When someone gets mutilate onThe Walking Dead — which happens a lot — you almost always sleep together who committed the act and why , since the murder is establish on - screen , as the reason is normally “ they needed killin ’ . ” But this second third of season 11 has been willing to buck the show ’s norms to go to some weird , unexpected places — space like the pre - post - apocalypticCommonwealth , the uncanny political scheming inlast hebdomad ’s episode , and tonight ’s honest - to - goodness slaying whodunit , which was a delight .
candidly , I doubt “ Warlords ” will make anyone ’s Top 10 Best Walking Dead Episodes list when all is said and done , but it ’s a thoroughly enjoyable hour of TV that I ’m still pleasantly surprised to meet from TWD . It gives up a deeper , but still wonderfully challenging look at the forbidding shenanigans of Deputy Governor Lance Hornsby ( Josh Hamilton ) , who was discover last week to be scheming to become the swayer of Alexandria , Hilltop , and Oceanside , if not the Commonwealth itself . I ’m proceed to do the recap just as the episode goes back and forth through time , because it was so effective at unspooling the secret .
Several months after last week ’s installment : Despite Maggie ’s ( Lauren Cohan ) best drive , Hilltop 2.0 is struggling mightily . Lydia ( Cassady McClincy ) has given up and is about to manoeuvre out to the Commonwealth herself when a lone passenger , grievously wounded , runs up on horseback , shine out of the bicycle seat , and mutters “ They ’re slaughter them ” to Maggie , Elijah ( Okea Eme - Akwari ) , and Lydia with his dying breath . Who is this young individual ? Who wipe out him ? What ’s he blab out about ?
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
The kid was carrying a mapping feature a route between Hilltop and an unknown location ( called Riverbend ) . Lydia and Elijah make up one’s mind to look for and aid these people in need , and Maggie finally and reluctantly decides to join them . On the agency , they find three Commonwealth soldiers on the road — or rather ex - Commontroopers , because they ’ve had their throats slit and are now zombi . What the sin come about to them ? Suddenly out of nowhere , Aaron ( Ross Marquand ) runs up the road toward the group . Where ’d he come from ?
One Week Ago : Gabriel ( Seth Gilliam ) has done a complete 180 during the clip - jump . He ’s prophesy again , he find he hears the vox of God , and he ’s talk to the the great unwashed of the Commonwealth about how they were “ force to see the humanness in each other ” back in the state of nature , but are strangers again now that they ’re safe . I ’m glad he ’s institute God and morality again , but this is bananas because he was absolutely the mortal on the series who least saw the humanity in people , at least once Rick made his grand exit .
Aaron , who ’s been operate with the Commonwealth ’s immigration opening move , asks Gabriel to connect him on a mission to make first contact with a supposedly friendly settlement ( shout out Riverbend ) , per Aaron ’s hirer Carlson ’s ( Jason Butler Harner ) request . They ’re a spiritual group , and Carlson thinks a human being of the fabric could facilitate . create sense !
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
A Little Over 12 Hours Before the Kid Shows Up at Hilltop : When they get in , the place is ominously rundown , and both Gabriel and Aaron want to leave it the pit alone . Yet Carlson ram Aaron , Gabriel , and a minor distinguish Jesse ( Connor Hammond)—the one who go in the intro!—to accompany him into Riverbend , alone and unarmed , and most bizarrely , without the platoon of Commontroopers they ’ve brought . What ’s about to bump that go Jesse drink down ?
This is exactly as stupid a decisiveness as Aaron and Gabriel have a go at it it would be . Riverbend is tremendous , full of grim people wielding scythes , holed up behind triple - shut away steel doors , and operate by ( another ) paranoid cult leader named Ian ( Michael Biehn ) , who has a bookshelf of the skulls of people who messed with Riverbend . Ian threaten to toss off Carlson , who grovels and snivels for his life sentence until Aaron and Gabriel convince Ian that his hoi polloi have absolutely nothing the Commonwealth would possibly need , and besides , if they were in secret man-eater , they probably would n’t have devote Riverbend so many gratuitous MREs . Rather than risk a battle with the Commontroopers , Ian decides to permit them go … which is when Carlson transforms into a coldblooded killer , grabs Ian ’s gun , and shoots him and the other Riverbenders with brutal efficiency . The hell ? What ? Why ?
One calendar week and One Hour Ago : Hornsby foretell Carlson in for a mission to call back a convoy of supplies which appear to have been steal by Riverbend — supply Hornsby has in secret allocate for a mysterious “ other affair . ” While it turn out Carlson really does love bringing new citizenry into the Commonwealth , he also used to be a CIA assassin , and Hornsby require him to habituate his old skills to think the supplies at any cost . Hornsby separate him to bring Aaron , who ’s resumed his old Alexandrian piece of work of finding and sorting out the good people wandering around the zombie Book of Revelation for rescue , as well as Gabriel , since the Riverbenders are religious and perhaps a non-Christian priest will be an asset . At any charge per unit , they should all take care innocent and harmless enough to be bring in into the compound , when Carlson can do his thing .
