Recaps

The Walking Dead recap: Let the preparations for war begin


Ross Marquand as Aaron and Josh McDermitt as Eugene
Samantha Morton as Alpha and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. Pic credit: Jace Downs/AMC

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead is filled to the brim with angst as preparations for war against the Whisperers begins, and AMC manages to set everyone up in a position to have words with their loved ones.

And, viewers know exactly what that means: people are going to die real soon.

Negan prepares for war

Episode 11 opens with Beta (Ryan Hurst) collecting sap and, for those that have read the comic books on which the TV series is based knows exactly how horrible this going to turn out to be.

Meanwhile, Alpha (Samantha Morton) is engaging in some post-coital kink with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) by way of some light whipping.

Negan tries to steer Alpha away from attacking Hilltop and Alexandria and, instead, bringing them all into the Whisperer fold.

This literally sounds like the worst switch and bait.

Really, Negan? You think everyone will just walk away from their established communities and start walking around in the wild like the walkers?

Do you think Alpha will not realize you are bullsh*tting her regarding whose side you’re on? Alpha does like some of his plans, though, and roadblocks are set up around Hilltop so that they can’t evacuate.

As Syfy points out, it appears that Negan could be Team Alpha at this stage, but I am hoping he will redeem himself and is working towards some sort of ulterior motive that will see Alpha losing her head, in a literal sense.

However, by the episode’s end, I tend to agree with SyFy concerning which team Negan now bats for.

Hilltop prepares for war

Meanwhile, inside Hilltop, everyone is planning to evacuate after Lydia (Cassady McClincy) declares her mom is on the way, and a public meeting seals the deal that they don’t have enough people to support an attack against the massive horde of walkers and the Whisperers.

However, once they start evacuating the kids out of Hilltop to get to Oceanside, Daryl (Norman Reedus) comes across one of the roadblocks and knows who is behind it.

It also means that they are trapped inside Hilltop.

Knowing this, everyone starts making amends — except for Earl Sutton (John Finn). There’s no way he is letting Gamma (Thora Birch) — or Mary, as she introduced — see her nephew, Adam.

Carol (Melissa McBride), is having a really bad day at the office thanks to f*cking up royally in Episode 9 of The Walking Dead> Remember, she basically caused that whole mine shaft collapse that may, or may not have killed Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Magna (Nadia Hilker).

However, she and Ezekiel (Khary Payton) have some make-up sex, so that goes a long way to fixing her bad mood.

However, because it is of the “pity you’re dying” variety, viewers don’t get the level of nakedness we all had to witness and Alpha and Negan got freaky.

Daryl and Ezekiel also have a moment together in which they sort out their Carol issues.

They come to an agreement — since Ezekiel is dying anyway — that he must protect the kids with his life and will evacuate them should danger arise. Which pretty much tells the audience that something bad is about to go down.

While all of this is happening, Eugene (Josh McDermitt) has enough time set up some awesome walker decoys, attempt to kiss Rosita (Christian Serratos) in order to prove that she really does like Radio Stephanie more, sing a song to the aforementioned Stephanie (didn’t this already happen in Stranger Things anyway?), and organize a date with her.

So, he declares that he must be okay heading to the battle. Which makes me very scared for his safety.

Judith (Cailey Fleming) makes Daryl a new vest. So, I am worried about her now, as well as Daryl, who takes the vest and wears it proudly.

Kelly (Angel Theory) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) decide that they won’t stop fighting until they have a chance to return to the exploded mineshaft and fine Connie and Magna.

So, as I said at the start of the recap, everyone is tying ends up nicely and putting themselves in a position where they can segue straight into their death march.

Ross Marquand as Aaron and Josh McDermitt as Eugene
Ross Marquand as Aaron and Josh McDermitt as Eugene. Pic credit: Jace Downs/AMC

The Whisperer’s War begins

However, by the time all of this passes, Episode 11 is almost over, and the horde has just arrived. To start, it looks like a fairly well thought out plan by Hilltop.

They have their electrified walker decapitation system set up, plenty of shields, and medieval weapons.

However, the Whisperers have bombs and flaming arrows, and it all goes to the sh*tter fairly quickly after that.

In fact, the Whisperers are so good at what they do that Hilltop’s army is now trapped between the walker horde and a firey wall that used to be Hilltop’s boundary.

https://twitter.com/TWD_FanTW/status/1236835632921665542

This means the kids are trapped inside, and I wonder if that was the Whisperers plan along. However, viewers will have to tune into next week’s episode to find out how the rest of this battle will unfold.

The Walking Dead Season 10 returns with Episode 11 on Sunday, March 15, at 9/8c on AMC.

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