The Walking Dead – Acheron: Part Two

By: Kelly Kearney

After leaving Maggie dangling over a horde of walkers on the side of a subway car, Negan and the others find themselves trapped between walkers and a glaring reminder of the hard choices leaders have to make to protect their people. Meanwhile, Daryl gets separated from the group while chasing after Dog and stumbles upon another world below the streets. Class warfare, deadly decisions and old grudges rule the second half of “Acheron.”

The Train to Hell

We begin where we left off with Maggie (Lauren Cohan) fighting for her life and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) letting her hang. Firing her gun at the approaching dead forces the screaming widow underneath train car where the rest of her friends escaped to for safety. Above the team notices their leader is gone and asks Negan what happened and, of course, he lies and says, “She was right behind me.” There is no time to check out his story when Gabe (Seth Gilliam), who steps in as the defacto leader, orders everyone to continue moving forward and clear the train of walkers. Meanwhile, Daryl (Norman Reedus) made his way through the tight squeeze between the subway cave-in and bursts through an exterior wall and into a main tunnel to follow Dog. He enters into a part of the subway system that feels like a lost civilization, as it appears to have been abandoned not long after the fall. Littered with the dead and their belongings (many of which contain clues to what happened in that hidden world below the apocalyptic chaos above), Daryl takes in the setting and stories painted in graffiti on the walls. TVs and toys fill the railway and a man handcuffed to a briefcase of money shows what worldly possessions were important before the fall had no use after it. The graffiti, which really catches his attention, depicts a clash between the social classes where leaders in crowns were torn apart by the everyday man. It tells the story of a sort of caste uprising; pitting the haves against the have nots, and it not only sets the mood for what happened right after the fall but for the entire arc of season 11. It is no longer about who you were before and who you are now, but who you will be tomorrow. The writing is on the wall, but for Daryl and the Alexandrians the future is not defined. Also, amongst the makeshift camp Daryl finds a bag of personal belongings that have no use in this world except for the outdated snacks and two diametrically opposed forms of currency – the handcuffed money man and a dollar bill used to jot down a note from two children left behind by their missing father. The note is attached to a photo of the kids and we see one gripping at that same stuffed bunny Maggie spotted when they entered the tunnels to escape the rain. Whether or not that means these kids made it out alive, it’s hard to say, but Daryl pockets the snacks and the note as a reminder of what the world lost the day it fell to the dead. It isn’t long before Dog hears a noise and takes off once again, leading his owner further down the tunnels to into a terror unknown.

 Ice, Ice, Yumiko

Back in The Commonwealth’s containment camp Yumiko’s (Eleanor Matsuura) assessment of her entire surroundings helps to clue her in to a few things: this community is large and it may be using the dollar as its currency. She questions the two agents in charge of their assessment about the luxuries of the old world being used to keep their people subservient to the new one. Why else would they store piles of marked bills and question them about everything from their former employment to their toilet habits? Would a civilized society trust an educated professional like herself if she put on her legalese “cold as ice” attitude and demanded to speak to the person in charge, or as Princess (Paola Lázaro) puts it speak to the manager? By the way, if you have to be locked up with a Karen, it better be a cool one like Princess because this hyper focused newbie sees things most miss and it’s probably why she isn’t as freaked out as Eugene (Josh McDermitt) when Ezekiel (Khary Payton) goes missing. After the foursome almost got caught sneaking out the night before, Eugene was ready to spill Alexandria’s secrets to save Ezekiel. The lawyer in Yumiko reminds him to never cooperate with the “police.” Once they talk to the person in charge Yumiko will lawyer up and convince them to give up her brother, Tomi, and let her friends go. That is exactly what she does when she goes back to the office for processing. Her ability to stay calm and access the two auditors is impressive enough for them to move her forward. Meanwhile, Princess needs a pee break. When she goes to ask permission she speaks in Spanish to a guard. Whatever he says excites her and she heads out. However, when Eugene notices both Yumiko and Princess never retuned from their processing he starts to panic and demands to see his friends. After getting the run around from the troopers he is assuming the worst and who wouldn’t? Sure, so far, they’ve not been harmed but the vibes in that encampment scream something is off.

