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Is The Walking Dead’s Andrea the most frustrating TV character of all time?

February 26th, 2013 by Marc 4 Comments

Over the last two seasons of the Walking Dead one character has drawn my ire like no other character on TV. If you’ve read my Dexter reviews then you know my profound hate for Quinn. One TV character has managed to surpass Quinn as my most hated TV character, and that’s Andrea. Never have I seen a TV character so frustrating at every turn that they make me want to kill my TV, until now. The woman is frustration personified.

I guess it really goes back all the way to last season when she sided with Shane over Rick. Shane was a hot head that made hot headed decisions which put himself over and his needs over that of the group. That in itself would show me that Rick is the right man to lead, but not Andrea. She fell for Shane’s BS hook, line and sinker, and though this was the genesis of my hate for her, she only went on to make things worse.

When this season kicks off we find that Andrea, though separated from her group, has managed to survive thanks to her newfound Michonne. Andrea can hold her own, but nobody survives alone, and Michonne has enough butt kicking skills to make up for not having Glenn, Rick and Daryl around. They are soon discovered by Merle and his platoon of Woodbury soldiers and taken back to Woodbury, a place that seems great, but has evil brewing under the surface. The charismatic Governor is introduced, and right off the bat Andrea is drawn to the man. Michonne has her doubts, and after some investigation finds enough to confirm her reservations, such as the Aquarium O’ Heads and his captive zombified daughter. The biggest red flag about the aquarium comes from the fact that not only walker heads are in there, but also that of the military man that was taken to Woodbury for help, a total innocent.

Michonne relays her findings to Andrea and says they need to go. Andrea thinks otherwise and decides to stay. Now here’s a person who you have built a bond with, someone who has kept you alive once you were separated from Rick, and when she tells you something is not right in Woodbury, you completely dismiss her concerns. She then turns her back on the one person he should trust the most, Michonne. That right there was enough to make me start to hate Andrea, but she only goes about making things worse after that.

She sees the broken aquarium and all the heads on the floor, a huge red flag, one that goes completely ignored by Andrea. Its pretty obvious that the Governor also attacked her friend, and Andrea doesn’t seem to care about that either. Then we are introduced to the Governor’s little combat coliseum, which at first shocks Andrea. She gets over it though after a few sweet words from the Governor, does this woman not have a brain of her own?! Glenn and Maggie finds themselves captive in Woodbury and put through some of the most extreme torture one could imagine in this post apocalyptic world, and when Rick goes to rescue them, Andrea sees it as Rick attacking them, even after she finds out it was a recue mission because her boyfriend had been holding her friends prisoner. That right there, no matter how brainwashed I was, would be the end of the line for me. Rick’s group operate more like family than friends, and if someone had done that to my family I would’ve killed them on the spot, but instead Andrea falls into the Governor’s arms even harder.

Look, I don't know how to say this...i met a guy.

After the Governor launches an offensive against the prison, Andrea decides to go talk to them, to try to work this out. Her man is building an army and she wants to stop this before it comes to a head. Parts of his army are some of Woodbury’s children, a move that Andrea seems to despise. When she voices her concern about this and the Governor all but brushes off her concerns, she grins and bears it. Only the sickest of individuals arms children to fight offensively, I say that to distance this from Rick training Carl to be a soldier since that is more about defending the group, another red flag and another dismissal that the Governor is an effed up guy. To help her get to the prison she enlists Milton’s help, this wasn’t frustrating for me, just idiotic. You really think Milton will help you and not tell the Governor?

Once she meets back up with Rick she is stunned to find that they don’t trust her. She can’t understand why. As far as she is concerned, Rick is the one who started the trouble, even though it was the Governor who not only attacked first, but also was even there to begin with. Even if Rick had shot first, it would’ve been more than justified, but Andrea doesn’t possess things like common sense so this fact is lost upon her. When she does find out that the Governor attacked first, she’s not even upset by the fact that the Governor lied to her. I have never met a woman in my life that doesn’t get upset by her man’s lies, even if they are small and stupid. Then she actually goes on to blame Michonne for the group not trusting her. The person who kept you alive just have you turn your back on her, and all you do is twist that knife in her back even more. Michonne even tells her the Governor sent Merle to kill her after she was told she could safely leave Woodbury, she all but ignores that and I was surprised she didn’t try to rationalize it.

She then discovers that not only is Shane dead, but that Rick is the one who killed him. Carol told her, but she also made it clear that Shane was going to kill Rick first. What’s her reaction to this? Well Rick has been turning cold. What the f*$k!?! Are you serious??!! Shane was a psycho and Rick put him down, end of story, but not to Andrea, its Rick fault that he had to kill Shane in the first place, wow. So now Andrea decides to go back to Woodbury, and Rick is kind enough to give her a car to get back. That right there shows the biggest difference between Rick and the Governor, where as the Governor says if you leave don’t come back and then leaves her to own devices to get to the prison, Rick gives her a car to make sure she gets back safely. Of course all of that is lost Andrea.

So there you have it, the long list of Andrea’s bone headed moves. Every time she opens her mouth it seems to incite only cursing, head scratching, hate, or all three at the same time from me. Never have I seen anyone with that bad a taste in men, someone who screws over friends, and someone who seems to be completely clueless about everything around her all wrapped up into one character. To sum up everything I just said, Andrea needs to die.

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Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….