[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 10, “New Haunts.”]
With the Reapers out of the way, the Commonwealth storyline can finally begin in earnest… and oh, boy, does it.
As “New Haunts” begins, a month-long time jump has passed, and Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Judith (Cailey Fleming), RJ and more appear to be settling in at the Commonwealth. But as is the case with any apparently idyllic community in the TWD Universe, something dark slithers beneath the surface. Except for this time, instead of walkers in a barn or crazy cannibals, the threat is something less deadly — and more relatable.
Josh Stringer/AMC
This is Halloween
It’s Halloween in the Commonwealth, which provides plenty of opportunities for establishing not only the new community’s attitude toward the dead (the episode opener is Judith, Daryl and RJ walking through a haunted house that, jarringly, uses real walkers as entertainment) but also establishing some character beats that seem likely to continue through the season. Daryl gets a cute scene with Connie (Lauren Ridloff), while Carol keeps an eye on an ailing-but-in-good-spirits Ezekiel (Khary Payton). We also meet the Commonwealth’s leader, Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) here, as she chooses a costume contest winner and says they’ll earn a mysterious “lottery entry” as a prize. Seem weird? It is. And it only gets weirder.
But before that, Carol, who has settled back into her “innocent housewife” persona, makes it her mission to get Ezekiel the lifesaving surgery he needs. As she finds out from Yumiko’s (Eleanor Matsuura) MD brother Tomi (Ian Anthony Dale) after she breaks into the hospital’s records room, Zeke is in the 140s on the list. He won’t live to see himself reach the top.
Josh Stringer/AMC
Let’s Make a Deal
Rather than murdering 140-odd people to get her (ex?)-husband moved up the list — which, as we all know, Carol could do — she decides to help Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) with a crucial problem: Finding a wine to serve at the night’s gala event. A trip outside the walls gains her a suitable vintage, and the haughty Hornsby is impressed by both her ability to escape the Commonwealth and retrieve the goods he needs to impress Pamela. When she tells him what she wants, he says that’s no small ask — but he’ll see what he can do.
Later that night, Carol and Ezekiel, who is none the wiser about her new partnership with Hornsby, have an emotional chat at her apartment. He gives her a box of their late adopted son Henry’s (Matt Lintz) things and tells her she should have it. Tears are shed, and it seems like they might be on the way to healing their relationship.
Josh Stringer/AMC
The Archer Becomes a Soldier
Meanwhile, Daryl’s story this episode delves even deeper into the Commonwealth’s instability and gilded nature. He’s training to be a soldier, as is Rosita, but unlike Rosita, he’s not quite as good at the whole “teamwork” thing. It doesn’t hurt that Rosita is former military either. A training exercise goes wrong because Daryl’s not prioritizing his team/the greater good, and, maybe as recompense or maybe to keep a closer eye on him, Mercer (Michael James Shaw) has Daryl assist him with training Sebastian (Teo Rapp-Olsson) in killing walkers. Oh, hooray.
Of course, Sebastian almost gets himself killed when he can’t properly use any weapons, and Daryl puts down the walker that almost bites the bratty buffoon. Sebastian is irate and storms off. After he goes, Mercer tells Daryl that he understands Daryl’s used to doing everything himself, but “sometimes, we have to set each other up to win.”
Josh Stringer/AMC
Chaos at the Gala
The gala seems lovely enough at first, but it goes sideways fast when a server starts throwing around more than hors d’oeuvres. He silences the room by declaring the Commonwealth corrupt, saying that he was demoted from his position as a soldier when a prisoner attacked him — and despite his attempts to get in touch with Pamela to plead his case, she never responded and it left him and his family in poverty. “What’s my name?” he asks her as she stands on stage, stunned. She can’t answer, and things escalate from there; he pulls a knife on her assistant, Max (Margot Bingham) decrying the Commonwealth and all it stands for. “Resist the Commonwealth!” he cries, then he drops Max and disappears behind a curtain.
The soldiers are tasked with going after the guy, and Daryl finds him in the haunted house. He brings him in, but when he returns to the party, he gives the guy to Sebastian and tells him to tell Pamela that he, not Daryl, found him. Mercer takes note of Daryl “setting someone else up to win” and makes him a member of the Commonwealth army.
Resist the Commonwealth
And, the army will likely need all the help it can get, at least if the protestor’s claims that there are “thousands” of people like him are true. As the episode ends, Rosita enters the protestor’s apartment and finds a bunch of “Resist the Commonwealth” items. She looks conflicted… and it’s more than likely the Commonwealth was, indeed, too good to be true.
Other Observations
- Motorhead’s “Eat the Rich” was a great song choice for the end of this episode.
- We never actually saw what happened with Tomi, but it’s implied that the Commonwealth let him live despite him lying during processing because his skills are so valuable. He doesn’t seem happy about being a doctor again though; at the gala, he’s back to drinking and he tells his sister that he “doesn’t want” to live “how the other half lives.”
- Carol allying with Hornsby makes me nervous. She’s cunning, but he’s a slimeball. It wouldn’t surprise me if the “favors” he asks of her start getting bigger, more dangerous and more morally gray. And if Ezekiel found out what she was doing, it’s extremely doubtful that he’d approve, even if the system is skewed and wrong.
- I’m also nervous for Connie, given the role she apparently played in Pamela’s uncle’s fall from political grace before the apocalypse. Pamela, we learn, was a president’s daughter — and her uncle was a Congressman before Connie’s reporting left him in disgrace. It’s doubtful Pamela has forgotten…
- Rating: 5/5. Like last week’s episode, “New Haunts” was another solid entry into the show’s final season.
The Walking Dead, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC