The Walking Dead – Faith

By: Kelly Kearney

After a long time, multiple seasons for some, our group is almost united and ready to fight a common enemy–The Commonwealth. As Eugene stands trial for his crimes against the Miltons, outside the courtroom and the community’s walls a plan is formulating to remove Pamela from power and save everyone from her political stranglehold. Rebellion is in the minds of everyone, but when it comes to who will lead them all through that fight an unlikely partnership

was formed that could save the lives of everyone.

UNITED WE STAND IN REBELLION

After flashbacks from the past remind us of how far Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has come since those bat-swinging days, we focus on the three main stories tying up this series, and the first one starts in The Commonwealth’s labor camp.  An escape plan finds Negan, Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Annie (Medina Senghore), Magna (Nadia Hilker), Princess (Paola Lázaro) and Kelly (Angel Theory) keeping track of the guard rotations in hopes of outnumbering the white suits and making a break for it. Princess even convinces Zeke that Trooper Tyler Davis (Cameron Scott-Roberts) would make a great ally in their fight for freedom, but after the last attempt by prisoners ended in all the escapees getting mowed down by gunfire, a planned coup makes Ezekiel and Tyler nervous. Negan, on the other hand, is his same old mouthy self-the labor camp hasn’t  changed that. After he talks back to one of the guards he gets the barrel of the man’s gun to the face and winds up sitting in the Warden’s (Michael Weaver) office. Apparently he stood out as someone who could be the leader of the newbie’s rebellion. A written tally tracking the guard’s shifts wound up in the Warden’s hands and now he wants Negan to tell him who their leader is. Right away we can tell Negan has this guy’s number. He sees a bit of his old self in this power hungry wannabe when the Warden cruelly refuses the transfer of one of the guards, Trooper 197 (Mahdi Cocci). The man is desperate to be closer to his dying brother and that’s when Negan sees him clench his fists in subdued rage. He understands the power of a dictator but he also knows the oppression of his people can be an exceptional motivator for a revolt. You can only lead with fear for so long until the masses realize their power is in hope and numbers. He tucks that truth behind a sarcastic smile as he tells the Warden that he isn’t a part of the new group and, in fact, they all hate him. So, if there was a plot to escape in the works they wouldn’t share it with him.

The Warden could care less who is in charge and uses Annie as a way to get Negan to agree to be his spy. Once he accepts (as if he had a choice) he allows him a visit with Annie where the two talk about men like the Warden who Negan says, “Hell, I used to be like him.” He promises his wife he will figure out a way to get them out of this mess, but his plan, we later learn, isn’t a revolution but more of throwing one of their own under The Commonwealth’s bus. We assume his victim is going to be Ezekiel, who he gets into an argument with when he tries to recruit him to lead a rebellion. The King, who isnt over Negan’s Saviors killing Henry’s brother and burning down his Kingdom, isn’t too keen on putting the past behind them and joining forces with one enemy to defeat another. He even goes as far as to say Negan doesn’t deserve the family he is fighting for, which only angers the father-to-be more. So, when we see Negan getting dragged back to the Warden’s office, it seems obvious the old Savior is back and he is going to offer up Ezekiel like a sacrificial lamb. Only that isn’t what happens! In the middle of the night the prisoners, who are being housed in the former Alexandria, are dragged from their beds to hear the news: the Warden has captured a traitor. We see the troopers drag out a handcuffed Negan who apparently confessed to being the leader of the camp’s plotted coup. Immediately Annie freaks and for her tears the Warden orders his men to drag both husband and wife to their knees at the execution spot. This will be a lesson to all the prisoners to not disobey the Warden or the Commonwealth. Negan starts to scream, “No! That wasn’t their deal,” and begs for the lives of his wife and child, all while Ezekiel starts to realize he was wrong about the man and his willingness to sacrifice himself for the group. This pushes the former King to act without thinking and step in front of the firing squad pleading for mercy. He’s soon followed by Magna, Kelly and dozens of others, assuming the Warden can’t kill them all. Killing dozens of innocents doesn’t sit right with his troopers, especially 197. So, when the Warden screams “shoot them all” his troopers, who have had enough, turn their guns on him! This prompts the targeted man to grab Kelly as a hostage, but as he tries to back away from the firing squad he winds up stepping right into Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) knife! Daryl, Connie (Lauren Ridloff), Rosita (Christian Serratos), and Carol (Melissa McBride) save their friends by sneaking back into their community. So how did they get there?

