AMC’s The Walking Dead
10×17: “Home Sweet Home”
Directed by David Boyd
Written by Kevin Deiboldt & Corey Reed

* For a recap & review of 10×16, click here.
* For a recap & review of 10×18, click here.
Maggie’s back and she’s walking the woods with little Judith, killing walkers. They talk about Michonne being out there “under the same sky” as them. A comfort for them both. Interesting to see Maggie and Negan face-to-face after all this time, too. Not quite a warm reunion. Can’t be easier for her to see the man who murdered her husband walking free among people again. We meet some of Maggie’s new people as she introduces them to Carol and Daryl. We meet Elijah (Okea Eme-Awkwari) and Cole (James Devoti). Maggie wants to take them to Hilltop, but she wasn’t aware of the damage done there during the big fight with the Whisperers. She also finds out about Negan being on their side, getting let out by her friends in order to kill Alpha. Difficult for Maggie to hear that Negan was a help in the battle. Neither is Cole impressed to hear about having to go live next door to Negan; he knows what happened to Glenn.

Daryl’s going along to pick up more of Maggie’s people with her. Kelly decides to tag along, hoping to look for signs of Connie along the way. Maggie seems particularly determined to keep going on the road even when it’s starting to get dark. It takes Cole to convince Maggie to make camp for the night finally. They all decide to clear out parking lot of zombies so they’ll have shelter. Living in the zombie apocalypse wasteland is never easy; just sleeping overnight is a chore.
After the zombies are all finished off, Maggie patches up a cut on her arm, and everybody settles in for the evening. She and Daryl get talking a little. He was worried they’d lose touch when her letters stopped coming. Mostly it was due to Maggie being on the go so much, she didn’t have time to keep sending them. She tells Daryl about what she was up to out there all this time. Basically the same thing the rest of them have been doing: building things, defending them, dealing with fallout from other violent groups. She thought about coming back but didn’t; she went to a place near the ocean her grandmother owned instead, to give little Hershel a beautiful place to exist at least for a while. She eventually had to tell her boy about Negan, though. After that they met a whole new community. And later, that came to an end, as well.

In the morning, everyone wakes up but can’t find Kelly. That’s because she’s out having a look around places nearby, holding out for hope that she’ll come upon Connie somewhere out in the woods. Kelly searches a few spots, then finds a truck, where she’s discovered by Maggie and Daryl. They’re only concerned for her safety. But they get it. Everybody’s lost someone in this new, shitty world; Elijah recently lost a sibling, too. Everyone gets back out on the road again now. They’re nearly back to Maggie’s camp when they notice black smoke billowing up out of the trees. The place is all but burned to the ground; two people are dead and charred in the rubble. Maggie desperately searches for Hershel. They can’t find anyone else. Cole mentions “the Reapers,” the people who’ve been after them. A bad crew, by the looks of it. Daryl can tell they’re headed north.

On the group go, keeping up the trail Daryl’s found.
At a certain point they split up into two smaller groups to cover more ground with Cole, Elijah, and Kelly going on one way while Daryl and Maggie go another. They all carefully search the area. Daryl soon finds a girl who’s part of Maggie’s group. A couple of others are in hiding, too. Hershel’s safe with someone else, hopefully. Then arrows and bullets start to fly. One guy gets shot in the throat. Maggie and Daryl get moving, trying to hunt down whoever’s hunting them. And more people are shot. One girl, with her dying breaths, points out into the woods for Maggie, potentially where little Hershel is, but Maggie and Daryl have got to survive gunfire first to find him. Maggie sneaks around and finds a sniper rifle without a sniper. She’s quickly attacked by the sniper who’s hiding in the trees. She stabs him but the guy pulls out the blade and tosses it back at her. She then gets caught in a hunter’s trap. Thankfully Daryl’s got her back, though the sniper is a tough bastard, knocking him to the ground hard. Daryl and Maggie are about to take him on when Kelly puts an arrow in the guy, stopping him short. They ask who he is but get little answers, as the man pulls a grenade pin and blows himself up, telling Maggie: “Pope marked you.”
Who the hell is Pope?
At least Hershel’s safe after all. Everybody gets a chance to rest that evening after everything’s said and done. We see Elijah and Kelly have formed a quick bond in their time together. We also see Kelly and Maggie get to know each other a bit, too. They talk about Connie and Kelly’s family. The connection between the sisters is evident as we hear Kelly talk about Connie. Poor Maggie thinks of her own sister, and she hopes she’ll get to meet Connie eventually. Lots of hope left in these folk, regardless of the horrors they’ve faced, over and over. Although Maggie keeps worrying about the sniper’s final words, even when Daryl tries telling her it was nothing.

The crew get on the road once more, heading for Alexandria.
They see the destruction of the Whisperers and all the efforts to rebuild the place. It’ll be interesting to see how Maggie deals with Negan being around. She’s just glad to have a home for her group to go to, especially since their last camp got burned down. Even with the work to be done at Alexandria it’s better than being out in the wilds.