Undead Walking
Fansided

Rick Grimes: Alexandria’s Constable or Governor?

By Susie Graham

facebooktwitterreddit

“In this life now you kill or you die or you die and you kill,” ~The Governor

“If they can’t make it, then we’ll just take this place.” ~Rick

Our own Nir Regev at Undead Walking noted recently, “it was a mere mid-season finale a year ago when Rick Grimes attempted a dialogue with The Governor and his group…Now it’s Rick in The Governor’s place, mulling over taking over Alexandria (The Prison) by force.”

This is an interesting notion to ponder. It’s impossible not to notice that our group has become changed by what they’ve seen and done. Meeting people like Father Gabriel and entering the town of Alexandria has shined a light on that.

The parallels with The Governor are becoming more interesting now in Alexandria.  The Governor took over Martinez’s established camp and effectively took over the prison in that he killed Hershel and mowed down the fences, ran them out and separated them. 

One difference I see is that Rick Grimes hasn’t slick-talked his own group into doing things they don’t want to do. He’s truly interested in the well being of his family.   The words moral compass get thrown around quite a bit when discussing certain characters on the show. I don’t think any one character is the moral compass. I think the job is passed around all the time, which is how they’ve survived so many situations together and, as Deanna and Aaron have commented so often recently, they have not turned on each other.

The Governor was a dictator-took no counsel from anyone around him. He had no real emotional connection to those he wanted to protect; they were nothing more than possessions like the caged biters, closeted daughter, trophy heads in tanks, and even tied up and handcuffed Andrea, just things to enhance his power and sense of self.

Rick’s own speeches to Deanna serve to warn her against the threat that he and the group might present to them simply because people are a threat now. He wants her to learn vicariously through them how to protect her town.  All of them at one point were as naive as the Alexandrian’s are now. The Governor would never entertain the notion of warning or helping.

In fact, Rick Grimes is doing now what he offered The Governor that mere mid-season finale a year ago -the offer to join an established community and live side-by-side even after they’ve all done awful things.  At least they didn’t decide that the Alexandria’s are “liars” before giving it a try. But they’ve learned the lessons from The Governor and from Terminus and if plan big red A doesn’t work out, they have plan B to take the place.

One final thought. Have we become The Governor?

Hershel once asked The Governor how he could threaten someone else’s daughters when he understood what it’s like to want to protect his own daughter.  The Governor’s cold answer? “Because they’re not mine.”

As audience members are we willing to sacrifice people from other groups because ‘they’re not ours’?

What do you think about Rick and our group and what they’ve been through and how it has affected them?

Next: Walking Dead 50 most shocking moments and deaths

More from Undead Walking

Home/Opinion