The Walking Dead – Acheron: Part I

By: Kelly Kearney

The final season is here and after  years of gore-tastic drama, our survivors begin their last and very long leg of their journey. In the aptly titled “Acheron” named after the mythological Greek “river of woe,” we find our survivors battling their own watery nightmare when Maggie leads a group of volunteers on what some are calling it “a suicide mission” in search for food. These new big-bads, the Reapers, have taken control of Maggie’s former community, Meridian, and hijacked all of their crops and livestock. Now, more than ever, the starving Alexandrians need that food to rebuild their lives in this barren existence they were left with after the Whisperer War. While Maggie’s group heads into this life-or-death battle, Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko and Princess find themselves in their own dangerous situation when they are taken to the Commonwealth’s containment camp for processing. Who are these people and why do they care about our survivor’s lives before the fall? Once thing is certain, the secrets this militarized group is protecting must be worth the exhausting interrogations they put out favorites through.

The Women Warriors Get the Job Done

We open on Daryl (Norman Reedus) looking across the dark abyss which previously held Alpha’s horde. The walls of Alexandria are down and food is scarce, which is resulting in an all-time low in community morale. Knowing they need food to keep up with the back breaking work of restoring their home, Daryl leads his friends on a quest to save them from starvation. After finding a group of military walkers with backpacks full of MRE’s, Daryl locates their base and in it a chance to survive a hungry slow death. Silence envelops the group as Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) silently communicate the risk of dropping into a bunker full of the dead. Knowing the ropes have to hold the weight of each person and bangs of supplies means the lesser weighting female warriors are the ones on deck for this mission. Jerry (Cooper Andrews) and Alden (Callen McAuliffe) acting as anchors for the ropes hoist the trap door to the bunker and attach the repelling ropes to a pully system and start to slowly lower each woman down. If they can get in and out quickly with their duffle bags filled with military rations, the three combined communities living behind the broken-down walls of Alexandria’s Safe Zone can survive long enough to secure their walls and tighten up their security. Once inside the bunker things are tense when notice that the floors are littered with a mix of dead walkers and sleeping walkers that the comic book refers to as Lurkers. To define: the Lurkers mentioned in the comics are the sleepier versions of the roaming walkers that fans of the show are familiar with. They mostly nap until something; a sound or the smell of blood, wakes them for dinner. Carol silently nods to Maggie (Lauren Cohan) as the lurkers snooze away around their feet. The two motions to the others to be quiet because any sudden sound will set them off, making this a heart pounding mission that requires both skill and teamwork to compete. Rosita (Christian Serratos), Magna (Nadia Hilker), Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Kelly (Angel Theory) quietly search for the supplies while they take out walkers in tandem and head into the bunker’s supply closet. Carol, Maggie and Rosita stand guard ready to strike down any waking trouble that should arise. Once the rations are bagged, the group signals to Jerry and Alden to begin pulling them up. Everything seems to be going well until one of the ropes breaks, forcing Daryl to jump into action and grab the frayed rope before the food bags go crashing down on top of the lurkers. In the process of his quick save he manages to cut his arm and the smell of blood unleashes chaos around the women. Maggie and Carol shoot off arrows to take out the walkers near the pullies and the rest of the women dive into the fight. Axes, spears, slingshots and arrows go flying and Carol grabs a military issued automatic weapon and cuts down the advancing dead. The women, once again, prove what skillful warriors they are, but even the best female fighters need back up. Cue Daryl who uses his crossbow to clear a path for Carol, who allows the other women to repel back to the top as she stays below to gather more rations. After a few very close calls forcing the archer to drop his crossbow and take out the lurkers by throwing his hunting knives, Carol manages to grab the remaining MRE’s and both of Daryl’s knives and make her way back up the hatch. Daryl, who looks at her like she almost gave him a heart attack, pockets the two knives she ripped from the walker’s heads with a silent nod like she’s still got those Terminus moves. The mission, while almost deadly, was a success and they have enough food for their growing community for a week. After that starvation is all but guaranteed, which will play a part on how quickly they can patch up the fallen walls and search for more food. Physical activity requires fuel to keep them going and without food they are destined to fail.

“If There is a God, He Will Have to Beg for my Forgiveness”

With the supply extending their survival a week, Maggie and the council plan for what happens when the food runs out. That’s when she explains why she came to Alexandria and what she left behind that could be the answer to all their starving prayers. Her former home, a place named Meridian, was sacked by the new threat known as The Reapers. This band of nighttime killers drove them out of their homes and are now hording the supplies, livestock and a working farm that could feed them all for years to come. Maggie thinks the way they survive is by taking back Meridian from The Reapers, but that means starting a new war when they have barely caught their breath from the last one, they fought with Alpha. Immediately, Aaron (Ross Marquand) and the rest of the council disagree. Fighting on an empty stomach is bound to fail, but Daryl thinks it is a lose/lose situation. They die in battle or they die of hunger, at least the latter has a small chance of working out. Never the one to give up, he is the first to volunteer in joining Maggie on the mission with Gabe (Seth Gilliam) following suit. Carol, who her bestie accused of always running, chooses to stay behind with Aaron to help in the effort to rebuild.

