I really liked Dr. Stevens, but I knew his time was short when he started talking about how relieved he was to be out of Woodbury. Whenever someone gets too optimistic in this series, their doom is nigh. On one level a big part of that is the undeniable reality that Robert Kirkman has a propensity for killing off characters the moment something good happens to them. It continually drives home the resounding message that NO ONE (except maybe Rick if we’re being honest) is safe. However, on a more in-universe level, characters who become the recipients of a sudden good turn of fortune often have a tendency to let down their guards even if only for a moment. Unfortunately, for a world as fraught with dangers as The Walking Dead, one moment is all it takes. I like what Rick says to Carl on the television show. “No one is safe. All it takes is one moment and it’s all over.” Not sure if that’s the exact quote, but the gist is the same. Doctor Stevens survived under the Governor’s thumb for so long only to die within minutes of making it out of Woodbury. Why? Because he let down his guard for a single ill-timed moment. It’s easy to imagine ourselves in such scenarios, and we always see ourselves as being perpetually vigilant and not making such “stupid mistakes” like Dr. Stevens and Donna did. However, real human beings in real life scenarios let down their guards all the time. But the consequences of such moments of inattention are usually much less severe in our everyday lives than in a zombie apocalypse.

As for Stevens and Alice, it’s not surprising in a way that their long delayed exodus from Woodbury was met with such a terrible complication. They seem like good people, but perhaps they are at least a little guilty of making a deal with the devil, or in this case the Governor. One imagines that they both (especially Doctor Stevens) enjoyed a little more leeway than most people did when it came to the Governor’s brutal and controlling tendencies. Doctors and trained medical personnel are precious commodities in the zombie apocalypse, and the Governor would never dispense with such an asset lightly. Therefore, Stevens and Alice benefitted from the Governor’s charismatic control of Woodbury while perhaps turning a blind eye here and there to certain brutalities they became aware of. While both of them easily disparaged the Governor’s psychotic and violent actions, neither of them left the security that Woodbury afforded them until the catalyst of Rick entered their midst. They stayed a little too long and perhaps it was an unfortunate reckoning of sorts that Stevens could not escape when he finally decided to.

Speaking of reckonings, this episode featured a big one for the Governor himself in the vengeful form of Michonne. Like Stevens, he too let down his guard at a crucial moment, and that was all an enraged Michonne needed to get the jump on him. All of the Governor’s past sins that he has accumulated have given birth to a shogun badass who is there for a reckoning. The bill has come due, and one imagines that the Governor will finally begin to pay for his unpunished trespasses. Which is about damn time! more