The Walking Dead: Trust (11x15)

This is definitely an episode building to a midseason finale, rather than paying anything off, so there's quite a bit of treading water. Is that a bad thing?

Cons:

Well... in a lot of ways it's hard to judge this episode on its own, when there's more to come that will hopefully wrap up or escalate many of these plot points. I guess my least favorite stuff here was with Ezekiel. Kind of felt like a waste of time to show him getting into and out of trouble so quickly, what with Carol there to bail him out. I don't like the implication that Ezekiel might still be holding a torch, because I really like the vibe of the two of them as amicable exes who managed to stay good friends in the aftermath of their marriage and the loss of their son. I don't need to go back to romantic intrigue with these two.

This episode ends with a dramatic reveal of Leah, but like... last episode also ended with a dramatic reveal of Leah? So that felt like a weird pacing thing. Shouldn't they have held off on showing who stole the weapons for this moment, instead of telling us last week and then having this one be just a retread, with Hornsby offering her a job?

Pros:

I do like the fact that Eugene and Rosita go to Connie to report on the craziness going on with Sebastian and the other authorities at the Commonwealth. We're seeing how Max and Eugene's relationship is continuing, which is adorable, and also how there are good people, both within and without the entrenched systems of the Commonwealth, who would want things to change for the better if possible.

Mercer and Princess are interesting to me. Mercer is very much a guy who is complicit in the system, but who is having doubts and wants to start to change, or at least to examine his motivations. I think it's cool to have that kind of character in the show, and interesting to pair him with Princess, a newcomer to this community (and to the show in general) who has a unique way of viewing the world.

For me, the real meat of this episode was over with Hornsby, Daryl, Gabriel, Aaron, and Maggie. Hornsby hears Gabriel and Aaron's version of the story of what happened with the stolen weapons and the retrieval gone terribly wrong, and he finds it hard to believe. So, they take a trip to Hilltop. We get the scene we were teased with at the start of this chunk of episodes, of Maggie behind the wall and Daryl asking her to open up for the Commonwealth. In some ways this was an anticlimax, but in other ways I'm just relieved the scene wasn't actually pitting Maggie and Daryl against each other in any sort of permanent or unrealistic sense.

And everything inside of Hilltop, every second, was so tense and interesting. Some of the most gripping stuff we've seen on the show in a very long time. The moment when Hornsby tries to start the truck especially, that had my heart beating a little faster. And that scene with Hershel! Yikes! I loved how intense everyone got when the kid was threatened. Daryl even dropped an F-bomb, which was great. Honestly, Daryl over all was just great in this episode. He's such a taciturn character that whenever he's given the chance to actually speak, I'm reminded that he also has a certain gruff charisma to him. Maggie and Daryl's trust in one another can see them through a lot of the difficulties here, but how much longer can Daryl keep playing the middle?

So that's that: next week is the end of this middle chunk of episodes, and I'm definitely ready to feel like things are propelling into the final phase!

8.5/10