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
A fiddling Less Than 12 hour Before the Kid Shows Up at brow : Aaron and Gabriel are shocked that Carlson has kill these hoi polloi in insensate bloodline , and absolutely baffled when he asks the hurt Ian where some unmentioned supplies are . When Ian arrogate his citizenry feel the convoy empty , Carlson club him with his gunman , Gabriel perforate Carlson to economize Ian ( which is still utterly thinker - tout to me ) , and immediately gets arrested by a Commontrooper . Carlson shoots Ian and set about kicking the corpse in rage , but bursts out of doors when he find out Jesse ride away on a horse . He govern — guys , I ’m regretful this is so much clobber , but this episode Captain James Cook — a Commontrooper to shoot the kid in the back , but Aaron clubs the soldier to prevent a 2nd shot . Carlson tries to burgeon forth Aaron in the top dog but is out of ammo , and Aaron runs off . And then when Carlson head back inside , he find one of his troopers dead and Gabriel miss . Whew !
somewhat Before the Present : Aaron tells Maggie , Elijah , and Lydia about the slaughter , the arsenal of weapons the Commonwealth misplace , and that they ’ve drive Gabriel . The grouping lead to Riverbend .
on the button 12 Hours Ago , During the Attack on Riverbend : Jesse is running from the bloodletting to a knight , where he ’s bar by a Riverbender named Annie ( Medina Senghore ) and — drumroll — Negan ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) , who ’s become part of the chemical group . Negan give the kid a mapping that take to Hilltop and order him to let Maggie live that Aaron and Gabriel are in trouble . Then Negan and Annie bunco game back to Riverbend , kill the soldier Carlson found antecedently , and free Gabriel . But now , the three are trapped in the construction with a sexual conquest of Riverbenders .
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
The Present : The Riverbenders have had their weapons taken , and are being force to hear as Carlson keeps pushing people off the cap until someone recount him where the weapons are , just as Maggie , Aaron , Elijah , and Lydia make their room inside .
There ’s a cracking muckle of fun — and amazingly unconfusing — storytelling in “ Warlords . ” The best part is that I have no idea if The walk Dead has an explanation for these remaining mysteries , or no idea and hopes hoi polloi wo n’t notice . Sure , the sequence has some major inconsistencies , even beyond Gabriel ’s babyface turn . My favorite is that when Aaron , Gabriel , and Carlson first come to Riverbend , its denizen all look like temper killers led by a lunatic . But when Carlson has his heel turn and we ’re conjecture to detest him and the Commonwealth for their villainous deception , the Riverbenders all suddenly are depicted as normal , non - threatening multitude because now the show wants us to root for them as Maggie , Negan , etc . lead them to freedom . Yet their deranged party boss was gasconade about his skull shelf less than two 60 minutes ago ! So derisory , but also play .
Still , it was very awkward to realize I had been underestimate The Walking beat last night . I really thought we ’d get no explanation for much of anything , particularly why Aaron and Gabriel were conscripted for the mission . I was trying to excuse the seemingly preposterous reasoning for this other than the show needing a protagonist to at long last watch the Commonwealth be real baddie , and then Hornsby came along and explicate it all himself . Again , I feel uncanny about this , but I ’m also enchant to recognize the show is currently smarter than I ’ve been giving it cite for .
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
With “ warlord , ” The walk Dead has officially passed the halfway mark for its 11th and terminal season , but now , mysteries still abound . What happened to the weapons ? Were those Commontrooper zombies the soldier who were suppose to protect the weapons in transit ? Who killed them if not the Riverbenders ? What “ other project ” is Hornsby referring to ? And will TWD go on this raging run of entertaining episode until the show stop ?
Assorted Musings:
I honestly ca n’t remember any mysterious murders other than the two plague - hinge on kinsfolk in season three . Eventually , Rick get a line Carol took them out for the safety of the group , and Rick was scandalize at her cruelty and banished her from the prison . How sentence change !
Did anyone else find uncanny when Aaron and Gabriel took one look at the building the Riverbenders endure in and refused to go because it looked like a place where shotgun - exert maniacs last while waiting for some half-wit to come to their doorstep ? As far as the world of TWD goes , they ’re dead correct , but perhaps they should n’t evaluate these things by their covering fire . In the zombie apocalypse , defense beats aesthetics . And do on , where was Ian going to get glass to fix all the window , anyway ?
Hornsby thinks Aaron and Gabriel will lessen in blood with the wholesale murder of the Riverbenders . He ’s faulty , but frankly , it ’s a very enlightened guess on his part . Had Hornsby tasked them with this anytime between season nine and last episode , they ’d likely have been fine with it . specially Gabriel .
Maggie wonders what the Commonwealth would need with so many guns . Um , my dude ? They have a standing army that want to stay well - fortify to protect the settlement from zombies and the innumerous madman campaign around . Anyone would be thrill to find a free armoury , include you , Maggie .
MVP Seth Gilliam with one of the show ’s best dividing line and demarcation readings ever : “ Yeah , I ’m not doing this . ”
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