You Finally Have My Attention

See that expression Daryl (Norman Reedus) is making as he glares at Eugene (Josh McDermitt)?

Yeah, that’s the same expression I make whenever Eugene is onscreen, blubbering or pontificating in his endlessly inventive—and irritating—way of speaking. Much of Season 11 has focused, bizarrely, on Eugene’s romance with Max (Margot Bingham) though at first he was duped by a fake version of his love interest, which makes the story even more preposterous and absurd.

Suffice to say, I am not a fan of this subplot, and I don’t buy for a second—not one damn second—that sparks would ever fly between this pair. There’s no onscreen chemistry between McDermitt and Bingham, either.

Eugene is just . . . not a believable love interest, and Max is a new character with very little depth who I’ve never been able to connect with—unlike, say, Princess who I find both hilarious and fascinating, and whose fractured mind contains all sorts of dark and mysterious secrets. More on her in a moment.

In any case, Eugene and Max have taken center stage again in the current Commonwealth plot, having secretly recorded Sebastian Milton (Teo Rapp-Olsson) saying all sorts of terrible truths and then played that recording at the Founder’s Day celebration, directly after the utterly ridiculous WWE match.

All hell breaks loose after they play the tape and some zombies show up (after Hornsby’s agents kill some workers and let them turn). Sebastian is killed and in this week’s episode Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) is out for blood. She has her sights on three targets: Max—who she tells Mercer (Michael James Shaw), Max’s brother, she’d like to spare—Eugene, and her wayward lieutenant, Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) who she has in custody.

Max is on the run and Eugene is being hidden by Daryl at the church. Pamela orders Milton to round up all the people associated with Eugene for questioning, bringing in Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Princess (Paola Lázaro)—two of my favorite characters on the show— as well as Carol (Melissa McBride) and Ezekiel (Khary Payton) for questioning.

Princess was a highlight of this episode for me. Her tragic backstory is gripping and adds some welcome—in unpleasant—emotional resonance to the episode, as she explains to Mercer how she’s come to see the Commonwealth (which is willing to kill a good man like Eugene) like her abusive stepfather and stepbrother. She feels like she’d be just like her mom, who stood around and let the abuse take place, if she stayed in the Commonwealth.

Rosita visits Eugene and agrees to go looking for Max so that he can remain hidden, though we soon discover through his conversation with Daryl about bravery and cowardice, that he’s too much the scaredy-cat to go looking for her himself. Rosita does eventually find Max, who is hiding in an alleyway of sorts, and stupidly runs out into the street the moment she sees Rosita without making sure the coast is clear. She’s apprehended. When Eugene learns the news he decides to man up and go turn himself in, confessing to the whole thing and claiming that Max wasn’t responsible. Max, for her part, refuses to throw Eugene under the bus even to save her own skin.

The more interesting storyline in this week’s episode takes place outside of the Commonwealth. Aaron (Ross Marquand), Jerry (Cooper Andrews), Lydia (Cassady Marie McClincy) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) are on their way back to the settlements when they stop at a town to rest. It looks like a theme town of some sort, part actual town and part Renaissance Fair. Jerry says it would make a cool Kingdom 2.0 and I agree. This would have been a great setting for the original Kingdom, in fact.

Alas, the place is overrun by a zombie horde that night and Jerry hurts his knee as they try to fight their way out. They climb to a rooftop and debate their next move as Jerry sits resting his injured appendage. Just then, we see zombie hands clambering up over the ledge. A zombie has climbed the ladder behind them and reaches down to pick up a rock. “Dude!” Jerry shouts at Aaron, who rushes into action, punching the zombie and tackling him to the ground.

Thinking this is a Whisperer, he reaches down and rips off the “mask”—only to discover that it’s not a mask at all. He’s ripped the face off of an actual walker. A walker who can climb to the roof and has the wherewithal to pick up a makeshift weapon.

A walker, in other words, like the ones from Season 1.

This is a very cool moment actually. Probably the most exciting moment in years. I knew they were going to be doing some cool stuff with zombies but I wasn’t sure exactly what, and a return to the more sentient zombies that made Season 1 so fascinating is a great twist. For the first time since Maggie went full revenge back in Episode 9, I’m actually interested in what happens next. Hopefully it will be better than the rest of this largely dull and uninspired final season.

Back in the Commonwealth, Pamela has all three of her targets now. She’s locked Hornsby in a cell with the zombified version of her son, still bound but with a machete to protect himself (somehow, with hands tied behind his back). Hornsby is slippery, however, and I’m sure he gets out of this pinch. I am curious to see what his next play is.

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Here’s my video review of this episode:

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