The Walking Dead – No Other Way review S11 E9

After a dramatic entrance, the threat of The Reapers ends without much fanfare or fireworks.

OK, that’s not entirely true. Maggie, Negan, Eugene, Gabriel and Daryl are trying to escape The Reapers’ compound just after Leah has unleashed the firework death-o-matic. This makes for some nice explosive (not sorry) deaths with exploding fireworks and body parts.

The Reapers clearly needed to track down the map of their hideout since they have zero knowledge of all the little secret hideaways in this place compared to Maggie, Daryl and Gabriel.

Gabriel confronts the Reapers’ pastor and kills him. Safe to say he’s no longer having a crisis of faith? Daryl stops Maggie from killing one of Leah’s lieutenants, Carver, as he’s got a heck of an idea!

Daryl wants a deal — Carver for safe passage. It’s wild to think Daryl is the one actively trying to avoid a conflict.

Leah isn’t having it, but Gabriel kills her sniper effectively eliminating her bargaining powers. Daryl convinces Maggie to let them roll, so it initially seemed.

I was fully at yell at the TV mode that this was an awful proposal. Kill Leah and the last three Reapers and don’t leave another potential enemy to kill you later! You think Rick didn’t regret not killing The Governor the first time around?

Maggie doesn’t care about lovelorn Daryl and kills Leah’s men before shooting her. Negan approves along with everyone else who understands the value of not showing ruthless killers mercy.

Of course, Maggie’s aim is off going after Leah, allowing her to hide and for Daryl to let her go.

Maggie did return to the church to find walker Alden. There was zero chance he was gonna survive but getting some resolution to that plot point was worth it.

Ditto for Negan and Maggie. He caught up to her after she finished burying Alden. Realizing there’s no chance of her including a hatchet in there, Negan announces he’s leaving. Smart man.

MORE:

• Mezco Toy Fair ‘22 reveals: TMNT, Storm Shadow
• Storm Collectibles reveals new Tekken, Mortal Kombat, KOF figures
• Marvel Legends action figure reviews
• WWE Ultimate Edition Series 11 Kane review

Back at Alexandria, the most ill-timed storm rages on just as walkers breach through. Judith and Gracie are trapped in a flooded basement while Rosita, Diane and Lydia use the high ground in the stairwell to fight off hordes.

There definitely needs to be a better strategy in place for keeping the kids safe in prolonged battles cause this wasn’t it.

Fortunately, Gracie remembers the special whistle Aaron gave her for just this kind of situation. Mace swinging Aaron is my favorite version. Was there a legit reason Aaron couldn’t have just been the lead after Rick left?

The storm blows over and this big dramatic battle just kinda dies out anticlimactically. At least Aaron got some cool Walker kills in the watery basement. Too bad he couldn’t have come up with a creative use of the sewage pipe though.

Maggie’s expedition returns with food. Good thing they brought less mouths to feed back with them too as now there’s even more food to go around — even Dog gets an apple.

Just before Carol starts whipping up some of her world-famous apple pies, the Commonwealth shows up at the gates…with Eugene.

Lance makes his pitch to Alexandria — stay and they’ll help rebuild or something more interesting choice.

The transition here from Daryl looking to Maggie only to realize six months have passed was very well done. Especially after a Commonwealth goon tells Maggie to open the gates and removes his mask and helmet to reveal it’s Daryl.

Well, that was a surprise. There’s still fortunately a nice amount of episodes left to give The Commonwealth arc a respectable build and payoff. This was a promising start for the final stretch of episodes despite the whimper style wrap up of The Reapers.

The second they ditched the masks they were 90% less fearsome and interesting while The Commonwealth has the potential to make for a compelling conclusion.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: AMC

Catch up on The Walking Dead Season 11 on Amazon Prime.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.