This episode ends with yet another cliffhanger, but this time it’s a good one
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Online Editor
The Walking Dead: “Acheron: Part 2”
Season 11, Episode 2
Airdate: 8/29/2021
As established in previous Walking Dead reviews for The Montage, “The Walking Dead” has had a very mixed bag of cliffhangers.
The previous episode didn’t have a great one, even if the show thought it would. This episode was a different story.
“Acheron: Part 2” continues what Negan (Jeffery Dean Morgan) appropriately called a death march in the last episode, and he’s right. Not everyone makes it out of the Washington DC metro tunnels alive, and they shouldn’t… this is the final season, after all.
Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) is clearly not well. Leaving Gage (Jackson Pierce) to be devoured after refusing to let anyone open the door for him was cold enough, but her retelling of a story about a haunting encounter inside a house full of deformed people puts her changed and broken demeanor on full display. We haven’t seen any of her past experiences after the massive time jump in Season 9, and we probably never will, but being on her own for all of those years obviously did a number on her psyche. She didn’t even blink or get emotional while telling the story.
Yet it’s a choice she made of her own accord, and as she’s said in the past, it felt to her as if it was the only choice she could have made. Staying anywhere near Negan wasn’t an option, but now that she has no other choice but to be a part of the same group as him, she’s starting to lose her nerve.
Granted, Negan leaving her behind to be fed to the walkers probably wasn’t the best move if he wants people to trust and listen to him. The audience knew there was no way that actress Lauren Cohan was going to be written off the show in that matter (it’s kind of fitting that she survived after sliding under something since her late husband Glenn once did the same thing), but when she pops through an exit hatch in the floor of one of the train cars at the episode’s mid-way point, the continuing tension between her and Negan is worth the chicanery.
It’s a tension that will continue to be explored in surprising ways moving forward in the season, including the next episode. Cohan’s extended absence from the show may have actually helped the narrative in a way, and a story between Maggie and Negan is still very, very juicy to watch.
Daryl (Norman Reedus) wandering through the subway tunnels wasn’t nearly as fun, but the cinematography was excellent, so that’s something. He’ll have more things to do in the next few episodes, and I imagine he’ll play the role that Rick would have in the show’s final arc later on in the season.
The cliffhanger for “Part 2” is a much better one than we received in “Part 1” mostly because it’s so abrupt and terrifying. We’ve seen people torn to bits on this show so many times that it’s almost lost its effect. The Reapers are just brutal for the sake of being brutal, or at least it appears to be that way. Their entrance was absolutely terrifying, and the next episode, titled “Hunted” looks to be picking up right where this episode left off. That’s how you do a cliffhanger!
Elsewhere, the Commonwealth story continued to progress, and all four members of Eugene’s group passed the test the Commonwealth made for them. They’ll proceed forward, but Eugene (Josh McDermitt) finally meets the voice on the radio, Stephanie, before they do.
And yes, she’s out of his league. Some guys are just lucky. But that’s a story for another day. Onward to the Commonwealth!
SCATTERED THOUGHTS:
– Yukimo read the Commonwealth so accurately that I was convinced she was going to break the fourth wall, wink at the camera and say “Yeah, I read the comics.”
– There’s been some great comedy with the Commonwealth group this season. If Michonne can’t be here for this arc (she was in the comics, and Yukimo looks to be getting that arc), then I’m glad this is the group we got.
– Princess has only been on this show for maybe 4 episodes now, and she fits like a glove. I love this version of her a lot more than the comic book version.
– Gage’s death scene was great right up until he started getting devoured. For some reason, Jackson Pearce’s non-movement and weird facial expression did not do it for me.
– That being said, he played and looked like a very good zombie!
– I’m not sure if his character ever got a name, but C. Thomas Howell got a somewhat memorable exit. Shooting Ponyboy Curtis through his bad eye isn’t the least memorable death I’ve ever seen on this show, and it doesn’t hurt that he looks very similar to the Abraham Ford character (who died that exact way in the comics).
– All of the Hilltop kids that were stupid in 9×08 are now dead. That includes Henry, who as you might remember is the worst kid in the zombie apocalypse! I always love to say that.
– Maggie’s story was wonderfully creepy, but it would have been even better if it showed some of what she was describing on screen. I guess AMC wouldn’t have been a fan of that, though.
– I like the fact that the show called back to the fact that Eugene “likes to watch.”
