‘The Walking Dead’ Season 11, Episode 17 Review: The Commonwealth Blues

The Walking Dead is back for its final eight episode stretch and I have to admit: I’m not loving the direction this show is headed as we rush to the finish line.

The Commonwealth storyline has been, since its inception, a total mess. The community itself has an identity crisis. Is this an authoritarian regime quick to crack down on dissenters or a semi-liberalized society with many of the same basic freedoms as the United States?

There are factions at work here, with Pamela the Commonwealth’s leader and Lance Hornsby a rogue agent, making ruthless plays behind her back. But why? Without a clear understanding of the politics and governmental structure of the Commonwealth itself, I find myself confused about Hornsby’s motives and actions.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth—despite appearing authoritarian and employing Imperial Stormtroopers to keep people in-line—allows a newspaper to circulate and happily employs Connie, an investigative journalist, when she shows up with the other survivors. If I were the dictator of a community like this, the only place an investigative journalist would work is out clearing zombies. You don’t put gasoline and matches this close to the kindling and act surprised when a fire starts.

When a mysterious expose with no byline appears, the Commonwealth’s citizens take to the streets in protest. Pamela tries to reassure them that the alleged crimes levied at her son, Sebastian, are all just lies, but for a long time she allows the protests to continue. She also asks Yumiko if her journalist friend would have any idea who wrote the article.

I find all of this perplexing and bizarre. Again, putting myself in the shoes of a post-apocalyptic dictator, the moment an article like this was published I would have every single employee at the newspaper arrested and taken in for questioning. I would round up every new citizen and every citizen with ties to the employees of the newspaper. I would quash protests on the street immediately using my fascistic security forces.

That’s how authoritarian societies behave. We’ve seen it countless times in the real world. You don’t see Putin calmly asking protesting Russians to just listen and be patient. Even in the US, if protests get unruly we’ve seen police use force (sometimes deadly force) to disperse crowds.

Meanwhile, I have to roll my eyes at the protestors themselves. Would a citizenry in a locked down, authoritarian survival colony rush to the streets to protest? I sincerely doubt it. These are people who by all rights should be pretty safely under the thumb of the powers that be, fully cognizant of the fact that the outside world is deadly and the only thing keeping everyone inside safe is the rule of law. I’m not saying that nobody would protest, but the likelihood of this article sending the entire community out to the streets is very low—especially if we, once again, look at our own world and how few people actually go out and protest government transgressions and the various atrocities we encounter.

We are free to do so and it’s unlikely that anyone protesting in modern day USA will face harsh consequences. But in the Commonwealth, it seems far more likely that a rapid, brutal crackdown would occur, making potential protestors far more afraid of the consequences which could easily include exile to the outside world and the hordes of undead that await beyond the safety of the city walls.

None of that is portrayed here. The Commonwealth is feckless and soft. Pamela’s response is to finally disperse crowds well after curfew. The only one acting like a proper authoritarian leader is Hornsby, and he’s doing it under wraps. Our heroes decide to try to use Pamela to stop him, but the actual power structure in place is too poorly established to understand what that might look like. Who is more powerful? Mercer and Pamela seem like the obvious pick, but maybe Hornsby has more tricks up his sleeve.

The best part of the episode was the action. Daryl and Maggie and some of the other survivors take out pretty much all of Hornsby’s troops by the end of the episode and have him at knifepoint, grinning like a lunatic, when the credits roll. I’m not sure where things go from here, but I wish they would have resolved this storyline sooner so that we weren’t forced to slog through more Commonwealth nonsense for the final episodes.

The problem with The Walking Dead is that it never built to anything bigger. The structure of the show has been the same for years. Our group of heroes encounters another group, conflict ensues, our heroes overcome the other group and move on. Then, they encounter another group, conflict ensues, our heroes overcome the other group and move on. The Governor, the Termites, the police community, the Wolves, the Saviors, the Whisperers, the Commonwealth. There’s no momentum here, just the same basic plot recycled over and over and over again.

When all is said and done, our heroes walk away bruised and bloodied but in far better shape than the other guys. Alexandria, Hilltop, both left in smoking ruins. The prison, Woodbury, etc. all the same story. It will almost certainly happen again in this Commonwealth storyline. But we will be no closer to understanding how the zombie outbreak began or how it might end.

But hey, at least we didn’t have even a single scene of Eugene blubbering or reading love poems and I think we can all agree that’s a pretty big win.

Scattered Thoughts

• I really like Rosita and I wish we got more of her. She and Mercer would make a good couple. Let’s ship Mersita.
• What is up with that Stormtrooper getting ripped in half? The force required to rip a living human being (rather than a rotting zombie) in half would be enormous. Surely you’d let go before that happened???
• Carol can find anything or anyone anywhere at any time. Need wine? She’ll find a wine cellar. Need to find the brat Sebastian who’s hiding out? She knows where he is!
• This cast is too big. Way, way too many characters all over the place. By this point in the story they should have killed off way, way more survivors so we could focus on the core cast for the final stretch.
• I like Jerry, but during that whole scene where he’s trying to hide the kids I found myself just not caring at all. That should be a scene you really care about. Kids are in danger! I think I’m feeling pretty checked out here, folks. I hope things pick up considerably.

What did you think? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

You can watch my video review of this episode below: