The last few episodes are upon us. Walking Dead began as an Image comic that Robert Kirkman had to sell as Plan 9 from Outer Space to get made. It’s since become a cultural phenomenon with spin-offs, action figures, video games, and more. Now it’s time to close out the flagship TV series. Especially with the comic having bowed out well before. What these next few episodes will set up may define the series reputation. I’m just curious if it would involve courtroom drama too.
SPOILER ALERT for everything. But not courtroom drama. Not yet at least.
1. You all know this is the last season, right?
We have an intro from Judith explaining… well, honestly the entire series as a whole. There were a bunch of zombies. Some good guys. Some bad guys. All accompanied by flashbacks from the entire history of the series. Is it entirely necessary? Probably not. But it’s a nice little nod to this being the final leg of the show. Plus the familiar clips give us a sense of how far we’ve actually come with these characters.
We then jump right into the gang fighting Hornsby. In a sequence usually reserved for season premieres, we see the competent fighting force that’s survived eleven seasons of zombie apocalypse. Of course, these scenes pretty much solely exist to build up false confidence. Specifically to give the cast a baseline that can be challenged. And it does, as Daryl and Maggie end up in the sewers. But not before sending Negan into town.
2. Everyone else has gotten fed up with Sebastian too
Local literal worst Sebastian Milton has been outed, leading to protests in the Commonwealth. His mother tries to talk the people down as angered resident hoist “Justice for April” signs in front of the Capitol. Later in the episode, the chants become “down with the Miltons.” Pamela’s defenses of her son only seem to make the crowds angrier. Especially when April’s parents are among them. It isn’t until a swarm of walkers start approaching that the crowds begin to disperse. And even think, it still takes tear gas to chase them away entirely. The bits with her parents may have been a little heavy handed, but yeah… obviously “everybody move, there’s a bunch of zombies heading our way” would seem suspicious given the circumstances. We do get a few plot seeds as Connie and Kelly argue over whether they went too far, and Ezekiel realized that crowds will need medical attention when things get inevitably violent.
3. Negan undercover
Turns out that no one at the Commonwealth actually knows what Negan looks like. So he’s sent in to appeal to Mercer’s apprehension. And make contact with the folks inside the gates. Mercer at this point is just biding his time. Him and Rosita are bonding, but Rosita has a kid, so she’s hesitant to follow him into whatever wild, extremely dangerous plan he’s plotting. Mercer’s cool with it, but let’s her know that he’ll have her back when it is time to go. But while he’s clearly building his crisis plan, he’s still loyal to his troops, leading them into battle against the swarm, and desperately trying to rescue them when walkers shred them to pieces. There’s a tightrope the writers have managed to walk with Mercer that’s hopefully going to pay off huge. But in the meantime, Negan has one more stop.
4. The quiet game
Carol almost burns her blueberry pancakes when the goons come looking for her. She’s also taught the kids “the quiet game” for when harm is nearby. Jerry runs into Negan before finding himself in charge of getting the kids to safety. And Negan finds Carol. They have a bit of a bonding session they go looking for Sebastian. Carol’s a great character, and it’s always a treat seeing how she plays off of anyone else in the show. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan is always a welcome presence. The bit of old Negan we get at the beginning of the episode makes newly married, soon to be father Negan all the more impactful.
And if you’ve been waiting for Sebastian to see any sort of consequence, you’re in luck. Because he’s been holed up behind a trapdoor, much in the same way as April. And we also learn he’s been peeing in jars for the last however long. He almost gets killed when they bring him outside too.
Continued below5. An escape plan
Yumiko is Pamela’s lawyer. She’s trying to play both sides as much as she can, knowing full well her time to leave will come sooner than later. And from her conversation with Magna, she intends to stay in that position for as long as her brother is in town. Which… I mean, I wouldn’t recommend. Tommy’s petrified of the Commonwealth forces. It would be better for him to not be in the Commonwealth. Her motivations seemed a little forced. Not necessarily awful, but you could tell exactly what her arc will be for the last part of the season. Of course Pamela’s starting to get to suspicious, since it’s hard to have a guarantee on lawyer-client confidentiality when your lawyer’s BFFs with the reporters who likely broke the story on your awful kid. But Pamela’s either enjoying her denial or sticking to her case, denying he would send desperate folks to their death. Although she does confess that he’s a “renegade” like his grandfather. That may be my favorite line in the episode. Pamela describing twerpy, spoiled man child Sebastian as a “renegade” is way funnier to me than I think the writers intended.
But then when Negan and Carol return her son, she’s less likely to paint her son as a perfect boy with a “renegade” streak. In fact, she smacks him for his embarrassing the family. So I’m guessing she knows more than she lets on. This episode was mostly set up for the last few episodes, but it still worked. Kind of what you need for an episode like this. Especially when they have the entire end of the series in sight.
