In Defense of Andrea

***HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. YE HAVE BEEN WARNED.***

As will surprise absolutely no one, I love AMC's The Walking Dead. I love the writing, direction, acting, characters, action, and overall design. I love that it's become a ratings juggernaut. I love that an indy comic is getting so much attention. I like that the showrunners are treating the comic as an integral part of the show. I love that series creator Robert Kirkman is such a visible part of both aspects, to the point where he was on Conan (and actually did pretty well). I love The Walking Dead. But you know what I don't love? I don't love how much hatred there seems to be for certain characters in the show; particularly Lori Grimes and Andrea.

I'm not gonna cry sexism here (though I'm tempted to) since I don't know enough about that subject to get into. However, I will say that the hate seems to be a bit unwarranted. Let's start by looking at Lori, since the hate for her seems to have died when she did. To be honest, I never really got the hate for her. I've heard it said that she seemed to get in the way of the plot...which is kinda BS, since her presence was central to several plots of Season 2, including the escalating conflict between Rick and Shane and Carl's ongoing journey towards complete sociopathy. I also get the feeling that she is seen as an unfit mother considering the amount of times her son is told to "get in the house" and never does (yeah, apparently that was a meme during Season 2. I don't keep up with memes and it's too late to care, so fuck it). Maybe it's that some viewers didn't like the idea of a woman sleeping with someone after her learning that her husband was dead (which, why wouldn't he be, except in the case of the unlikely circumstances which lead Rick to not being dead).

However, I think the final nail in the coffin was the season finale, when Lori reacted with shock and horror at learning that Rick actually went through with it and killed Shane, after she warned Rick that Shane was dangerous and that he should do something about it. This I will defend. I have to assume she meant "Rick, talk to him and get him to back off," which Rick tried, and which failed, and led to the predicament of Shane getting knifed. The killing, however, she didn't expect; hell, most of the viewing audience didn't expect. And to hear that her husband killed a man and does not regret it? That's probably a lot to take in, so I can see why she wouldn't be immediately okay with that course of events. However, Lori died some episodes back and now the fans have a new female main to dislike for various reasons that are probably stupid: Andrea.

Looking back on it, I actually like Andrea's development since season one, starting as the gentle bystander, pushed to a suicide attempt by the death of her sister, resenting the man who 'rescued' her, stepping up and becoming an effective member of the walker defense team, having a brief affair with Shane, seeing Dale die, getting separated from the group, teaming with Michonne for eight months, finding Woodbury, sleeping with the Governor, watching Michonne leave, finding out that the Governor's kind of a psycho, finding out the Governor's really a psycho, finding that her old group plus Michonne are starting to fall apart at the seams and that they're now at war with the Governor (who has superior numbers and a more fortified position), and now trying to make peace between these two camps. That's a lot to do in three seasons.

Now, the hatred for Andrea seems to come from the fact that she's sticking with the Governor, willfully ignorant of or apathetic towards the fact that he wants to kill all her friends and also kept a secret collection of zombie heads in fish tanks. This is not how I see it. She isn't sticking with the Gov, she's sticking with Woodbury, and all the people who live there. She wants to see these (presumably) nice, innocent people not die just because their leader is an asshole. And she knows their leader is an asshole, she said as much in the last episode! But she also knows that Woodbury believes in him and supports him, and that they will follow him into a war with Team Rick that will get a whole lotta people dead. Andrea doesn't want that and is trying to make peace with the two camps.

Now I know what you're gonna say - or rather not say, since nobody posts here and my meager handful of followers don't watch the Dead and have no opinions on it - you're gonna not say "But Andrea slept with the Governor, even after she found out what happened with Glenn and Maggie and Merle!" Well, to that I say...yes, yes she did. But not because she wanted to get some; she was trying to go through with Carol's brilliant plan of "Bang him, then kill him in his sleep". She got the first half done, but the second...well, I imagine it's heard to stab a man that you once really liked through the heart while he's sleeping. Just a guess. Call it weak, I call it human and, more to the point, I call it Andrea trying to keep Dale's morals alive in a world where he's not there to interject into conversations.

If there's any flaws in Andrea's machinations it's that A) she's trying to get Rick and the Gov to make peace, despite the fact that this will never happen because both are ruthless SOB's who are currently setting up timeshares in Crazytown (to say nothing of the fact that this is a TV show and everybody wants an explosive climax over tedious delegations), but more to the point it's that the outcome of Andrea's plan leaves the Governor in power at Woodbury. Ideally, the Gov wouldn't hurt anyone now that he's not at war with Rick, but this guy is too unstable to be left alone, much less be leader of a town and have access to a relatively huge arsenal. The audience knows it, Rick's group knows it, and Andrea really should know it.

I get the feeling that Andrea's going to be the one to eventually put the Governor down, if only so that the writers can redeem her in the eyes of the fans, but for now, I'm liking watching her journey. Optimism from someone who was once suicidal is an interesting shift, but for Andrea it makes sense and it brings a perspective that's otherwise missing from an overwhelmingly bleak and grim show. I like the character, I like the storyline, and, like many of you, I'm on the edge of my seat every Sunday, waiting to see where things go.