TV

How does The Walking Dead addresses the ending of last week’s episode? By barely moving the story forward with illogical decision making.

First off, we learn that the communities that The Commonwealth took over were transformed into forced labor camps. It is here that we see Alexandria being used to expand the train operations. I like the idea, but could we have saw this a few episodes earlier? There is no reason why we had to wait to the near end of the series to see this. Also, how ridiculous is it to bring the Alexandria residents back there as prisoners since they know the entire layout of the community.

Speaking of The Commonwealth, whatever training Mercer did with the soldiers are pointless. They act and talk like video game NPCs and it was on full display here as many of them were easily killed by Daryl, Carol, Maggie, and others.Sure, I love a good gun battle, but those soldiers looked pretty stupid trying to combat back. Plus, there was no sense of urgency or tension while I was watching the ambush take place.

And do not get me started on the intro. Cool to see that solder get shot from the back of his head. But it meant nothing due to what transpired before. Everyone in that truck was zip-tied and those are not easy to get out of when its behind your back. How did Maggie just break out of that?! At least when Rick, Daryl, Bob, and Glen were zip-tied, they showed Rick using the sharpened wood to break it. For some reason, Maggie had super powers for a second and broke free. WHAT?! Are you kidding me?

And the other two things that were ridiculous was that scene when Rosita dislocating her arm, and the one solder that fell asleep. Soldiers are supposed to stay awake when they have captives. Why would he fall asleep with his assault rifle? And last, why would the train conductor use that horn when there could be walkers miles away? Do the writers even know what show they are writing anymore?

There are some positives. I am a huge Negan fan, but I am glad that Ezekiel brought up how Negan used to force women to marry him and burning Dwight’s face. It was glossed over for so long and I felt like it was a big scene between Negan and Ezekiel since they never interacted outside of battles. Gabriel also did not forget his roots as a preacher all season long as he spoke with the injured soldier before he died. And finally, Kelly knowing what would happen if she escaped the worksite like the three others did.

After all this, the episode ends the same way as the last episode did. Which is, back to Alexandria. Or in this case, Outpost 22. Nothing of value was gained here except the positives that I mentioned. When it is all said and done, this episode of The Walking Dead in my eyes is the weakest and most illogical of this final half of season 11.

Although the plot did not progress much on this week’s The Walking Dead, there was time for some good character development.

Daryl and Carol in particular, had some really great scenes and interactions with each other. Add in the fact that these two were involved with the most action in this episode. With that in mind, I am puzzled with some of the storyline decisions. Sebastian getting killed off a few episodes ago was something. But with Lance now being killed, who is the last “big bad” that the group has to deal with? I will give praise that it had to be Carol to kill Lance and I am glad that Daryl did not take her kill point this time.

Josh Hamilton will be missed on The Walking Dead and it is a shame that Lance had to go this way as there was more they could have gotten out of the character. With him gone, we still do not know what happened to Oceanside, his deal with another unknown group, or whether or not if Pamela even knows what Lance did to the communities that he captured. One thing he did let slip is about the railroad operation.

Over at Commonwealth, Yumiko has a conflict as Pamela is using her friends against her for Eugene’s upcoming trial. Eleanor Matsuura is underrated on The Walking Dead and I believe that this is her best episode as Yumiko since she joined the cast two seasons ago. Her performance came off believable and convincing as a lawyer. Bonus points between her scenes with Connie.

With that out of the way, I do not like how The Commonwealth soldiers became NPCs from a video game. They lack intelligence and act as if they never paid attention to Mercer’s training. It boggles my mind that they became a joke as the season progressed.

There are three more episodes left and everyone is suddenly at Alexandria as it is now “Outpost 22.” Let’s see where this goes.