Jon Amiel | Through the Shattered Lens

Wow, life sure is fun as a member of The Commonwealth!

I just hope those Alexandrians don’t screw everything up!

Actually, we already know that life is not as perfect in The Commonwealth as the community’s leaders claim. And we know that eventually, there will be a conflict between the Alexandrians and The Commonwealth, with Daryl apparently on the side of The Commonwealth. We know all of that but, at the same time, it’s hard not to be impressed by the effort the Commonwealth put into giving everyone a happy Halloween.

Costumes? You bet.

Haunted houses full of real walkers? Okay, that seems hella dangerous but then again, it’s still better than anything Rick ever did for Halloween.

A masquerade ball? Oh Hell yes!

The Commonwealth understand that importance of tradition as a way to tie a community together. By putting on a traditional holiday, the Commonwealth allows its citizens to feel as if everything can somehow be normal once again. There’s something to be said for that. When the whole world is collapsing around you, it’s important to have some sliver of normalcy to hang onto. That’s one thing that I don’t think Rick Grimes every truly understood and I’m not sure that Maggie gets it either. It is, however, something that I think that Daryl understands.

Daryl obviously enjoyed Halloween with the Commonwealth. He also enjoyed training with Mercer, even if he did disagree with some of Mercer’s decisions. Mercer and Daryl are kindred souls and watching the two of them together, one could see how Daryl could potentially be drawn to choose the Commonwealth over the Alexandrians. At the same time, Mercer’s attempts to keep Daryl and Rosita separated showed that Mercer understood that the best way to win Daryl’s loyalty was to isolate him. In many ways, Daryl is still looking for a replacement for Merle and Mercer seems to fit the bill.

Meanwhile, Carol discovered that Elijah is closer to death than he’s admitted and that he probably won’t live long enough to receive the operation that he’s been promised. Whether or not Carol is going to keep that a secret is an open question. I have a hard time imagining that Carol won’t tell Elijah. Knowing Carol, there’s always a chance she might take every doctor in the Commonwealth hostage and kill one every hour until they operate on Elijah. I could see the idea forming in Carol’s head as the Commonwealth doctor explained to her that Elijah was too far down on the list. I imagine that, at some point, Carol will discover that the Commonwealth leaders get preferential treatment under the Commonwealth medical system and that will probably drive her over the edge. That’s just my prediction.

There is definitely a caste system in the Commonwealth and, as we discovered at the Masquerade Ball, not all of the citizens of The Commonwealth are as happy as they initially seem. Then again, the same can be said of every community that’s sprung up in the world of The Walking Dead and that includes the Alexandrians. If anything, the collapse of society has made the world even more hierarchal than it was before. In many ways, of course, humanity continues to be in denial, even during the apocalypse. Regardless of class, wealth, or power, everyone’s story reaches the same ending. Everyone dies and everyone ends up as one of the Walking Dead.

Anyway, New Haunts was a nicely-done episode that allowed us a chance to see a bit more of life in the Commonwealth. Right now, it looks like a nice way to live but I’m sure that will change over the upcoming few weeks.

Happy Halloween!

Well, so much for The Reapers.

The Walking Dead‘s 11th season returned last Sunday. As you can probably guess from the fact that it’s taken me until Friday to get around to watching and reviewing it, it didn’t exactly arrive with the type of fanfare that previously greeted every premiere of The Walking Dead. Not to belabor a point that I’ve been making since this season began but it’s been a while since The Walking Dead was really a big deal. It definitely had a good run, especially during the early seasons. However, I don’t think anyone will deny that the later seasons have been frustratingly uneven. Season 11 is the show’s last, though the future does hold the promise of Walking Dead movies and perhaps a Walking Dead anthology series. The Walking Dead may be coming to an end but it’s definitely not dead yet.

When Season 11 started, it appeared that the majority of the episodes were going to center around the Alexandrians battling The Reapers. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to that, as the Reapers weren’t really that interesting. Beyond all of the babbling about religion, there wasn’t that much to separate them from The Whisperers or the Saviors. So, as you can imagine, I was happy that this episode featured what appeared to be the nearly complete and total destruction of the Reapers. Maggie and her group ruthlessly and systemically destroyed every Reaper that they came across, with the exception of Leah. Gabriel killed a sniper, which leads me to wonder why Gabriel still wears his collar when its obvious that it means nothing to him. Negan watched as Maggie killed every Reaper that she saw and he wisely decided that it was probably time for him to head off on his own before Maggie got around to killing him. Indeed, the interesting thing about Maggie is that we really only cheer for her because we know her and we’ve been conditioned to be on her side. She’s just as ruthless as the show’s bad guys and she uses the exact same justifications that were previously used by everyone from The Governor to Negan to Pope. Even the fact that she’s mourning Glenn doesn’t really make her all that different from those she’s attacked. In the world of The Walking Dead, everyone has lost someone.

(And really, it was pretty much Rick’s fault that Glenn died.)

Meanwhile, Alexandria was hit by a violent storm and a walker invasion but, as usual, everyone there managed to survive. Afterwards. Maggie, Darryl, and the gang finally returned home. However, also approaching Alexandria were Eugene and the Commonwealth.

The show then jumped forward 6 months. Maggie was still in charge of Alexandria but it was impossible not to notice that Alexandria no longer looked as clean and peaceful as it once did. Surrounding the town were the soldiers of Commonwealth. And leading the soldiers was …. DARYL DIXON!

Now, that is an effective cliffhanger!

So, what’s going on here? Is this yet another case of Daryl going undercover (booo!) or has Daryl truly changed sides? I’m hoping that he actually did change sides, just because the whole undercover Daryl thing has been done to death and I think that Maggie and Darryl have a more interesting dynamic as rivals than as allies. Given the history of the characters, it’s easy to imagine a scenario where Daryl might chafe at Maggie’s leadership style. Or perhaps Darryl truly believes that the Commonwealth is offering up a better society than what’s going on at Alexandria. I mean, honestly, Alexandria does require a bit of commitment on the part of its citizens. I probably would chose not to live in Alexandria.

So, which is it? Is Daryl a friend or a foe? We’ll find out over the upcoming weeks!