On a night when the Oscars ruled the television airwaves, “The Walking Dead” faltered to pull away the audience and have a good episode.

After the assault by the Governor in last episode, Rick and the prison group are left trying to recover. Essentially being locked in because of the attack, the group tries to formulate a plan to retaliate.

The one good thing the attack seems to have had is knocking Rick back into his leadership role. No longer plagued by visions of his dead wife, Rick seems more focused than ever.

Meanwhile, in Woodbury, the Governor is organizing an army, enlisting every able bodied person in his town. Andrea tries her best to persuade the Governor to diplomacy but it leads nowhere. Realizing this, she ventures off on her own to try and convince Rick and company to lay down arms.

When Andrea arrives, the reunion isn’t as cordial as she had hoped. The group is unforgiving for what the Governor has done, almost blaming Andrea for it. However, before she leaves, it seems cooler heads prevailed as it’s a calm send off for her.

In the meantime, the Governor gets the aide of a few new recruits as Tyreese and his group decide to join Woodbury after being let go by Rick.

After a great action packed ending to last weeks episode, this one did not keep the momentum. The entire episode felt like it just dragged on, moving from scene to scene with no excitement.

There were also scenes that felt unnecessary. Like the Governor telling an elderly woman she has arthritis and a kid with asthma, it was like watching a writer pad their story to make word count.

There is also the problem of the mismanagement of Tyreese. In the comics, he was a strong character and the second-in-command to Rick. He was also a fan-favorite who lasted for over 30 issues, which was amazing in the comic with so many characters dying.

Right now, it’s hard to tell if he is going to be a strong recurring character or just thrown in for the sake of having another character from the comics. It’s a disservice to the comics and the character in question, and hopefully we find out soon.

This was definitely one of those filler episodes to move the story forward, closer to the inevitable fight. It’s understandable that this kinds of episodes won’t be very entertaining, but “The Walking Dead” has had episodes like this before that still managed to be fun to watch. This one just felt very average. There was Good dialogue but not enough to warrant a good rating.

Hopefully, with Rick, Carl and Michonne preparing to head back to Woodbury, this episode will become a distant memory like the visions Rick had of his dead wife.

Nathan can be reached at: [email protected]