The Walking Dead Midseason Premiere Recap: The Suicide King

The episode begins right where we were when we left off (and we’ve seen this clip before, too): with the revelation that the Dixon brothers will be expected to battle it out in the arena lest they both be torn apart by the Woodbury crowd. Andrea tries to make the Governor put a stop to it, but he claims to be deferring to the town, then tells Merle to prove his loyalty by killing Daryl.The brothers look at each other briefly and then Merle launches into his crowd-pleasing routine, setting brutally upon Daryl, who doesn’t fight back. A walker is brought into the ring with them, just as Daryl begins to fight back. A second walker is brought back in, and as the brothers struggle on the ground, surrounded by the crowd and walkers on leashes, Daryl asks Merle if he really believes the Governor will let him go. Merle simply tells him to “follow my lead, little brother; I’m gonna get you out of this.”The two get to their feet and begin to take out the walkers that they’re being surrounded by, while Milton looks on with a disapproving look and Andrea continues to rant about the madness, to no one at all listening.Moments later, though, the walkers start to go down, sniped from a distance by Maggie Greene with a rifle; next to her, hidden just outside the arena, is Rick Grimes, carrying another of the flash grenades from the prison. He launches it into the arena, causing the crowd to disperse in panic, while the Governor stands in the middle of the chaos and draws his gun.