The Walking Dead
Season 11 - Episode 14 - "The Rotten Core"
Maggie, Elijah and Lydia: The Hilltop trio-along with Aaron, kill Commonwealth troopers, moving from floor to floor, and after a mistaken identity moment with Annie, the group learns one of the residents is Negan, who is married to Annie (which shocks Lydia, on top of her being disappointed he left Alexandria). The group decide to finish off the rest of the troopers and split into smaller teams, with Annie accompanying Maggie. Aaron takes a dig at Negan, asking if he was responsible for the skulls from Ian's office, but Negan easily pushed back, noting Arron rolled up with the "Gestapo". Negan--concerned about Maggie's state of mind after seeing him--nervously calls Annie, who reassures him that she's safe.
Negan, Annie and Hershel: Elsewhere, Maggie catches Annie (appearing unwell) taking a bite of Ginger and deduced she's pregnant--now in her twelfth week.
From a window, Negan sees a Trooper capture a young boy--Hershel. Negan rescues the boy (who stowed away in Maggie's truck). Learning her son is not only on-site, but in Negan's care, Maggie is shocked to the core, but Annie promises her son is safe. Maggie informs her then Negan killed Glenn, but Annie knows all about Negan's past, justifying being with him by adding that no one has clean hands in their life of survival, but Maggie believes Negan should not forget what he's done. He has not, according to Annie.
Speaking to Negan, Hershel reveals Maggie warned him to stay away from the man, because he was bad. Negan admits as much, leading Hershel to aim a gun at Negan, asking if he was the "bad man" who killed his father. Negan confesses to the murder, regretting his inability to change what happened, but gently reminds the boy that pulling the trigger will kill him, but alert the real bad people to their hideout. Hershel lowers the gun, giving it to Lydia who watches a seemingly broken Negan.
Carlson finds the hidden entrance to Riverbend group's hideout, but gunfire sends him (and his guards) away...
Daryl, Rosita and Sebastian: Carol and Daryl plan a lunch date to catch-up on things, before their chat is interrupted by trooper business. Soon, the ever-limp Sebastian has been cut off from his line of credit by Pamela, or as he refers to her, his "bitch mom." Needing to maintain his lifestyle, he orders Daryl and Rosita to do what other teams of people failed to do: navigate through a sea of walkers surrounding the house of a CEO who stored money in a panic room. Balking at the idea of risking their lives to support a life of luxury, Sebastian threatens Daryl & Rosita's kids, leading to a standoff with two troopers working for Sebastian. Left with no options, Rosita and Daryl agree to take the mission, but Daryl reminds the pampered man what he's risking if he ever threatens their children again.
Covering their armor with walker guts, Daryl and Rosita make their way through the walker horde and into the house, where Rosita discovers fairly fresh blood on the floor--and the walkers who spilled that blood. Finding the panic room, they learn at least one of the earlier retrieval parties was locked in--a woman named April, a mother who had been approached by Sebastian to pay off some sort of debt. Her two companions (now walkers) turned on each other, as the power shut down, locking her in the room. Eventually, Daryl restores power, but a large number of walkers have stumbled into the house, forcing the three to retreat to the panic room, where Daryl obtains the money.
Mercer and Carol enter the house and aid in killing the rest of the walkers (when Daryl missed their lunch date, she felt something was wrong and convinced Mercer to help). Daryl and Rosita explain Sebastian's coercion, and deciding to risk leaving, but its not long before a panicking April attracts walkers to the woman, who is quickly overwhelmed and ripped apart. Once they return to Sebastian's troopers--and learns that as many as 40 people were sent to that house (all failing, of course), Mercer shoots them dead.
He tells Daryl and Rosita that they still have to give Sebastian the money, warning them that they cannot win a fight with Pamela's son. Mercer takes the money in to an all-too pleased Sebastian (with Daryl and Rosita still getting credit--and a stack of bills--for the job).
Carlson and Hornsby: Carlson has had enough of the Riverbend group's resistance, so he orders another sweep of the building, including killing anyone who cannot provide information about the missing convoy of weapons. Losing all composure as he learns more of his troopers have been killed, Carlson is eventually lured back to the rooftop, where he finds Gabriel and Aaron, questioning why they would turn on the Commonweath over a "tenement warlord" and his thieving tenants. Preparing to kill Aaron. he is disarmed, while his guards are killed. He tries to call the rest of his men but hears them dying of gunfire.
Now surrounded by Maggie, Annie, Elijah, Gabriel and Aaron, Carlson tries to joke his way out of the situation, but Aaron shoots Carlson, sending the man falling from the roof, landing near the corpses of the residents he murdered. With his back broken, the still living Carlson cannot move--just as the reanimated residents crawl to him for their first meal. From the rooftop, Gabriel and Aaron watch the walkers rip Carlson apart.
Back as the Commonwealth, Hornsby fails to hear from Carlson just as he's paid a visit from Carol. Holding nothing back about Sebastian's scheming, Hornsby appeared disturbed...until he was relieved to know the money was retrieved. Hornsby explains that the unfortunate people who never returned from the house found themselves in that situation either from making bad choices (placing them in debt to the Commonwealth) or could not fit into their designated roles. He makes it clear he will not allow anyone to do anything that poses a danger to the Commonwealth...
Negan observes Hershel staring at him; Negan tells the boy that they unfinished business, but for now, he should help his mother rebuild their home, and after a few years, he should look up Negan to settle their affairs.
Maggie, Gabriel and Aaron are still left wondering who stole the Commonwealth weapons...
The convoy: Hornsby's convoy is wrecked--with someone slitting a female trooper's throat, adding her to the dead troopers scattered around. The person responsible for this attack is...Leah.
NOTES:
The potential for the remainder of this season just rocketed forward in so many great ways; Aaron and Gabriel are not in a position to play chess with and/or assume they can use "the goods" they have on Hornsby, as it will seem fairly strange that the two Alexandrians were the only survivors of their expedition.
Leah has returned, collected a large number of weapons and plans...? She has no loyalty / connection to the Commonwealth, and undoubtedly, she has revenge on her mind where Daryl and Maggie are concerned, but I doubt she would dare attack any community alone, so she might need help from a certain someone...
Angela Kang and the rest of the PTB are really sending the series off with one powerful / fascinating episode after another.
GRADE: A+.