GOING HOME

After they saved Connie from the train to Designation 2 and regrouped with Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Daryl and Carol decided to split up and head back to Alexandria to save their friends and their home. Carol joins Maggie and the two make their way inside Alexandria to one of the homes where they’re holding Herschel (Kien Michael Spiller). After a heartfelt talk about Maggie’s guilt over putting her son in harm’s way (something Carol understands because of Sophia) the two badass women force their way into the room where the boy is being held. Carol, with a sniper’s shot, kills the captor and a relieved Maggie gets her son back.

While the bestie is kicking butt and saving kids, Daryl teams up with Connie and the two go underground to bypass the troopers on the other side of Alexandria’s heavily protected gates. This effectively infiltrates Outpost 22 from the sewer systems and troopers have no way of fighting it. It’s easy to guard the gates but much harder to fight a surprise attack from within. Viewers might remember they used this method before as a way to hide from the Saviors, and it worked just as well this time. Now Kelly is safe and the prison group is free, but it didn’t work out so great for the Warden,who is paralyzed and refuses to give up Coco’s location. For his silence she grabs a walker-trooper and feeds the man’s face to his flesh-eating subordinate. You do not mess with a terrified mother and her missing and endangered child, especially one as trained in combat as Rosita.

Speaking of children, the last time we saw teens Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) they were traveling with Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) to tell Oceanside and Alexandria the good news about Carol’s deal with Pamela. They had no idea Milton stabbed them in the back until they came across a disheveled and frightened Luke (Dan Fogler) and Jules (Alex Sgambati) who are on the run from The Commonwealth after they invaded Oceanside. An invasion? That wasn’t part of the plan and the news shocks Aaron and no doubt leaves him with questions about the safety of his own daughter back at The Commonwealth. They barely have time to process the news because the troopers are tracking Luke and Jules with orders to kill first and ask questions later. With a mini walker herd shuffling their way, the group takes a page out of Lydia’s playbook and covers themselves in gore so they can hide in plain sight. The Whisperer inspired plan works too as The Commonwealth troopers try to herd the walkers into a formation they never notice Aaron and his friends but that’s not where the danger ends. When Lydia drops her knife in the horde, a variant walker bends down and picks it up! Not only are they in the middle of a teeth gnashing zombie mosh pit but some of these fleshbags have brains and not just the ones they ate for breakfast! This does not bode well for their safety.

THE TRIAL IS RIGGED

Lastly, the group stuck behind The Commonwealth’s walls heads to court for Eugene’s (Josh McDermitt) sham of a trial. We see Pamela (Laila Robins) on the stand turning on the water works over her poor dead innocent angel of a son, Sebastian. She has this whole “not my son” thing going on that the people in the spectator seats roll their eyes at. When her grieving mother’s mask slips, she reaches into her authoritarian handbag and claims the voice they all heard on Eugene’s tape wasn’t actually real. Fake news strikes again! The voice calling The Commonwealth’s lottery “rigged” and mocking the citizens she claims wasn’t actually Sebastian but some high-tech manipulation courtesy of Mr. Smarty-Pants Porter. It’s an obvious lie that nobody in the courtroom believes but the outcome of this case has already been decided and no amount of blatant lies by the town’s leader can change that. At least that is what Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) tells a worried Max (Margot Bingham) later when she admits she doesn’t think she can win the case. Max wonders if an uprising can save her boyfriend, but Yumiko fears there just isn’t enough time. The only person who might be able to help is her brother Mercer (Michael James Shaw) and if he was going to turn on Pamela he would have done it when she had Princess arrested. Yumiko even tries to get through to the big man, but all she gets for her effort is pushed out of his office.

It is no surprise that when the verdict comes back it’s guilty. Even with Eugene’s inspiring speech about how one man can change the world, his truth does little to change the mind of the judge. With a gavel strike Eugene is facing a death sentence for his crimes and he is quickly running out of time. One woman thinks she has more power than all her citizens combined and slowly the people are starting to realize it.  That one man hero theory of his is tested when Eugene, with a burlap bag over his head, is marched to what he assumes is the execution chambers. When the bag is removed, he’s standing in front of a smirking Mercer who says one of the most iconic lines in the series, “Time to f*ck sh*t up.” Max was wrong! Her brother was always planning to help Eugene, but he just had to keep it under wraps until the timing was right. Now it’s time to save their friends and free the town from an out of control leader. Whether or not their mercy prevails their wrath, we will just have to wait and see!