This is not so much a review of episode 15 of "The Walking Dead" as it is a study of the character Michonne. Episode 15 was great, probably the best episode I’ve seen so far. If you haven’t seen it yet, call in sick to work and watch it. Ok now that, that is out of the way, I want to talk about something that probably most people won’t agree with, and that is in this episode, Michonne didn’t seem like Michonne. There are some spoilers here so please don’t read any further if you haven’t seen the show.
Is it just me or did the interaction between Michonne and Merle seem out of character for Michonne? Michonne has always struck me as a very guarded individual. She has that air about her reminiscent of a woman who’s been in one abusive relationship after another and virtually incapable of opening her heart to anyone because it’s easier and safer not to feel. From what we’ve seen of her in the show she has good reason to behave and think this way. First, Andrea, a woman Michonne protected and nursed all winter long, abandoned her to live out an idyllic life in Woodbury. Second, The Governor sent Merle himself to kill her. Third, she was initially treated with fiery suspicion from Rick and the group as to her motivations. Fourth, we learned that the chained walkers that she carried around had obviously scarred her in a profound way while they were still alive...possibly both physically and emotionally. Fifth and finally, she learned through Merle that she was considered a thing by Rick to be pawned off in exchange for safety. Suffice to say that this poor girl has been given no reason to have faith in the goodness of humanity. She had no reason to trust people before the world shed it’s last bit of sanity, when social mores covered up the festering sores of a man’s soul with bandages of civility, and even less reason after the apocalypse, when the manhole cover was finally ripped off and the sewer of savagery flowed freely out of the hearts of both the dead and the living.
So in light of all this why would she seemingly have such comfortable interaction with Merle, a man who once tried to kill her and was now
kidnapping her to deliver her to a certain, drawn out, and painful death? At times during this episode she even seemed to be telling Merle that he wasn’t really a bad guy at all and that he was just playing a character that was really contrary to his true nature because he thought he had to play it. I don’t buy it! Michonne has always been a cold as ice bad ass when the situation calls for it but now all the sudden she has a full blown case of stockholm syndrome...WTF!! I mean come on, Glen acted closer to how I thought Michonne should act, when he demonstrated an unwillingness to forgive Merle in this episode! I would've expected Michonne to tighten up, go silent, flash an unyielding defiance in her eyes, and not for one second believe there's even a chance everything is going to turn out alright.
Now you can argue that her time at the prison softened her a bit, even though she hasn’t been there nearly long enough for the emotional callouses, that we’re led to believe she has, to melt away. But for her to dismiss the fact that Rick was the one that wanted to hand her over to the Governor with such grace is totally inconsistent with everything we’ve learned about her so far. One of the things that was so tantalizing about this episode was the fact that tension, reaching the point of critical mass, was building over the matter of how was Michonne going to react once she found out that people she was just beginning to trust, betrayed her. But instead of that wave cresting and crashing like the emotional tsunami of betrayal that it should’ve been, it just came a shore with a gentle and soothing lap. She doesn’t quietly simmer in a stew of rejection and forsakenness, forced to build bigger walls around her heart upon the revelation of Rick’s duplicity like you think she would. No, rather she waves it off saying “Rick’s a good man, and by the way Merle you’re really a good man too, and maybe once this is all behind us we can have cute little interracial babies that like knives and swords”. She didn’t really say that last bit, but that was the vibe I got.
Maybe I’m wrong and maybe she really does feel all these aforementioned things but just did a really good job of repressing them in this episode. Perhaps Michonne’s destroyed trust will be explored in the finale (doubtful), but even if it is I still feel cheated a little bit because that volatile dynamic of betrayal wasn’t utilized anywhere even close to it’s fullest potential in this episode.
Just one parting thought that has nothing to do with Michonne before I go. In my opinion it was waaaaayyyy too early for Merle to die. I was just starting to like the character and wanted to see some clear and verifiable redemption. Early in the episode Merle tells Rick that the motivations for his actions have always been a mystery to him. This is demonstrated later in the episode when Merle takes it upon himself to kidnap Michonne in order to deliver to, and make peace with, the Governor, only to inexplicably later release her and set out to kill the governor. Merle was a man that lived by dark foggy impulses, he was a man that died by them as well, and as much as I didn’t like it, it was satisfyingly consistent with his character.