Back on the train and Maggie makes her way back to her people through the trap door in the floor of the train car using Morse Code to signal “SOS.” She outs Negan for leaving her behind and they are all ready to kill him until he explains that there is a difference between leaving someone who threatened to kill him to die and killing them himself. Thankfully, for Negan, they let him go. However, all are trapped between a car of walkers and an empty car with a blocked door. They need to figure a way out before the hungry mob takes over the train, but things become complicated when Gage (Jackson Pace) pops up in the adjacent car and begs them to let him in. Unfortunately, he left the train car door open, which means walkers are on the way. With limited ammunition and not enough time to open the door and secure again, Maggie makes the decision to sacrifice the teenager who took off with their supplies. Alden (Callan McAuliffe) and the others are shocked and they beg her to let them save the boy, but the widow (who has quickly adopted the attributes of a general) does not budge. One life given for all lives saved is one of the hardest decisions any leader has to make, and since Maggie was the chosen one, she is now forced to make it. Everyone in the car stands helpless as they watch it dawn on Gage that he is about to be sacrificed. The teenager decides to take control of his own demise by stabbing himself in the chest just as the hungry mob eats him alive. Negan, who just got finished accusing Maggie of risking everyone’s life on her quest for vengeance, smiles because she just proved him right. Not to mention the fact it put the two killers on somewhat of an equal playing field. They all do what they have to, to save lives, even Negan. And if that makes him a monster then it makes Maggie one too. Not that she denies it. In fact, she makes a point to remind everyone that the wife of Glen Rhee died the day Negan bashed his brains out on the road. What is left is a cold, heartless, widow who will do anything to keep her and her son safe. Maggie goes into detail about how this change came about and the moment she realized there was no coming back.

Story Time

Pull up a chair, because it’s story time. Maggie talks about starving on the run with Hershel and stumbling upon an old man on the road in need of help getting his overturned food cart home to his family. The man promised to feed them but right away she knew he was not trustworthy. When the three got back to his home she quickly killed him with a chloroformed rag he must’ve been planning to use on her. That’s not all. She also found three deformed men who attacked her, but she quickly disposed of them and continued searching the house. That’s when she heard it; a thudding from the attic above. She assumed he had hostages who were trying to get free and she wasn’t totally off the mark. He definitely had something up in the rafters of the home. When Maggie opened the attic door, she saw a shadow rocking and then it fell down the stairs! It was a walker. A limbless, tongueless, eyeless and pregnant one at that and she was probably held there long before the world fell apart. So, without an ounce of remorse, Maggie killed the pregnant woman and it’s rabid little fetus and then found three more like her, only these women were still alive. All three had their vocal chords ripped out and very healthy round bellies. The only thing Maggie thought of was the house must have a lot of food. So, she killed all three women and took all the food in the house. She never once regretted what she did because this world is full of monsters worse than the walking dead. It’s a kill or be killed world and Maggie has a son to live for.  Gage, like that man with the hostages, were justifiable losses and as long as they get to Meridian letting the kid die was worth it. The others in the train car are stunned by her story and by the callousness of the woman they once knew.

The entire story gives Negan a perspective of the world beyond Alexandria, and of how important rebuilding that community really is. If Maggie traveled far and wide and only ever came across horrible people and no one trying to rebuild a new world from the ashes of the former one, Alexandria must be special. A one-of-a-kind community that works, and they need to push forward and defeat those Reapers so they can make their home a beacon of hope, one the world really needs. For the first time Maggie and Negan are on the same page and that comes in handy when the walker situation in the train car becomes dire. As the dead start to push the door in, Duncan, Maggie’s muscle man from Meridian, starts to smash the other blocked door hoping to get it open.

