While fans look forward to the debut of The Walking Dead season 8 later this month, actress Laurie Holden was recently looking back at the sins of season 3.
Holden's character on the show, Andrea, is one who is still around in the pages of the comic book source material, but that character took a very different path on television – a path that ended with her being bound to a chair by her former lover "The Governor" and locked in a room with a dying man. The idea being that the man would become a zombie and "tear the flesh from her bones". That's not quite what happened, but Andrea still didn't make it out of the season 3 finale alive.
The death of Andrea was devised by then-showrunner Glen Mazzara and slightly reworked by Scott Gimple, who took over as showrunner as of season 4.
Appearing at the Walker Stalker Con in Philadelphia last weekend, Holden shared her thoughts on Andrea's storyline and demise:
I think the departure from book Andrea to the screen was a mistake. I mean, it's not like I couldn't pull it off. I think the whole stuff that they wrote about Andrea and the Governor was complete and utter nonsense. I did the best that I could to tell that narrative, and to justify it where Andrea kept her heart. I love Scott Gimple for giving me a gorgeous death with redemption so that you understood, and she wasn't a victim — she died on her own terms. But I think that there was so much beautiful narrative that was lost and that she should have been there a long time, and been the leader that [Robert] Kirkman created in the comic book."
When Holden signed on to be in the show her contract was for eight seasons, so Andrea would still be around if Mazzara hadn't decided to cut her story five seasons short.
Personally, I was glad to see Andrea go, because the way the character was presented on the show I couldn't stand her. My problems with her started in season 2, when she went off the rails and got involved with Shane, and continued with the Governor nonsense (as Holden put it). I don't know how she is in the comic book, but TV show Andrea was not a character I wanted to spend any more time with.
Andrea's long gone now. The saga of The Walking Dead continues when season 8 begins airing on AMC on October 22.