They Keep Killing The Wrong Characters Off

The Walking Dead seems intent to limp its way to the finish line in its eleventh, and final, season. I know that this is partly the fault of the source material and partly a problem with losing Andrew Lincoln (and thus the entire Rick Grimes arc here) but I still can’t quite believe that the final season of this long-running zombie show is going out with a whimper rather than a bang.

There’s just not much here from one episode to the next, which makes me wonder why they needed an extended 24-episode season to wrap things up. Half of each episode feels like filler. The cast is still too big, filled with characters we don’t care about. Weirdly, newcomer Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) has become one of the most interesting characters on the show.

In ‘What’s Been Lost’ we follow Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) as they attempt to find their missing compatriots, most of whom having been disappeared by Pamela Milton (Laila Robins). They rescue Hornsby—taking out the ‘rotter’ Sebastian—and enlist his help. Soon, Carol and Hornsby are separated from Daryl, who hangs back to fight off some Stormtroopers.

The two make their way toward wherever Pamela is holding Carol’s friends, eventually running into some sewer zombies. A fight ensues, in which Hornsby hides while Carol takes out the undead.

This was probably my favorite scene of the episode. For all this show’s flaws they really do make some great zombie special effects.

When the two are caught by more Stormtroopers, Daryl shows up in the nick of time to save them. They continue on their journey and then tell Hornsby that his time is up. “You’re just gonna kill me?” he says. “You can run,” Carol replies.

He walks slowly away, then lunges at a nearby jeep and grabs a gun. Carol shoots him with her bow. RIP Hornsby. The show keeps all the most boring characters alive and unceremoniously discards the ones that are actually compelling.

Elsewhere, Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) who has become legal counsel to Pamela, is put in the unenviable position of having to prosecute Eugene (Josh McDermitt) for the killing of Sebastian. She agrees and even goes to talk with Eugene, who says he understands what she has to do. But—to the surprise of nobody—when she gives her speech before the assembled Commonwealth citizens, she flips the script, announcing that she’ll be defending Eugene in court instead. Pamela could just have her arrested at this point, but Pamela isn’t a particularly effective dictator.

And that’s about that. A pretty lackluster episode with a pretty disappointing death for Hornsby. He seems like a character whose story had not run dry just yet, who could have figured into the final showdown as some kind of wild card. In fact, they’ve now killed all the most interesting Commonwealth baddies: Hornsby, Sebastian and Carlson, the dude who threw all those people off the roof earlier this season. Now we just have Pamela, who is a pretty dull Big Bad.

Oh well. Just a few episodes left at this point.

The episode ends with the captured heroes being taken somewhere on a bus, under the watchful eye of a group of Stormtroopers, presumably to a place called Outpost 22, the title of the next episode.

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