Before the final eight episodes premiere, let’s review what we missed
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
Ahead of the program’s last hurrah starting on Oct. 2nd, it’s worth taking a look back at the pivotal last five episodes that got us to where we are now.
The Walking Dead: “The Lucky Ones”
Season 11, Episode 12
Airdate: 3/13/2022
This episode was rather intriguing as it had many of the new characters from the Commonwealth interacting with our whole group for the first time. Pamela Milton and Mercer, along with hordes of Commonwealth soldiers, travel with Lance Hornsby to tour the communities in Virginia. Pamela makes it very clear that this trip is to determine whether or not the communities themselves are worth saving and trading with, even if they’d offer to take people in regardless.
When they arrive at Alexandria, it’s revealed that Pamela once knew and was very fond of Deanna, the founder of the post-apocalyptic town. Deanna was a great character and while she’s been gone for quite a few seasons, it’s always great to hear her mentioned. What’s not so great is when a walker penetrates Alexandria’s unstable walls, which casts doubt from Pamela on the otherwise stable community.
Pamela also seems to absolutely love the beach at Oceanside, so much so that Lance has to remind her of her duties. That being said, she doesn’t love that Oceanside isn’t willing to play ball without Pamela first getting the support of Maggie Greene, who isn’t necessarily a big fan of what Pamela and especially Lance want to accomplish.
They actually come across Maggie and others in her community on the road, and Pamela does a hard sell on what the Commonwealth can offer. Lance himself does an even harder sell. The Commonwealth even brings in supplies to help the Hilltop rebuild.
And yet Maggie still turns them down.
While we the viewers know that the Commonwealth isn’t entirely on the level, Maggie refusing a literal miracle doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It especially doesn’t make sense to most of the people living at the Hilltop, who abandon the place once Maggie refuses further help.
The argument can be made that while Maggie was having her adventures off screen, she was a part of numerous big communities with Georgie that just didn’t work out. In this universe, that’s not a bad stance to take. That being said, as a leader of a community (and a struggling community being held together with boards and nails), just basing decisions off your personal experiences seems highly irresponsible. I’m sure that seeing Daryl have to fall in line with the rest of the Commonwealth Soldiers wasn’t an encouraging sight, but it doesn’t seem like enough to contribute to Maggie’s decision either.
Pamela allows Lance to take full responsibility for whatever he wants to do with the communities, so it’s not a total bust of a trip. That being said, it’s very clear that the big bad of the final season may not be Pamela… it may very well be Lance, who is allowing his real unhinged nature to shine through towards Aaron as the episode draws to a close.
Oh, and Max reveals her story to Eugene. You may remember Max as being Pamela’s secretary who also moonlighted as Stephanie over the radio and got this whole mess started in the first place when she and Eugene found each other. This reveal was actually well done, but it seems so unimportant compared to the rest of the episode.
Still, congrats to Eugene for punching way above his weight and succeeding.
The Walking Dead: “Warlords”
Season 11, Episode 13
Airdate: 3/20/2022
“Warlords” and “The Rotten Core” comprise an exciting two-part story that shifts the conflict between the Commonwealth and our communities into high gear. Until the middle of “Warlords” one could argue that our group were merely bystanders to a festering unrest. Whatever happens in the final eight episodes, it really was set in motion starting here.
Gabriel and Aaron are asked to travel with Lance’s confidant Toby on an outreach mission to an apartment complex near the communities in Virginia. While the group is initially hostile, Toby blows up the situation by killing the leader and some of the residents. Later, it’s revealed that this was Toby and Lance’s objective all along, as they believe the apartment group to be responsible for an attack on a Commonwealth caravan sometime previously.
Gabriel and Aaron turn on the Commonwealth after seeing all of this, and they begin to be hunted. Along with one new member of the Commonwealth, who while still wounded, manages to get to Hilltop and warn Maggie and his remaining allies. Maggie’s fears about the Commonwealth are confirmed, and she’s not going to let him get away with what they’re doing.
Another problem for the Commonwealth: one of the newest members of this community is Negan. Negan has found a wife, named Annie… and Annie is pregnant.
The Walking Dead: “The Rotten Core”
Season 11, Episode 14
Airdate: 3/27/2022
“The Rotten Core” is a pivotal episode of the final season, and it backs up its importance with some truly heart-pounding and grotesque violence in both of the stories that it tells.
Back at the apartment complex, Negan takes a more active role in the proceedings, and even watches over Maggie’s son Hershel.
Hershel isn’t stupid, and he figures out that Negan is the one that killed his father Glenn rather quickly. There’s a tense scene between the two where the kid pulls a gun on him, which may be more cathatric than most of the Negan-Maggie scenes that have aired thus far. Negan was confronted with the consequences of his actions in a way he really hasn’t been up until now, and likely would have accepted that kid pulling the trigger… if doing so wouldn’t have given the hidden group’s location away.
Maggie herself is paired up with Annie, who perhaps gives Maggie an alternative perspective on things, and more than anything else this season, emphasizes that Negan isn’t the person he once was.
Eventually, the bad guys are defeated, Toby gets thrown off a roof and devoured and everyone who still matters makes it out alive. For now.
