'The Walking Dead' - 'Arrow on the Doorpost' Recap

Rick, Daryl and Hershel ride out into the country. They come across what seems to be an abandoned farm. Hershel sticks around in the car to stand (pun intended) guard as Rick and Daryl move further into the compound. As Rick walks into one of the barns, he sees the Governor in there waiting for him. The Governor shows signs of non-aggression and takes off his utility belt full of weapons and tells Rick that they have a lot to talk about.

Daryl sees the Governor inside and heads back around front to inform Hershel. As Daryl tells Hershel about what's going on, a car drives up. As the car comes to a stop, Martinez, Milton and Andrea hop out. Andrea makes a b-line for the barn in an attempt to talk both Rick and the Governor down, hoping to end the conflict that is sure to continue to escalate.

Back at the prison, the rest of the group is sorting through the weapons that were brought back from Morgan's stash. Merle wants to take some weapons and some people and go and sneak attack the Governor and end everything right there. Glenn insists they stick with Rick's plan. Merle isn't all too pleased, but Michonne and Maggie are there to back Glenn up.

At the barn, Andrea reveals that she called this meeting between Rick and the Governor to try and talk the both of them down. The Governor kind of nips that in the bud when he announces the only thing he wants out of this meeting is Rick's surrender. Andrea is then asked to step outside, by both Rick and the Governor, something that doesn't make Andrea feel to great about her place in this situation.

The Governor starts off by trying to get under Rick's skin. He drops some knowledge that Rick's newborn child might not be his, implying that Andrea let the Lori-Shane affair slip. He infers that Rick isn't the best judge of character, and in turn, not good to be leading a group of people. Rick doesn't seem to be letting this phase him, as he knows his initial feelings toward the Governor aren't changing despite the accusations.

Outside the barn, a group of walkers shows up to crash the party. Martinez and Daryl both head off to dispatch them all, each making gestures to the other to make the first kill, as if they're playing a game with each other. Andrea sees this and shrugs both of them off and takes care of the first walker. Martinez and Daryl then kill, gruesomely at that, the rest of the walkers. Daryl grabs a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of a walker, then he and Martinez talk to each other over a smoke about how despite anything that goes on between Rick and the Governor, there's going to be conflict.

Back inside the barn, the Governor tells Rick about how his wife died before the apocalypse and how he didn't get a chance to talk to her before she died. This story hits close to home with Rick.

At the prison, Merle is still set on heading out to kill the Governor while he's busy talking with Rick. Glenn puts his foot down and plants himself in front of the exit. The two men get into a wrestling match that sees Glenn pinned down my Merle and his knife hand. Maggie comes to Glenn's aid, getting Merle in a choke hold to try and get him off. Beth fires a shot off in the air in an attempt to calm everyone down.

After hearing Rick mention Maggie to the Governor before she was kicked out of the barn, Andrea brings the subject with Hershel. Hershel's response comes quick: "He's a sick man." Hershel tells Andrea that she's welcome to come back to the prison, that there's no love lost. Inside the barn, the Governor says he knows Rick has stocked up his gun supply. He also brings up that Woodbury has more men, and that quantity would beat out quality in this instance. To avoid the certainty of future bloodshed, the Governor says he only wants one thing: Michonne. He takes off his eye patch to show Rick what she did and tells him that if Michonne is handed over, no one else has to die. The Governor gives Rick two days to come up with a response.

As the summit ends, the two groups go their separate ways. Andrea ultimately goes back to Woodbury, an act that doesn't seem to sit well with Hershel. Back at Woodbury, the Governor tells Milton that the real plan is to kill everyone, except Michonne, as the Governor wants her for himself. Milton is not a fan of this at all. At the prison, Rick tells his group that the Governor wants them all dead and that they're going to war.

Rick comes clean with Hershel, telling him that all the Governor really wants is Michonne, and all else will be forgotten. Hershel points out that Michonne has saved a number of the group so far, including Carl and Maggie, and that she's earned her place amongst the group. Rick then asks him if he'd be willing to sacrifice either of his daughter's lives for Michonne's. Rick does seem to be considering the Governor's deal, but he wants Hershel to talk him out of it.