That night the rain beats down on the group of would-be fighters heading to Meridian and it forces them to take refuge in a subway station on the outskirts of Washington D.C. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), thanks to his previous life in and around the Capitol beltway region, comes along to act as their guide but his constant yammering on about the dangers of a flooded subway station starts to grate on Maggie’s nerves. “You hear that sound?” he says. “That’s God telling us to turn around.” And considering the graffiti on the walls demanding apologies from God for the apocalyptic horrors he unleashed on his creations, it seems Negan might be right. When the group makes their way down the tight corridors of the subway tunnels, they come across a line of body bags with no obvious way to tell between the walkers and the corpses. Considering they have to walk over this land mine of zombies, the threat went from possibly drowning in a tunnel to kicking off a horde frenzy they definitely couldn’t survive. As Daryl, Maggie and the others figure out their next move we catch up with Eugene’s group at the Commonwealth’s assessment camp.

Mercer and the Commonwealth’s Processing

When the black bags covering the faces of Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and Princess (Paola Lázaro) are ripped off, they find themselves in a “before the fall” type interrogation room. It’s a processing center and the two agents assigned to depose them are anything but friendly. The question-and-answer portion of the test delves deep into their pasts; from former zip codes to levels of education, and even an in-depth look into the medical history that all four are expected answer honestly. If they are found to be lying, they will have to go through reprocessing, which isn’t exactly popular with the rest of the test subjects in the holding cells nearby. Ezekial, who is a bit volatile towards the assessment team, attempts to convince them his goiter is benign, assuming Cancer would be a drain on the community and a deal breaker for this health obsessed community. Instead of answering their questions he deflects to leads another topic: the orange suited guard glaring from the corner. Mercer (Michael James Shaw) is his name and Ezekiel takes one look at him and thinks “cop.” Both being black men, Ezekiel all but accuses Mercer of being a knee to the neck traitor, which isn’t the best idea if he wants to gain entry to the Commonwealth; a place that seems to have adopted the old world’s racial and class divides. Seven hours of question and the assessment team continues to circle back to the location of Alexandria, but none of them are giving up their home coordinates. It’s a good thing too because everyone but Eugene is catching really bad vibes from this entire experience. He changes his tune when they all witness a terrified man being dragged away against his will. Now the heat is on to find a way out and lucky for the and Princess has an idea. The slightly delusional but always adorable and ultra-observant newbie notices a low-key romance burgeoning between two guards. Every hour the couple leaves their post unattended for a little secret nookie and that’s their moment to get out of dodge; but first they need disguises to make it out of the gates. While the two guards are romantically occupied Yumiko and Ezekiel steal their uniforms and escort their pals out of the back door. On their way to freedom, they spot “the wall of the lost” as Ezekiel calls it and it is full of photos and pleas searching for the missing loved ones of people presumably living inside the Commonwealth. One in particular catches Princess’ eye and she calls to Yumiko and asks, “Isn’t that you?” Sure enough, it’s a photo of Yumiko with a note attached from her brother. It’s enough for her to change her mind about fleeing and make her stay.

The Widow and the Savior

Back on the subway and tensions are hot between Maggie and Negan. After she orders them to hike through a graveyard of walker filled body bags, Gage (Jackson Pace) gets attacked and almost loses his life. Thankfully, Negan was nearby and killed the rotting beast, but the entire experience shakes him and Gabe, who runs off with their rations and ammo. Realizing this dangerous mission has taken a deadly turn forces Negan to lose it with Maggie, accusing her of playing dictator with everyone’s lives. He refuses to go any further because he is convinced this is a suicide mission seeped in revenge. Maggie wants payback for Meridian and in her quest she is risking everyone’s lives. He is also positive his part of this mission is less about being a human Google maps and more about finding a way to get rid of him the moment he is no longer useful to her.  Of course, Negan is more worried about himself than becoming some altruistic hero. He is a survivor, and he knows this mission is a plan to make sure he doesn’t. Maggie doesn’t deny that she is looking to kill two enemies with one mission, ridding herself of The Reapers and Negan. In seething hatred, she claims the last shred of decency left in her is the only reason he is still breathing. Holding a gun on him, she begs Negan to give her a reason to kill him because no acts of redemption can erase what he has done. He is still that guy who looks out for number one, himself, and now that she has pushed him into a corner it’s no surprise what happens next. The underground graveyard comes hungrily back to life and chaos breaks out in the cramped tunnels. A cave-in settled on a train car is semi-blocking their escape and it requires them to fight as they climb on top of the train looking for a path to the other side. It’s a fight for their lives and as the weapons fly and walker guts paint the insides of the subway walls Dog decides to make a break for it and squeezes through a gap in the rocks. Daryl, who never leaves anyone behind, crawls in after his furry friend just as everyone but Maggie makes it to the top of the car and away from the gnashing teeth of the hungry horde. The last one up is Maggie who is hanging on by the tips of her fingers and screaming for hand to help her up, but the only person in ear shot is Negan. He sees the widow dangling inches from the reaching hands of the dead and the two lock eyes as she begs him for help. It is the moment of truth for the redeemed killer, and he pauses, knowing if he saves her that he seals his own fate. He makes the selfish choice to walk away as her fingers slip from her grip and she starts to fall, leaving us in a cliffhanger of questions of what this means for Maggie’s survival and whether or not Negan is as redeemed as he wants everyone to think. One thing is for certain, if the former Savior had any hope of changing Maggie’s revenge plans, letting her die was the absolute wrong way to do it.