The Walking Dead
Season 11 - Episode 2 - "Acheron, Part 2"
Commonwealth captives (Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko, & Juanita AKA "Princess"): In addition to Eugene nearly crying about everything (and telling the "auditors" almost everything about himself, including wanting to meet Stephanie, being a virgin, etc.), he is temporarily separated from the others, but reunited with the ever-talkative, information-gathering Juanita.
Having enough of the secrecy and needed to get into the Commonwealth to find her brother, Yumiko demands and is granted an audience with the "auditors" again. Openly putting on her attorney hat, she turns the tables on Clark and Evans, using their own behavior to reach conclusions about their pre-apocalypse professions and how that is used in the Commonwealth. From this line of questioning, she also believes the Commonwealth still uses the U.S. dollar as a tool / symbol of value to its residents. Granted entry into the Commonwealth. Eugene is taken to his companions, but is approached by a woman introducing herself as Stephanie (SEE NOTES).
Subway tunnel group (Maggie, Daryl, Negan, Father Gabriel, Alden, Duncan, et al.): Returning to
Maggie falls on the subway tracks with walkers pulling at her; she shoots the dead away from her, and crawls under subway car...
The group shelters in one of the subway cars--except Maggie...and Negan was the last person to board the car before her.
Maggie enters the train from a service exit in the floor, and wastes no time hitting Negan in the face with her gun and charging:
Maggie: "I slipped. He saw, and he left me to die!"
Negan: "Yeah--okay. So what?"
Alden--always ready to attack Negan accuses him of trying to kill her. Negan--real as they come--clarifies:
Negan: "She was in trouble, and I didn't help.There is a big difference."
Duncan slams Negan against a wall, threatening him (and reminding him he has no support among the group), but Negan continues to be brutally honest:
Negan: "She was just talking about murdering me--sooner, rather than later--and yet somehow, I'm the big 'ol asshole 'cause I didn't risk my nuts for her??"
He continues, taking earned credit for saving the lives of most of the communities Alden's retort--that Negan also helped burn down Hilltop is swatted back with:
Negan: "I killed Alpha. If I hadn't done that, every person you know--their skull would be on a spike!"
"I did what needed to be done."
A "drop the mike" moment if there was one on this show. Agatha is bloodthirsty and suggests Maggie give the word and they will kill Negan, but Maggie is hesitant (SEE NOTES).
Before Maggie can reply, Gage (the teenager who fled the tunnel with their ammunition) appears at the entrance to another car, begging to be let in, as walkers enter his car; Negan is the first to step and try to open the door, yelling for Duncan (or "Sasquatch" as Negan referred to him), and Alden is physically prevented from helping the teen who begs for his life. Maggie vetoes the effort, saying they don't have enough ammunition to eliminate the walkers, which would pose a risk to the group. Gage's fear and pleading turns into rage, and as the walkers are inches away from him, he locks his stare squarely on Maggie, and stabs himself to death before he's eaten alive. Obviously, the walkers still rip the teen apart, with the entire group as witnesses, at long last beginning to see there's a problem with Maggie (SEE NOTES). Still having to fight the walkers, Maggie hands Negan a gun...
Chasing after Dog, Daryl finds his best friend in what used to be some sort of maintenance room of the subway tunnel. There he finds dead bodies, pictures of survivors (pre-apocalypse) and a number of illustrations (of what would be "regular" people against those with power and/or wealth) and statements scribbled on the walls, such as:
"It Comes for Us All"
....and below that graffiti, the corpse of man with an amputated arm still handcuffed to a briefcase filled with money....
Eventually, Daryl makes his way to the subway car from the opposite entrance, where he meets the others. Armed with a recovered grenade, he opens the train door to the walker horde long enough to shove it in a walker's mouth, shut the door and take cover. Yes, the grenade destroys an entire car of walkers.
Maggie continues to prove how dark she's become with a the story of how she was nearly kidnapped by a group who had a number of pregnant women as captives--each with all of their limbs removed, throats cut & cauterized, and their tongues removed. She was going to share their fate, but in short--to quote Negan--did what needed to be done. The fact she killed a group of barbarians does not ease the fact that she's become so coldblooded.
Finally leaving the subway, the group trudged through a wooded area, only to be stopped by the grisly sight of several bodies hung from trees--by their ankles. Before they can react, an arrow slams into Roy's skull, and a group of armed, masked men aggressively march toward Maggie's group....
NOTES:
While Yumiko probed into the background of her interrogators and concluded that the Commonwealth still used the U.S. dollar as currency, recall the crude, seemingly anti-money/capitalism drawings on the subway walls; it seems to suggest that whoever lived there had both an ideological and direct conflict with the Commonwealth. Eugene's group could be jumping from the proverbial frying pan and into the fire, and on that note...
Stephanie. A number of viewers are wondering if she's the genuine article, or a plant designed to get more information out of Eugene and his companions.
Agatha was itching to kill Negan, but even the brutal Maggie could not make that call, instead, deciding to trust him during the subway car fight. Teasers from upcoming episodes show Maggie and Negan separated from the others during their fight with the Reapers. One can be sure the two will finally open up about their shared past (namely Glenn), and what that means going forward.
Regarding Daryl, his lost love Leah will be making a return to TWD--allegedly as one of the Reapers. Some fans are wondering if Dog will survive the coming conflicts, and if so, will he rejoin his previous owner, or depart with Daryl and Carol for their spinoff series?
Season 11 is off to a very solid start.
GRADE: A.