The Walking Dead: What's Been Lost (11x20)

I've been missing Carol since we came back from hiatus! She's the best.

Cons:

I was celebrating after the last couple episodes that it seemed the Commonwealth stuff was done with, and we could move on to endgame stuff, but instead it's all dragging on a bit much. Clearly now we know that the Commonwealth is going to connect us to some bigger story of surviving human communities. It might even be our bridge back to the long-missing Rick Grimes. But at the same time, I'm thinking about Hilltop and Alexandria and Oceanside and all the other shit we want to be wrapping up in the last four episodes of the show, and thus having Pamela to deal with as a villain, and Hornsby still in the picture, starts to feel a little frustrating. I definitely thought Zombie Sebastian killed Hornsby last week, but I guess Pamela wanted to torment him a bit first. When will villains ever learn?

Yumiko's journey this episode was good in some ways, but it just feels like we never spent enough time on her and her brother, on showing how she's been doing in the Commonwealth during all this time. Now we're going to have some Commonwealth courtroom drama, it looks like? I'm not necessarily that mad about it, I just feel like it's odd in terms of its placement in the season as a whole.

Pros:

As I said, I've been missing Carol, so it was fun to see an episode where she had plenty to do! And even better, it was a "Carol and Daryl team up to kick some ass" episode, my absolute favorite! Nothing huge happens between them in terms of their interpersonal relationship, we just see Carol show up in time to save Daryl, then Daryl show up in time to save Carol, we see them being great partners united in a common goal, and they also get to discover some big endgame information that's going to propel us through this final act.

I suppose, while being eaten by Zombie Sebastian might have been a cool end for Hornsby, this ending is in many ways more fitting. For one, he gets to demonstrate his extreme selfishness and cowardice one final time. For two, Carol gets to make the kill, which is pretty dang satisfying! Daryl and Carol giving Hornsby the generous opportunity to run is a really chilling moment. We root for these characters, they are our "heroes" for want of a better word, but they can be super brutal and unfeeling if they need to be.

Meanwhile, Yumiko's plot points were a little messy but I did really like the whole scene with Connie that took place in ASL, and how everyone both inside and out of the Commonwealth is coordinating as best they can to try and find their kidnapped friends. Also, I will admit she's a bad ass for getting up there and making that speech in front of everyone, turning it at the last second to talk about defending Eugene, instead of prosecuting him.

Once again, not a particularly long review, but what I will say is that I'm medium-excited about the way the show is going to wrap up. It feels like they've set things up with the perfect excuse to run into Rick and Michonne in the finale, reuniting so many loved ones. I will cry if I get to see Daryl and Rick hug on screen one more time. I will cry if Judith gets her parents back, even if it's kind of ridiculous that Michonne left in the first place. I want this show to go out on a high note, I really do!

8/10