The big twist last episode was that there was no Stephanie, which Eugene didn’t take particularly well. But in the closing minutes of the episode, we get two new revelations. The first that the Stephanie we were introduced to was not the same Stephanie that Eugene originally bonded with before. The second is that Hornsby, with his big game show host energy, is actually kind of creepy. Probably didn’t hurt that they filmed him in an abandoned warehouse. But it was another glimpse into the seedy underbelly of The Commonwealth. And without us knowing, a sneak peak at who may be the actual villain of the season.
**SPOILER ALERT** for glimpses into the seedy underbelly of The Commonwealth.
1.Radio Free Stephanie
The real Stephanie revealed! And it is Max. Max as in Mercer’s sister. The one Tyler Davis took hostage in his attack. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Max is portrayed by Margot Bingham, who provided the radio voice before. We get a little exposition about how Max was lonely and reached out to anyone who would listen, much to her brother’s chagrin. Particularly since he’s been made aware of illegal radio broadcasts. Needless to say, Euegene isn’t particularly receptive to the idea, lashing out before commiserating with Rosita. Sort of. He comes around on Max after realizing his own origin story was one of deception. So he tells Rosita that he and Stephanie broke up and apologizes to Max for his outburst. This storyline ends with them bonding over his recently burnt novel. Seeing as protective Mercer is of his sister, there’s a zero percent chance this is a happy ending. But at least it gave him something after last episode’s reveal.
2. The Empire Business
So here’s something I wasn’t necessarily expecting in this episode. Pamela Milton may not necessarily be the big bad. Expanding The Commonwealth isn’t necessarily her goal. Up until now, she was always portrayed as the questionable figurehead of the equally questionable settlement, often held up as the too-good-to-be-true avatar of this zombieland utopia. But here she’s skeptical of Hornsby’s desire to create an empire of all the disparate little colonies across what’s left of the known world. Granted she’s still in charge of whatever future empire he wants to create. Plus she still managed to raise a complete dirtbag of a son. But it does put a new light of her pleading with Tyler Davis and offering to speak with him. Obviously she isn’t the unambiguous saint the local propaganda portrays her as. But even a nuanced leader with good intentions is a bit more optimistic than what the previous episodes were leading us to believe. Hornsby, on the other hand, is starting to tend a bit more towards cartoon villainy. Which isn’t really too far of a step, considering the cartoon mold he started in.
3. Oceanside’s a No
We see this in both their conversations with Maggie. Oceanside has a pact with Hilltop, and won’t agree to the Commonwealth’s terms until Maggie gives the okay. And both Pamela and Hornsby pitch their ideas on a hunting trip, with the Commonwealth folks trotting out like turn of the century landed British fox hunters. But here is where we get the clearest representation of the two worldviews. Milton makes the point that the future can’t survive with fifty million tiny warring city states. Hornsby talks about how cool it would be to have a bunch of these settlements under control. One of these convinces Maggie more than the other. And midway through his spiel, Hornsby even acknowledges that he knows he’s upset Maggie. Really, this whole sequence is Hornsby ruining everything by being a megalomaniacal weirdo.
We do get a little bit with Daryl and Mercer too. While Mercer confesses that Daryl gets a day out of his armor purely for optics reasons, he also confesses that the Commonwealth isn’t perfect. Something that doesn’t necessarily sway Daryl, who’s accepting his place is the dystopian henchman army rather quickly. Sometimes it seems like Mercer is about five different characters rolled into one, but I do have to give props to Michael James Shaw for going wherever the writing takes him.
4. Surprise! It’s Surgery!
Turns out Ezekiel’s check up is a surgery consultation, and he’s due at the hospital Friday at nine! But he isn’t necessarily too keen on it. It doesn’t take him long to figure out that his number moved to the top of the list with a little assistance from Carol. Something he’s not entirely cool with, since there’s plenty of other folks who need help at the hospital. Although we don’t really see the people he’s talking about for ourselves. This might be a “not yet” situation, but it would have been nice to get a sense of how far Ezekiel skipped in line. That being said, I do like Carol’s line “You think Pamela Milton would think twice before doing the same thing for her shitty son?” And this plotline ends with Ezekiel being wheeled to surgery, so who knows what happens after the fact.
5. Hilltop’s a No. But…
Going back to Maggie, needless to say Hornsby ruined everything in their prospective alliance. But that doesn’t mean many of the locals don’t disagree and defect. The Commonwealth has weapons and resources. When walkers invade Hilltop, they’re met by a visiting firing squad that quells the invasion in mere seconds. But with that said, Milton seems to take the news in stride. Hornsby does not, going deeper into the woods to take on a few roaming walkers by himself, just him and his six shooter. I forgot to count the number of shots he fired, because it didn’t feel like just six. Just saying, sometimes ammo capacity gets fudged a bit in TV land. But taking on roaming walkers with a tiny revolver ends the episode and confirms that Milton isn’t the one we should be worried about. At least not right now. It’s a neat little review, even if the episode did telegraph it a bit earlier than it should have. It maybe couldn’t have dropped the word “empire” in the first act. Or at least held off on the solo zombie fight until further down the line. But the twist itself is an interesting one. I do look forward in seeing how the Hornsby/Milton dynamic plays out, given which one’s actually the ambitious one.
