AMC’s The Walking Dead
11×02: “Acheron Part II”
Directed by Kevin Dowling
Written by Angela Kang & Jim Barnes

* For a recap & review of the Season 11 premiere, click here.
* For a recap & review of 11×03, click here.
We see Maggie get left behind by Negan, fighting for her life against a horde of walkers. She’s in a tight spot, almost eerily similar to one her dead husband found himself in seasons ago on top of a dumpster. Luckily it’s not THAT bad. But it’s still too tense for my liking. Further on, Gabriel and some of the others slip into a subway car, including Negan, who’s got to make excuses for Maggie not being with them. They can only keep going forward, hoping their friends will make it to them eventually. Elsewhere, Daryl and dog are together, sneaking through the subway’s decaying structure; a veritable wasteland, where people once holed up from the apocalypse outside. He sees signs and graffiti everywhere spelling despair. There are corpses everywhere. There’s a massive political mural with the phrase YOUR CROWN FOR YOUR LIFE on it. Daryl goes on foraging, finding candy bars and sadness. Then dog hears noise and runs off through a tunnel.

At the Commonwealth, Yumiko’s trying to figure out how to somehow reconnect with her brother; he’s the one who had a wallet photo of her, the one she saw on the board outside. She’s going to do some talking, hoping it’ll pull out info. She and Princess get interrupted by a frantic Eugene, who claims Ezekiel’s gone. She goes directly to a guard and asks about Ezekiel, asking for a supervisor. Princess makes it clear, bringing out her inner Karen: “That‘s right, we want to talk to the manager.” Yumiko gets back in a room with a couple interrogators, showing her intuition by explaining what she’s learned by observing the Commonwealth and their processes. She then tells them her brother, a thoracic surgeon, is there somewhere.
Daryl’s going after dog, crawling through that tunnel. There are zombie noises ahead but no signs of where they might be hiding. In another part of the subway, Gabriel and his crew continue moving and they start hearing a banging noise from below their current subway car. Oh, yes, it’s Maggie! She survived, pistol whipping Negan for his actions and telling the others he left her to die. His response: “So what?” Not a great spot for Negan to be in. He leans into it, too. But he reminds the group he saved them from the Whisperers, as well. And despite everything, Maggie’s keeping him around for the time being. That’s when everyone sees Gage caught on the other side of the subway car’s door with a zombie horde coming his way, having accidentally left a door open behind him. Maggie orders everyone to stand down because they don’t have the ammo to clear all those walkers. So Gage stabs himself in the heart rather than be eaten alive. Absolutely brutal, as everyone watches the zombies feed on Gage right in front of them.

A while later the group talks about terrible ways to die. Maggie tells them about a “frail old man” she saw on the road who offered food. She thwarted the man’s chloroform plans and searched his house, discovering “three deformed” men she had to kill. In the house, Maggie found a walker “that used to be a woman” with no arms, legs, eyes, or tongue, yet it was pregnant; there were three more of them upstairs. Maybe the most horrific tale recounted by any character on The Walking Dead. It lead to food for Maggie and baby Hershel, however, it shows how desensitised Maggie’s become to the horrors of the post-zombie apocalypse wasteland.

Down the tunnel, Daryl finds Roy shambling and falling over, zombies on his tail. At least dog’s back! Though Roy is fucked up and he lost the ammo bag. He gives Daryl the few things he managed to keep his hands on, such as a gun and a grenade, then makes clear he’s made it as far as he’ll go. Cold as ice, bro. In the subway car, Maggie and Gabriel’s crew are bracing themselves against a coming horde smashing through the door. Gabriel and the rest work their way through zombies only to discover the zombies are coming from the opposite side now.
Impressive to see Maggie hand Negan a gun so he can help keep them alive. Also helps that Daryl hears the commotion and gets behind the remaining horde, moving through them with the handgun like a goddamn bad mother-shut-your-mouth. He gets to the door where Negan and Mercer, allowing his friends through. He then stuffs a zombie’s mouth with the grenade, shutting the door in time for it to go off and make zombie soup out of the walkers.
Poor ole Eugene is stressed out and Commonwealth guards have come to take him for more interrogation. He’s told his friends are being processed; he’s worried about the distinction between “administratively” and “bologna.” He’s intimidated by the big, serious guard asking him questions. He’s asked again about the location of his settlement, as well as why he was at the train station. Eugene uses this moment to talk about Stephanie and the fact he’s a virgin, and as a roundabout way of reiterating he’s been telling the truth this whole time. Soon Eugene’s back with his friends and they’re all okay. The group’s then told they’ve completed “initial processing.” Next step: orientation.
And Eugene finally meets Stephanie face-to-face!

Maggie and the others make it out of the subway. She wants to head to Arbor Hills next, a supply depot that’s got ammo, food, and weapons waiting for them. They’re taking Negan’s lead, using his knowledge of the area. We see Roy’s still alive, which is nice. Not so nice are the hanging bodies from trees along the road, hung upside down. Roy doesn’t last long when arrows start flying from the woods. His friends move off the road as people in masks carrying weapons come out of the darkness up ahead.