Scott Gimple On The Walking Dead’s New Conflict Between Rick And The Governor
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This Sunday is The Walking Dead‘s mid-season finale, “Too Far Gone.” After this week’s episode, The Walking Dead will not return to television until February 2014, so whatever series showrunner Scott Gimple has in store for viewers, it has to last in our minds for at least three months. The first seven episodes of season four are all leading up to another showdown between Rick Grimes and The Governor, but according to Gimple, it’s a different situation than what transpired in season three’s finale. Gimple told THR:
‘Any sort of Rick-Governor conflict is going to be a very different conflict — if there is one,’ says Gimple. ‘If these two people [have a] showdown — and God knows it certainly looks like that at the end of episode seven — I would hope that they’re two very different men who have gone through very different things.’
While we learned that The Governor tried to take a different path with his backstory in the episode “Live Bait,” he ultimately reverted back to the villainous in the following episode, “Dead Weight.” The same could be said for Rick Grimes throughout season four. At the beginning of the season, Rick was content with raising his son Carl and just being a farmer, but as the season has progressed, Rick has reverted back into a leadership role at the prison. It seems that Scott Gimple is trying to make the point that Rick and The Governor are more similar than different. Gimple continued:
‘One of them has tried to lay down his guns, tried to stop from being a leader, tried to pull his child back from the brutality of the world, tried to pull himself back from the brutality of the world and from the brutality of leadership,’ Gimple explains. ‘And we see him in the first episode [of season four] having achieved that, but it’s all taken away from him bit by bit in those first five episodes. Carol tells him he can be a farmer but he can’t just be a farmer.
‘Rick is a different guy from the season-three finale and season-four premiere,’ he adds. ‘The Governor, from the beginning of [episode] 406 is very different guy. When these two guys meet, in some ways, they’re meeting for the first time, and in some ways, it’s a new story. The only way to achieve that is to tell a different story with those characters leading up to it.’
The mid-season finale does feel very familiar to the season three finale, but it’s likely that its outcome might be different. In season three, Rick Grimes won out, while The Governor went on the run. If the series is leading on that The Governor will takeover the prison, while Rick’s group will be forced back into the outside world, then that would certainly be interesting.
Throughout season four, the writers have been teasing that the prison will not be the permanent setting for season. Maybe that’s just true for Rick Grimes and his group. The characters are believed to be on the run in the latter half of season four, while they meet new characters along the way: Rosita Espinosa, Abraham Ford, and Eugene Porter.
It seems unlikely that The Governor will die at the end of the mid-season finale. AMC’s teaser suggests “Some Will Fall.” If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Lilly from The Governor’s group or Beth from Rick’s group dying off. The writers and producers have always contended that no one is safe on the series, but the history of The Walking Dead suggests otherwise.
The Walking Dead‘s mid-season finale, “Too Far Gone,” will air this Sunday, December 1, at 9/8c on AMC.
