Season 10, Episode 15
- Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel form an alliance with the Princess, while Beta leads the horde on a march to find the survivors.
This episode was the last for a while due to the COVID-19 pandemic halting post-production on the following episode.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Subverted. Beta leads the remainder of the horde to Alexandria, only to find the group has already fled to a safe location. They leave without causing any visible damage to the town. It’s then played straight at the end of the episode when he finds the survivors at the Tower.
- The Aloner: Not by choice, but Princess has been alone in her city for over a year.
- Berserk Button: A Whisperer is nearly killed for calling Beta the new alpha.
- Break the Cutie: Judith is deeply shaken when Daryl kills the dying Whisperer and leaves her in the ditch.
- Brutal Honesty: Lydia is probably correct that even after killing Alpha, Negan will never be forgiven by some of the survivors.
- The Bus Came Back: The Oceanside residents return for the first time since “The World Before”.
- Call-Back:
- The Tower was first mentioned back in “Stalker”.
- Carol apologizes to Kelly for her actions at the mine that caused Connie’s disappearance in “Squeeze”.
- Kelly tells Carol how Connie told her that her loss of hearing and ensuing enhanced other senses is her superpower back in “Lines We Cross.”
- Lydia is cold towards Negan after he scared her and tied her up in a cabin, not knowing at the time he was saving her from her mother, in “Walk With Us”.
- Princess gets Eugene’s attention at the end when she mentions she has candy. In the previous episode, he said he hoped they’d find candy at their destination.
- Cliffhanger: Aaron and Alden are captured at gunpoint by the Whisperers, and Beta has led the horde to surround the Tower.
- The Comically Serious: You know Princess is wild when even Eugene, the usual king of this trope, is weirded out.
- Continuity Nod:
- Eugene mentions how he used to lie to get protection and companionship during Seasons 4 and 5.
- Cooldown Hug: Negan pushes Lydia’s buttons until she finally gets upset enough to openly grieve her mother, and hugs her to comfort her.
- Didn't Think This Through: Princess tries to show Yumiko, Eugene and Ezekiel how helpful she can be by mowing down some walkers that wander behind them. It didn't cross her mind that they had horses with them that sprinted away, frightened by the loud gunfire.
- Dramatic Irony: Played for Laughs. Princess didn’t want the nickname of “queen” because she says it makes her sound old and boring... not knowing about either Ezekiel’s former title of “king”, let alone his ex-wife’s title of “queen”.
- Evil Laugh: Beta gives one when he leads the horde to the Tower.
- Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
- Yumiko, who doesn't initially trust Princess and thinks she is leading them into a trap, is The Cynic;
- Ezekiel, who insists on giving Princess a chance, is The Optimist;
- Eugene, who understands that Princess is a Cloudcuckoolander but also decides to give her the benefit of the doubt, is The Realist;
- Princess, who is new to the group and thus unaware of the nature of their mission, is The Apathetic.
- Hearing Voices: Beta imagines the walkers speaking to and advising him.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Princess admits taking the long way around Fleetwood Drive just to keep the trio with her, having been desperately lonely since even before the apocalypse.
- Innocently Insensitive: When asked about her nickname, Princess explains that she thought "Queen" would have made her sound old and pretentious. Having just met Ezekiel, she has no clue that he used to be called "King" and his ex-wife Carol used to be called "Queen".
- Locked Out of the Loop: Judith doesn’t tell Daryl that Michonne left to pursue a trail left by Rick. By extension, Judith makes clear that she hasn’t told anyone that Michonne has left the communities for the foreseeable future.
- Mirror Character: Eugene’s group eventually realizes this about Princess and this is what causes them to accept her into their ranks.
- Like Eugene, Princess went as far as deceiving people just so she could have companionship. Princess also suffers from self-loathing especially when it comes to how she connects with other people, which Eugene all but said when he was venting to Rosita about his apparently failed romantic prospects with Stephanie in “Morning Star”.
- Like Ezekiel, Princess puts on an eccentric, overly positive front when really she’s just trying to hide how broken she is by all the traumas in her life. She also has a flair for being almost theatrical as evidenced by her walker decorations around the city.
- Like Yumiko, she also wants some sort of connection with new people. For Princess, it’s because she’s been alone for over a year in the city. For Yumiko, it’s because she just broke up with Magna.
- Oh, Crap!: The Whisperer who calls Beta the new Alpha immediately tries to backpedal and is nearly killed before Beta, listening to the voice in his head, decides to keep moving.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Judith is afraid to tell Daryl or the others about Michonne’s mission to find Rick, afraid that they’ll leave her too.
Word of Saint Paul (Norman Reedus) later said he felt it was unlikely Daryl would leave them with the state of things. - Sanity Slippage: Beta is clearly becoming even more unhinged after accepting the death of Alpha, now hearing voices and even cackling when he’d previously been so stoic.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Whisperer who is nearly killed by Beta for calling him the new Alpha decides to desert, only to get an arrow to the chest on her way out.
- Ship Tease: Jules is touchy with Luke and assures him that he’ll be able to fix their radio.
- Sixth Ranger: Well, Fourth Ranger, but Princess joins Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel’s journey to meet Stephanie.
- Spanner in the Works: The cat Lydia petted in the Tower ends up leading Beta right to the group despite the group’s plan to deal with the herd at Oceanside.
- We Used to Be Friends: Lydia is avoiding Negan after he captured her, and it’s not until he helps her get angry enough to properly grieve her mother’s death that she seems to start to forgive him.
- You Are in Command Now: Already in command of Alexandria, Gabriel is pretty much in charge of all the allied communities as they hunker down together at the Tower. Yumiko and Ezekiel both went on Eugene’s mission, and Michonne is gone for the foreseeable future.
