After last week’s drama-filled episode, this week’s “The Walking Dead” took a different path with more storytelling and plot development.

Focusing more on what’s been happening in Woodbury, viewers saw the increasing instability of the Governor. After finding out he is entertained by keeping the heads of his victims, we now see that he keeps his daughter chained up since she is a zombie. In a strangely weird but nurturing scene, he is seen brushing her hair and accidentally pulls off a piece of her scalp.

Viewers also get to see Michonne uncover more about Woodbury and her growing fear that this safe little town may not be what it’s cracked up to be. Even though Michonne has her suspicions, Andrea is already taken by the town. While it’s nice to catch up with Woodbury, most of these scenes felt like they could have been done in another episode.

However, towards the end, things picked up in Woodbury. In a sick display of sport, two men battle with zombies all around in an arena-like format. Andrea bears witness to this and finally begins to see the sick side of the Governor as he proclaims this to be the town’s only form of entertainment.

It’s fun to see how each episode shows a little more of the Governors dark side and really keeps the intrigue up on how much further his character’s façade holds up.

Focusing back on Rick, we get to see how he copes with the loss of his wife. After gradually changing into a rough-and-tumble kind of character, he now is devolving into a mindless zombie himself. Killing walker after walker with no emotion and gutting a zombie he thinks ate the remains of his wife shows how far gone he is.

The best is saved for last, however. As Rick is in his daze from killing zombies he hears a phone ring. Fans of the comics should know what this means and hopefully next episode viewers get to find out who’s on the other line.

This episode was fine, but after last week’s episode ended on such a high note, it would have been nice to see more of Rick and Carl. We don’t see much of Carl and it would be interesting to see how he is coping with this. Having to watch your mother die in childbirth and then kill her again so she doesn’t come back as a zombie is not an easy task for a young boy.

It’s understandable though to have an episode like this since there are 16 episodes and not all will be so action-filled. Even with the few bright spots in the end of the episode, this one felt more like a filler and left more to be desired.

Nathan can be reached at: [email protected]