As it turns out, the Commonwealth’s aggression was aimed at the wrong people. One person took out that convoy, and it’s finally revealed that the person was Leah Shaw.
Back in the Commonwealth, Daryl and Rosita are tasked by Sebastian to break into a mansion and secure currency for him to use (his mother had his line of credit cut off in “The Lucky Ones”). Daryl at first refuses, but when Sebastian vaguely threatens Judith, Daryl snaps on him before begrudgingly agreeing.
Once inside the mansion, the duo come across April, a former Commonwealth resident forced into the same predicament by the younger Milton. The three become trapped before Carol and Mercer come to save the day (Carol justifies this by saying Daryl had missed his lunch outing with her). While April doesn’t make it out alive, Sebastian gets his money, and Mercer becomes more disillusioned with the Commonwealth, even taking out two of his own guards in frustration.
Carol, who by this point has worked her way into Lance’s good graces, brings this situation before his attention. He makes it clear that he knows exactly what was going on. Justifying it by saying the people Sebastian sent put themselves in bad situations, he says that everyone has a part to play, and that, as Carol summarizes, “People can be part of the solution or part of the problem.”
“It’s nice to be able to talk to someone who sees the big picture,” he says to her. “Not many can.”
Carol leaves, and Lance has no idea of the formidable enemy he just made.
The Walking Dead: “Trust”
Season 11, Episode 15
Airdate: 4/3/2022
Perhaps the weakest episode of this bunch, “Trust” actually resolves the cliffhanger scene that viewers saw at the end of “No Other Way.” As expected, all was not as it appeared to be.
Lance arrives on scene at Riverbend, and immediately assumes that Maggie is at least partially responsible. After questioning Father Gabriel and Aaron, he moves on to Hilltop, where Daryl manages to smooth things over enough to get Maggie to agree to open the gates. Lance is suspicious, but can’t find anything other than Maggie’s (now suddenly broken down) truck to confirm her involvement.
Things really boil over when Lance himself goes after Hershel, believing that a baseball cap found at Riverbend belongs to him. Elijah tosses him against a wall, and in the midst of a standoff, Daryl even turns his gun on Hornsby himself, and the Commonwealth militia finally leaves. For now.
At the end of the episode, Lance finds Leah, and offers her a job: taking out Maggie.
Elsewhere back in Ohio, it’s revealed that Yukimo’s brother Tomi and Ezekiel have been secretly setting up a makeshift hospital for those in the Commonwealth who are too far down on the list to receive care. They get caught stealing supplies, and Carol somehow gets them off the hook. For a minute, this show briefly turns into a medical drama. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.
“Trust” isn’t a bad episode by any means, but it definitely felt weaker than most of the offerings from this season.
The Walking Dead: “Acts Of God”
Season 11, Episode 16
Airdate: 4/10/2022
The last Walking Dead mid-season finale steps on the gas early on and never really lets up when it comes to intensity.
Lance makes it clear to Leah what her task is, but Leah has her own plans for how to deal with Maggie.
While Maggie sets an explosive trap at the Hilltop for the incoming invaders (after leaving her son in Negan’s protection in a real shocker), it’s not enough to take Leah out, who manages to kill Marco (one of the longer running background characters on the show at this point) with a headshot. Everyone runs, and under the massive locust storm, Leah gets her lady.
Holding her at her old cabin, Leah tortures Maggie, who doesn’t really apoligize for what she did to the Reapers. Maggie eventually fights back, and is about to be shot dead when Daryl (who managed to escape a turncoat Commonwealth ambush along with Father Gabriel and Aaron) appears and shoots Leah dead instead. Lance and his militia also find the Cabin, and Daryl fires a bullet that scrapes his cheek, leaving a massive scar.
While everyone gets away, they’re all still fugitives, and the final shot of the episode reveals that Lance has taken all of the communities (abandoned or otherwise) by force.
Elsewhere in the Commonwealth, Connie, with the help of many of the Alexandrians who made the journey to Ohio as well as Max, publishes an expose on Pamela Milton that is sure to have ripple effects that will reverberate into the next episode.
“The Walking Dead” returns for its final eight episodes beginning this Sunday, Oct. 2. The finale is scheduled to air on Sunday, Nov. 20.
SCATTERED OBSERVATIONS AND NEWS UPDATES:
– Carol is OUT of the Daryl/Carol spinoff show, at least for its first season.
– Maggie and Negan are also getting a spinoff show, which has ruined the fates of both of their characters on this one. Hopefully they find a way to keep those characters intriguing if we all know neither will die.
– Rick Grimes and Michonne are also coming back for a miniseries instead of a movie now. Which is very cool, but I would be surprised if they also didn’t come back for the endgame of this show.
– The new “variant” of walkers, first seen in the end credits of “World Beyond” will debut in episode 19, set to air on Oct. 16.
– There’s not nearly enough Yukimo on screen lately.
– If you would have told me that the guy who plays Lance Hornsby also played Clay Jensen’s cool dad in “Thirteen Reasons Why” I would not have believed you at first. That dude is such a great actor.
– I like Negan’s new wife and I have an extremely bad feeling that she’s not making it out of this show alive.
– Princess and Mercer make a good duo and I am rooting for them.
– I hope Sebastian dies a long and painful death and that we all get to see it.
