morrissey back after Season 3. It's even better to see him back without that beard, too. We gain insight into the fact that Brian/Philip/Governor is truly a changed man, or at least attempting to be, and it's always intriguing to see an episode try so hard to introduce moral shades of grey to a black-hearted man who unceremoniously mowed down his own soldiers. I guess some people expect that he'd turn up as the same scenery-chewing villain we saw uncovered in the series 3 finale, but instead of a maniac, he has a Jekyll and Hyde switch instead. I suppose that's better than a full time madman, right? The truth is of course far more complex than that, and it's interesting to see the plight of a truly bad man attempt some sort of fleeting redemption. It's an unflinching character study, and while this episode certainly has its detractors, it's certainly a brave and compelling watch.