We’ve arrived at the penultimate episode of The Walking Dead. Everything is falling apart. The Commonwealth’s attempts to kangaroo court Eugene are backfiring. Pamela Milton no longer has the faith of her people. And Outpost 22 has been taken over by the inmates. Also, there’s a massive herd of walkers approaching the settlement.
Spoiler alert for things totally going well and without issue.
1. Who gets the voiceover? Guns
Each episode of this leg of season has opened with a voiceover. Typically it focused on one character at a time. Usually whoever the episode itself was primarily focused on. They’re always narrated by Judith with some vague dialog tangentially related to whatever the themes of the episode. And this episode is no different. Except instead of a character being the focus of the narration in question, Judith voices over a big crate of guns.
I guess it isn’t just guns. There’s some machetes. A couple pikes. Knives too. Pretty much anything that could take out a zombie. Each one gets its own little flashback as it’s pulled from the bin. Mostly of a walker getting whacked. But it does end dramatically with Judith pulling Rick’s revolver and Michonne’s sword.
I thought the voiceovers would become repetitive after a while. But to the show’s credit, they really didn’t. This far into the series, it was nice to acknowledge the earlier seasons and get a feel for how far we’ve come with these characters. And judging from events that occur later in the episode, I don’t think we’re getting another.
2. The Quiet Before the Storm
There’s a belief in some filmmaking circles that the moments before a major climatic battle should be the quietest. Possibly even “relaxing” to some degree. A scene to provide a break in the tension before it immediately ramps up. We get that in this episode. As our leads hop on the train to The Commonwealth, Judith insists she goes with Daryl and Carol. The crew are preparing for their raid on the capitol. But once they’re on the train, it gets quiet. Carol and Daryl offer to tell Judith stories of all the people that have loved her. We even see Negan and Ezekiel bond over their respective arcs. Negan talks about offering to sacrifice his life, even if it’s just to give his daughter a better story about her father than what people who say otherwise. Ezekiel talks about not even cancer could stop him from smiling. It’s nice to st least give these arcs a sense of closure before things get real loud later in the episode. And while the dialog isn’t the most subtle, it still works to provide closure for major characters who may not make it back.
3. Mercer does the right thing… as well as he can
Speaking of character arcs reaching their conclusions, Mercer has fully gone to the light side now. He’s hiding Eugene in an apartment and communicating with Princess. Thanks to him, the crew knows what tunnel to sneak in through. And where they’ll come up. He even pulls security away from their locations when the swarm hits (again, more on that later). There’s even a scene where he pulls Yumiko into his office for some play fighting (for the benefit of Milton’s spy). This arc’s been a long time coming. But even as he’s getting ready to battle his former boss, he’s still talking about ways they can remove her legally. Michael James Shaw continues to be the best possible casting for this characters, grounding a character who hasn’t always been written the most consistently. This doesn’t necessarily work out as planned. A commonwealth trooper demands to search the apartment, only to get literally beaten to death by Eugene, who is now in the wind. But it gets worse.
4. Milton’s Packin’
Mercer may not have met up with them, but everyone still manages to get inside. They climb through the tunnels into the processing area. They’re immediately shot at by Commonwealth forces. That includes Pamela Milton, who picks up a rifle and starts blasting. During the course of the battle Judith is hit. By Milton no less. She’s momentarily horrified at herself before immediately blaming her enemies for it.
Continued belowAs we approach the end of the series, Milton becomes more entrenched in the main villain spot. After potentially critically wounding a child, she disappears back to her office, where her spy informs her of the oncoming swarm. She says to protect the estates while the walkers eat up the lower wards. This even horrified the spy she sent to monitor Mercer. One last bad guy act before the end of the show.
5. SWARM!!
There’s a swarm invading the city. And these aren’t your normal walkers. They’re super walkers who can climb walls. They manage to get into the city with no problem. The best the Commonwealth can do is funnel them towards the lower wards, and possible attackers.
This is the same herd that Aaron’s team tried to wrangle towards the Commonwealth. Which they managed to do. But at a cost. Most of that crew is holed up in an old RV. Elijah couldn’t get inside of it fast enough. Nor could Luke and Jules. And Lydia’s attempts to save them cost her an arm.
One of the most interesting parts of this whole plot line is how the Daryl and Maggie crew suspect Milton bringing them in on purpose. It’s not out of the realm of possibility after all. And so much of this episode relied on how poor communication was between the groups. It’s one thing for the entire city to be actively working to kill you. It’s another when you have no idea why most of what’s happening is happening. It layers the chaos that will carry us to the end of the series. Which I do won’t follow the source material.
