Season 11, Episode 6
- Connie and Virgil face a gauntlet of horrors while Daryl faces his next test from the Reapers.
On a dark, stormy night, Connie and Virgil are on the run from unknown pursuers who seem to be low to the ground. They flee inside a dilapidated mansion. Virgil has struggled to try to pick up ASL and thus has trouble communicating with Connie, who hasn't slept in days. Connie goes to look around in a bathroom only to see an eye looking back at her through a peephole, and warns Virgil they are not alone.
Virgil is unconvinced, and reminds Connie she hasn't slept. However, as they go to make another sweep of the house, a dividing wall is brought up between the two... and a hunched over human begins chasing Connie, wildly screaming "HUNGRY!" Connie runs for her life and sneaks into a hidden passageway in the house, and ends up in a room littered with human remains. She makes her way to the room Virgil is hiding in, but she is nearly stabbed when Virgil attacks the wall, believing it was a feral person. The pair reunite only for the ferals to attack again. Virgil is stabbed in the back by one, but Connie fends it off.
The pair realize they've been herded to the mansion, and Connie refuses to leave Virgil behind. The pair make a bid to escape, but when they are cornered, Connie opens the doors of the mansion allowing a group of walkers inside. The ferals are too far gone to recognize the walkers as threats they cannot beat, and their attempts to attack them like animals only get them eaten. Connie and Virgil head outside where a surviving feral chases them, only to be put down by Kelly, accompanied by others from Alexandria. The sisters reunite at last.
At Meridian, Carver is sadistically torturing and interrogating Frost for information. Pope orders Daryl to continue the torture, despite Carver's disappointment. However, Frost subtly warns Daryl that Carver has a gun ready to use on him if he doesn't go through with torturing him. Daryl demands the location of Maggie's rendezvous point before chopping off one of Frost's fingers, and Frost gives a dummy location near the actual hideout. Pope orders Leah to take Carver, Daryl and others to go investigate. Carver angrily refuses to let Daryl come along, but a quick look from Pope silences him.
Leah's hunting party arrives in the neighborhood, and Daryl is able to send a warning signal to Maggie. The Reapers search the house and realize Frost gave them a bad location, but Daryl insists they search again. They move on to another house - the actual location - where Daryl notices Maggie, Negan, Gabriel, and Elijah hiding in a basement, and tries to hide the entrance under a rug. When they find nothing, Daryl tries to insist the Reapers move on and loudly says how many people they have at Meridian. Carver notices Daryl's wishy-washiness, and Leah warns Daryl to not rile up Carver and demands he be loyal to the Reapers. Daryl says he only cares about Leah and is afraid of Pope. The Reapers nearly move on before Carver finally notices the basement entrance. He moves to open it, and Daryl prepares to potentially break his cover... but luckily, Maggie's group has fled the house, leaving the basement empty.
The Reapers return to Meridian and report their failure to find Maggie to Pope. However, their leader is in a jolly mood, having killed Frost in their absence and claiming to have gotten everything he needed through further interrogation.
- The Atoner: Virgil is determined to help Connie return home, as part of his new quest to make amends for what he had done on Bloodsworth Island.
- Break the Cutie: Connie had faced many horrors already, but her time on the run has severely traumatized her, putting the sweet, loving woman through too much.
- The Bus Came Back: Connie and Virgil return for the first time since Season 10’s “A Certain Doom”. Notably, this is Lauren Ridloff’s first proper episode she’s taken part in filming since Season 10’s “Squeeze”, since her appearance in the former episode was filmed ahead of time to accommodate her shooting schedule for Eternals.
- Cannibal Larder: Connie finds a room where the feral cannibals have left numerous human bones from their past victims.
- Character Death: Frost is killed by Pope during the Reapers' hunt.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The Reapers torture Frost for information and then force Daryl to do it.
- Continuity Nod:
- Virgil, having returned to the mainland after the events of Season 10’s “What We Become”, encountered Connie who was weak and exhausted from escaping Alpha’s horde. Connie had become trapped in Alpha’s cave with Magna in “Squeeze”, and Magna later confirmed the pair snuck out among the dead when she reunited with Yumiko in “Walk With Us”, only to get separated in the chaos.
- Daryl remarks he’s conducted torture before, recalling Season 2’s “Judge, Jury, Executioner” when he tortured Randall.
- Connie and Virgil are attacked by feral people who have become cannibals. The group encountered Terminus/The Hunters, a group that took to cannibalism, back in Seasons 4 and 5.
