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Five Thoughts on The Walking Dead’s “Promises Broken”

By | October 5th, 2021
Posted in Television | % Comments

The first round of Season 11 is nearing completion. Alexandria is still starving. Those that went looking for food, or just had the misfortune of getting separated, have needed to form extremely uneasy alliances to survive. Maggie has to set aside her anger when Negan’s the only help she has. Daryl has to play along with a militaristic mercenary cult until he can find his friends. And the Commonwealth seems a little too good to be true. Also, it’s more than a little cult-y itself. But when only two episodes left in the first third of this run, our heroes will need to play their own games to stay alive,

**SPOILER ALERT** for how those games end up.

1. “We will never be even.”

The Maggie/Negan relationship continues to get more and more complicated. And that just because it involves how-to-walk-like-a-zombie classes. This includes real basic lesson like “lower your shoulders” and “peel the face of the walker and wear it like a mask.” But the lessons work. And they’re able to raise a walker army to take on The Reapers. More personally, Maggie and Negan actually start to form some kind of rapport. At least until Negan confesses he would have killed the entire group if he could do it all over again. He’s reasoning being that whatever this partnership is, it only works if they’re honest with each other. Seems to work though. They all mask up and march toward Meridian.

2. Clean Up Crew

Things at the Commonwealth are stable for now. Whatever deal the campy infomercial guy cut for Eugene and crew got their sentence reduced to clearing out walkers. It’s mostly more of the same for them, with the exception of Stephanie. In the Commonwealth, walker issues are mostly handled by the local militia. But while walker clearing is never easy per se, things go well otherwise. Ezekiel even gets some actual antibiotics from an actual hospital. And suckers. Ezekiel gets lollipops from the doctor. But it’s seemingly fine, at least until Eugene and Stephanie irritate a WASP-y couple on a date.

3. Oh, Eugene… That Wasn’t Good.

Each episode has a goofy quota to fill this season. And we get our second Austin Powers steamroller scene of this run. Eugene and Stephanie find themselves accosted by an overly agitated yuppie, furious at them for ruining his date. You see, he had private security to deal with errant zombies. While they are having this conversation, Stephanie notices a random zombie approaching the guy’s romantic partner. No one notices because arguing. And apparently they have zero awareness of their surroundings. She does step in and save the guy’s girlfriend. But the date gets blood on her sweater in the process. This only gets the guy even angrier.

It’s a silly scene that feels cartoonish and forced. And while other times when this season has gone over the top, it’s been grounded by the performances or camera work. This was just a cartoon d-bag getting unreasonably angry about our heroes saving his life. Everything next you can kind of guess from there. Eugene gets mad, punches the dudebro in the Facebook. But oops! He’s Sebastian Milton, the son of Commonwealth Governor Pamela Milton. Eugene finds himself in prison, getting grilled about the location of Alexandria.

Eugene has clearly forgotten the Commonwealth way

4. Yumiko’s Friends Keep Getting Arrested

Eugene’s indiscretions force Gov. Milton to reschedule her meeting with Yumiko. At least she could enjoy a cappuccino or sparkling water in the office waiting room. But before all of that, she gets to see her brother arrested for no stated reason. This was also the point when I realized how much repeated information there was in this episode. Negan and Maggie is a back and forth, so a similar arc is to be expected. Same with the Daryl and Leah bits we’ll cover later, though that does push their plots forward. But the reveal of Ezekiel after his hospital trip is an almost identical beat to when he was first allowed in. And Tomichi wanting to keep his medical training a secret from Milton is something well established previously. Granted it may have been a convenient reminder right before he’s arrested, just to keep the tension up and the stakes fresh in our heads. Sure it works, but it does feel a bit less than natural.

5. Daryl Tries to Make Friends

We’re introduced to Daryl as he’s sharing a cigarette with one of The Reapers. And we see him on a mission with Leah for most of their screen time. It does give the two of them time to explore their feelings towards each other, showing that they still do care about the other. It also gives us a clearer picture of Leah’s opinions of Pope. We’re shown that she’s not afraid to stand up to him. At least until she has to kill someone and loses her nerve. Daryl even almost confesses what his game is to her. When she can’t bring herself to execute a turning woman, her ex steps up to do so. While she speaks highly of her commander earlier in the episode, she clearly would rather not end up in the fire. It’s a crack that the show could use to bring her arc full circle if they play it well enough. But seeing how cheesy this season can get, I am a little apprehensive. But I’m not discouraged.


//TAGS | The Walking Dead

Chris Cole

Chris Cole lives in a tiny village built around a haunted prison. He is a writer, letterer, and occasional charity Dungeon Master. Follow his ramblings about comics and his TTRPG adventures on Twitter @CcoleWritings.

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