When the episode opens, Magna, Kelly, Ezekiel, Negan, Princess, and the other survivors are keeping close tabs on the Commonwealth soldiers to map out their locations. Princess was likely key here. On the season 11 premiere, we learn that Princess has a knack for details.
As she’s eating with Zeke, Yumiko, and Eugene, she reveals that she was able to pick up on guard change times and a flirtation between two soldiers. Princess recognizes Davis at the episode’s start. After their confrontation in season 10 , Davis lost his position in the Commonwealth army.
As a result, he held Max hostage in front of Governor Milton at a private ball for the community’s wealthy citizens on season 11, episode 10. As he’s dragged away, he shouts out for equality in the Commonwealth, claiming there are thousands of Commonwealth resistors, something we now know wasn’t simply hearsay. Davis later disappeared from the Commonwealth after being placed in the hospital under armed guard for a month.
Connie and Kelly started tracking missing people in the Commonwealth. When they received a list of names on season 11, episode 11, Davis’ name was the most recent one added to it . Season 11, episode 16, which aired in April before the show went on hiatus, ended on a cliffhanger in which the Commonwealth’s former right-hand man, Lance Hornsby, rounded up the Oceanside crew and flipped a coin to decide their fate.
It took until Sunday’s episode to learn that Lance spared them. Luke and Jules return for the first time since season 10, episode 16 to fill Aaron, Jerry, Lydia, and Elijah in on what happened to Oceanside and to prevent them from heading there. “They just took over,” Jules tells the group of Oceanside’s fate.
We never see Oceanside, but it’s likely that it’s been converted into Commonwealth stations similar to Alexandria and the Hilltop. During the closing remarks of his trial for the death of Sebastian, Eugene addresses the crowd, comparing corruption within Negan’s former group to the corruption inside Governor Pamela Milton’s Commonwealth. As Eugene recounts to the court how he conveniently looked the other way as Negan’s leadership carried out atrocious acts, because things were all right for himself, the camera cuts to Mercer, the leader of the Commonwealth army, a few times.
There are two key moments that stand out. Mercer is shown watching Eugene and then looking down as he says: “I knew what was happening. My inaction made me culpable and I hated myself for that.
” A few moments later, Eugene tells the crowd that he decided to rise up against Negan to aid his friends, even though it meant putting his life on the line. Because of his choice, they succeeded. As Eugene says the words, “I learned that one person can do that.
. . Sometimes all it takes is one person to do that,” the camera fully focuses on a close-up of Mercer.
Similar to Eugene with the Saviors, Mercer knows there’s corruption to clean up within the Commonwealth. For the past few episodes, Eugene’s group has asked Mercer to help put a stop to that corruption to no avail. Seconds later, Eugene is found guilty of Sebastian’s death.
Moved, likely in part by his speech, Mercer reveals to Eugene that he’s on their side moving forward by the episode’s end. During his speech, Eugene mentions how one person can make a difference. While it may sound cliché, Eugene really was the main reason the war with Negan came to a close.
As the Saviors’ sole bullet maker, Eugene sabotaged ammunition so it backfired against Negan’s group, giving Rick an advantage to take Negan hostage in season eight. The Commonwealth’s warden asks Negan to rat out a traitor among Ezekiel’s group at Alexandria. Near the episode’s end, it seems like Negan’s going to turn in Ezekiel.
Surprisingly, Negan gives himself up as the traitor. Why? On AMC+’s behind-the-scenes feature on the episode, showrunner Angela Kang says Negan doesn’t want to be remembered as a villain. Earlier in the episode, the warden has no idea he’s basically describing Negan to himself when he claims Negan doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader: “When you first came here, I thought maybe you were a leader.
But now I see you have other priorities. Real leaders separate, they cleave themselves off from everyone else. Because the real things that leaders do? Most people just don’t have the stomach for it.
But the ones that do? They’re the real threats. ” The usually chatty Negan keeps his mouth shut, but it’s a speech that likely gets under his skin a bit. Over the years, we’ve seen Negan do things that others wouldn’t dream of doing as the leader of the Saviors, including bashing in the heads of Glenn and Abraham in front of their loved ones, while appearing to relish in the violence.
In addition to keeping his pregnant wife safe, and looking out for the rest of the group (something no one would ever expect from him), Negan likely wanted to stick it to the Warden and show how badly he misjudged him. As the soldiers prepare to shoot him, Negan gives a classic Negan smirk to the warden, letting him know he was very wrong about him. Near the episode’s end, Negan’s kneeling in front of a row of Commonwealth soldiers as the rest of the heroes watch.
The scene is a complete reversal of Negan’s entry on the show when he lined up Rick’s group to kill Abraham and Glenn. Negan gets a taste of what it was like for Rick and the others years ago to feel completely powerless and terrified for a loved one. Negan, like Rick’s group, is forced to get down on his knees.
Annie’s cries for Negan parallel Maggie’s for Glenn. When a pregnant Annie is brought up next to Negan and he begs for her life, it echoes Glenn’s reaction to Negan considering killing a pregnant Maggie on the spot. (Negan, however, didn’t know Maggie was pregnant at the time.
) Executive producer Greg Nicotero previously told Insider previously the season 7 premiere is where everything bad started to happen for Negan . This is a full-circle moment for Negan. Earlier in the episode, the warden told Negan that real leaders “separate” and do the things others “don’t have the stomach” to do.
But the warden doesn’t do either at the episode’s end. As a result, it leads to his death. Instead of killing Negan himself, the warden commands his soldiers to murder Negan and a pregnant woman.
Years ago, Negan didn’t pass off Abraham or Glenn’s death to any of his goons. He did it himself to prove he was someone to be feared. Negan ultimately uses this weakness against the warden by getting through to one of the soldiers who later turns on everyone else.
The warden also allows Ezekiel, Princess, Magna, Kelly, and the other survivors to stand together in the crowd. He then fails to stop them when they band together in front of Negan and Annie. In fact, the warden simply watches as Ezekiel strolls right by him.
Negan never would’ve allowed that to happen. During the season seven lineup, Negan forced everyone on their knees so no one was on his level. When there was an outburst, Negan shut it down immediately with force.
The warden’s lack of control led to his death at the hands of Rosita. At the end of the episode, Mercer breaks Eugene out of jail, informing him, “Time to fuck shit up. ” On AMC+’s behind-the-scenes look at the episode, Kang explained that the line was ad-libbed by Michael James Shaw, who plays Mercer.
Kang added that they had “different versions” of Sunday’s final scene. .
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/the-walking-dead-season-11-episode-22-recap-details-you-missed