Teamwork

After Dog takes off again when he hears a scream, Daryl follows him into a tunnel of mud and grime. His furry friend barks and that’s when Daryl hears it: a walker crawling through the cramped tunnels behind him! He frantically crawls ahead but the cramped tunnel keeps him from reaching for his bow. Just as he is about to make it out, a group of walkers shut the tunnel gate and close him inside with the dead man crawling. Daryl, finding a better angle, fires off an arrow at the walker’s skull and then manages to kick the door in where he immediately runs into a bleeding and stumbling Roy calling for help. Roy (C. Thomas Howell) was wounded while looking for Gage and the ammo. He tells Daryl he never found either, but he does hand him a gun and a grenade right before he makes him promise to “tell my kids I didn’t die a coward.”

Miles away from the subway station Eugene is in a panic over his missing friends. He gets brought back into the interrogation room where he talks with Mercer (Michael James Shaw) about the reason the troops found his group sniffing around the train yard. He goes on an emotional rollercoaster explanation of how they ended up here and how it is all about the hottie he met on the radio. Sweaty, and rambling, Eugene says he was hoping for the lovely voice on the other end of the receiver would be his first dance partner in the mattress mambo! Yup, you guessed it, the mullet man is a virgin and he leads Mercer on a hilarious tale about his quest for a hook-up. His honesty, and maybe a bit of pity, play a part in Mercer’s decision to load lover boy into a truck to meet his friends. They were always safe, even Ezekiel, who was given medical care and allowed to rest and have been waiting for Eugene to finish processing. Now that he has, Mercer comes in and reads from “The New Articles of Perpetual Union.” The group has been fully vetted and completed the initial part of processing for entry into The Commonwealth. “When you walk through these doors, you’ll be escorted to orientation, by a beat cop,” Mercer jokes as he glares at Ezekiel and says, “I went to West Point, a*sshole.” The group is officially welcomed into the Commonwealth by none other than the adorably shy, Stephanie! After years of spying on other people’s sex lives, it looks like Doctor Desperate found his girl.

Back inside the train car, things have gone from bad to worse as Duncan swings his sledgehammer on one end of the car, and the others are trying to kill walkers through a crack in adjoining train car’s door. Things quickly get out of hand as Gabe kills Gage with a shot to the head, which alerts Daryl to the scene because he isn’t far from where the action is. One by one Maggie’s people strike down the walkers, but the minute one falls it seems like another pops up. They are overwhelmed and things get worse when dozens of walkers start flooding into the blocked train car and surround them. At this point, Maggie has no other choice but to hand the weaponless Negan her handgun with a silent warning not to pull any Savior level moves because they both know she is dying to kill him. Negan jumps into action and covers one end of the train as the rest tackle the opposite end. Bullets fly and walkers drop but ammunition is starting to run low. It is chaotic and feels like this is the end for all of them when all of a sudden, Daryl, like some kind of angel of death action-hero, boards the train and starts mowing down the walkers one by one. When he runs out of bullets, it is no worry because Carol made sure he got his knife back and Roy gave him that grenade! He marches forward, stabbing the remaining walkers with his hunting knife and then clears the path to usher his friends to safety. Right before he closes the train door, Daryl yells for them to take cover and slams Roy’s grenade in a walkers mouth. Walker guts and brain matter splash and splatter the car windows, finally clearing their path out of the subway car and back up to the streets. Unfortunately, what awaits them makes subway freaks and Vlad the Impaler look like Santa Claus. Dozens of bodies are hanging upside down from makeshift crosses and they line the streets, presumably, all the way to the gates of Meridian. It’s a sight that can only be outdone by the masked killers marching towards them! Arrows, knives and weapons fly, with Maggie’s crew running for cover behind the trees. Cole takes a bolt to the thigh and everyone else grips for the inevitable fight.  It looks like our group just jumped out of the subway’s frying pan, directly into the hot flames of the Reaper’s fire. Let the killing games begin!