- Deadpan Snarker: Frost initially has enough to playfully snark back to Daryl until the torture worsens.
- Dead Guy on Display: Frost was killed by Pope and then his reanimated corpse was strung up.
- Death Glare: When Pope orders Leah to take Carver, Daryl and others on a mission to look for the group, Carver angrily refuses to let Daryl come along. One slow look from Pope is all it takes for Carver to fall in line and accept the order.
- Determinator: Kelly and Carol stop at nothing to find Connie after having found a lead on her. Meanwhile, Frost holds out for quite some time until Daryl is forced to chop off one of his fingers. He even gives the Reapers a false location.
- Devoured by the Horde: Connie is able to kill the feral people by letting in the walkers that had been lurking outside the house.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Leah was genuinely shaken by being locked in the burning shed, though it’s implied she’s more upset with Carver for not warning her than Pope.
- Exact Words: Once again, Daryl uses this to great effect.
- He orders Frost to give him a location to end the torture. He didn’t say give him the right location. Frost knows what he’s doing and obliges, and it buys Maggie’s group valuable time to hide and for Daryl to tip them off that the Reapers are coming.
- He tells Carver and Leah flat out that he doesn’t care about any of the Reapers except for Leah, painting himself as a Punch-Clock Villain. He’s able to make it convincing since he presumably does still care for Leah and doesn’t want to have to kill her if he can avoid it, despite the rest of the Reapers being his enemies. He also tells them that Pope scares him, which is probably true, and it’s something Leah and Carver can relate to since Pope is a Bad Boss.
- For Want Of A Nail: The one thing that nearly gives Maggie’s group away is the trapdoor to the basement they hide in being partially exposed. Daryl quickly goes to hide it with a rug, but even he doesn’t get ample opportunity to completely hide it as Carver is able to spot it.
- Hulk Speak: The feral cannibals speak only one word - “hungry”.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Pope orders Daryl to torture Frost, and clearly intended to have him killed by Carver if he refused.
- Jumpscare: Connie discovers someone spying on her through a hole in the wall in the bathroom.
- Missed Him by That Much: The Reapers manage to catch up to the group in the correct safe house, and Daryl is only able to distract Carver for a few precious seconds longer than he needed to. By the time Carver opens the trapdoor, the group has escaped by literally only footsteps.
- The Mole: Daryl is forced to play this among the Reapers to try to keep the group safe.
- Mundanger: The language barrier between Connie and Virgil creates complications between them as they try to survive together.
- No Man Left Behind: Despite Virgil’s urging, Connie refuses to leave him behind.
- No Name Given: The feral cannibal people.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- When the usually calm, collected Connie is stressed and practically screaming for her life, you know things are bad.
- Pope is in an extremely jovial mood when Leah’s group returns, unnerving her and Daryl.
- Primal Stance: The cannibals run around crouched like animals.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Daryl claims to be this, insisting he only is with the Reapers due to caring for Leah and being afraid of Pope. It’s also to tip off Maggie to what he’s doing with their enemies.
- Shout-Out:
- The opening of the episode where Connie and Virgil flee into a house to find refuge from the undead references Night of the Living Dead, creator of the modern day zombie tropes. It is also a film that never existed in any universe of The Walking Dead, which was a choice to explain how people were unfamiliar with the undead. Connie peeking outside of the house is also a reference to said film.
- The scene in which Connie reacts in pure horror to Virgil nearly stabbing her with a knife through the wall is a reference to the famous “Here’s Johnny!” moment from The Shining.
- Spotting the Thread: Carver notices Daryl’s wishy-washiness while they search for the group, but Leah is able to defuse their initial argument. He later is able to spot the entrance to the trap door, but thankfully by then, Maggie’s group has escaped.
- Sanity Slippage: The feral people completely lost it and started eating anyone that they could find alive.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Connie lets in the walkers, who devour the feral people.
- Token Evil Teammate: Even among the psychopathic Reapers, Carver is noted by Leah to be someone one shouldn’t piss off.
- Villainous Rescue: The walkers showing up and attacking feral people gives Connie and Virgil a chance to escape.
- Wham Episode: Connie is finally reunited with Kelly and the group, and Virgil appears to be joining them - if he survives.
- Wild Child: A very rare adult example; the cannibals have gone insane and run around like apes. They are so far gone they don’t even have self-preservation instincts against the walkers that Connie lets in.
- You Have Failed Me: Carver had a gun ready to shoot Daryl while he interrogated Frost in case he didn’t go through with it.
