Walking Dead Debrief 3x07 "When The Dead Come Knocking"...

See last week's debrief here.

See memes for this episode here.

WARNING: EPISODE 3x07 SPOILERS AHEAD!

IN SUMMARY:

* Glenn took a hell of a beating in this episode, as dispensed by Merle - that glimpse of a soft side is long gone here. The bad guy you love to hate just got a lot more dangerous.

* Baby "Judith" - just like in the comics.

Click "READ MORE" below for more debriefing, the best gore moment, best twist on the comics, and the cliffhanger...

* Michonne clearly works on instinct, and while Rick's warnings are clearly the sort that he'd follow-through on, she can see a marked difference in this group versus Woodbury. It was nice to get some character time here too - everybody finds out Carol is alive for one, but for another there was that beautifully performed piece from Melissa McBride where she was overjoyed by the arrival of the baby, but then the sudden realisation that it was at the expense of Lori - her mood flipping in an instant - packed considerable emotional clout.

* Even though we viewers know the answer (as does Andrea), it was cool to see Milton conducting one of his experiments - to see if anything of your past life remains when you turn. With the comparisons to Day of the Dead, it's interesting to note a difference in the walker's behaviour regarding past-life-recognition. In Romero's flick Bub remembered books, a razor, and a telephone (he even talked!), but here there's just pure motorised instinct. Haunting stuff.

* When the search party were surrounded by walkers in the woods, it was interesting to note that Michonne hanged back a bit - she was watching the others to see how capable they were.

* I dug the touch with the hermit in the woods ... the crazy old bastard's survived this long and then all of a sudden he's dead and getting his body fed to the undead as a distraction. An interesting aside along the way.

* Bear McCreary's music, once again, was great. The closing pieces of music really amped up the vibe of a coming storm, and the final piece even had a hint of Day of the Dead to it.

* In regards to The Governor - it's probably wise that they didn't go as far as they did in the comics. Here the man has to be alluring enough to the people of Woodbury as he is to the viewer (even if we know all of his secrets, unlike his residents), and if he'd gone all-out (like in the comics) that would have immediately severed any audience ties with the man. He's exceptionally dangerous and not to be trusted, but it's important that we see that there are multiple sides to this man, and even a bastard can have a charming and vulnerable - even loving - side. This further gives credence to Andrea's motivations - she has no clue he's a twisted git.

BEST GORE MOMENT:

Glenn spiking a walker in the head with the broken arm of a chair - a tense and kick arse battle to the death that proved the former pizza delivery boy has plenty of hair on his nuts, as per Merle's surprised assertion. That was pretty inventive, although feeding the dead hermit to the walker crowd to provide a distraction for an escape was quite nifty too ... grim, but nifty.

BEST TWIST ON THE COMICS:

As mentioned last week, in the comics it was Glenn and Michonne who were captured by the folks of Woodbury and subjected to torture (the latter receiving a rather extreme dose of it too), however replacing Michonne with Maggie upped the stakes and made things personal. Plus, so far anyway, the sexual threat in the comics (which was wince-inducingly graphic in its nastiness) has been subdued here - probably a wise move to not alienate large portions of your audience whose stomachs mightn't be as hardy as those familiar with the source material. Besides, the threat itself was enough here - edge of your seat stuff. Leave Maggie alone!

THE CLIFFHANGER:

Shit's about to go off in the next episode. Daryl will find out his brother's alive, Maggie and Glenn need to escape/be rescued, will Andrea find out the attack on Woodbury is being performed by her old friends, will she discover The Governor's dirty secrets? These questions and more were posed - I can't wait for next week!