The Walking Dead – Warlords review S11 E13
Whenever The Walking Dead needs a course correction episode to right the ship, they can always turn to Aaron and Elijah. One of the standout episodes from last season featured this duo, who would be far more interesting in a spinoff FYI, and they get the spotlight in another terrific outing.
And this is probably the best episode by far since last season’s outstanding Negan-focused installment.
Elijah is ready to shoot his shot with Lydia, who’s heading to Commonwealth when a bloody guy on horseback arrives. He’s got a map and a warning, but dies before he can offer any useful information.
Maggie doesn’t want to go against another community and is leery it’s a trap. As a battle-tested veteran of the walker world, Maggie has earned the right to be overly cautious, but is swayed by Lydia who does want to help.
On the way to this destination, Lydia rightfully asks Maggie why she doesn’t want Commonwealth’s help. This wasn’t an ironic question, but Maggie’s response that we don’t need it doesn’t really ring true when it’s just three of them going to aid another community. Considering the last excursion Maggie led had four times this many people I’d argue she probably does need some help.
Maggie relates the Commonwealth offer to one her father received when a drought occurred at the farm. It’s a nice story, but the corporation that offered to assist Herschel was banking on his land becoming profitable one day. Maybe Redfin is pulling up some strong numbers on Alexandria and Hilltop, but it probably doesn’t matter these days, Maggie.
Lydia said she would have asked everyone what they wanted instead of making the decision for them. Whoops. Fair point.
After Elijah co-signs with Lydia, they spot three Commonwealth walker stormtroopers. Their necks were slashed through the neck guards and they’d been shot through armor gaps. This kind of ruins the whole usefulness of the armor, doesn’t it? With the walkers taken care of, Maggie, Elijah and Lydia get another surprise as Aaron runs up from down the road.
Flashback to a week ago, Aaron wants Gabriel’s help to communicate with a religious group on the outskirts of Virginia and bring them in to the Commonwealth. Here we meet the non-shot version of Jesse, the kid who rode in warning Maggie’s crew. Aaron’s boss, Toby Carlton (Jason Butler Harner) seems…overeager.
The scary looking crew brings them to their leader — Kyle Reese Ian (Michael Biehn, The Mandalorian). My longtime fanboy bias to Biehn aside, he clearly understood what this one-off role required. Biehn brought a ton of intensity to Ian and made him a creepy guy complete with a collection of skulls on his back shelf.
Aaron and Gabriel manage to diffuse this situation and help Ian realize he’s got nothing they want. Ian is all set to let them go, but Carlton quickly shifts from whimpering chump to hard-nosed assassin. Carlton grabs Ian’s gun, shoots him and kills Ian’s men.
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Another flashback to a week ago (and one hour) where Hornsby made Carlton, a former CIA operative, reluctantly lead this expedition. Hornsby is sure Ian’s crew stole a Commonwealth caravan of weapons and he wants them back. Carlton is happy living a peaceful life, but Hornsby convinces him to play along. Turns out it really wasn’t as hard a sell as Carlton suggested.
On to another flashback — again harkening to Here’s Negan with the constant shifts in time yet still making it easy to follow. During the fight, Negan and another woman, Annie (Medina Senghore, Happy!), encounter Jesse and give him the map with directions to only tell Maggie.
Side note. More than any other show I’ve followed, The Walking Dead has done an exemplary job of constantly bringing in new black characters. It’s actually impressive how consistent the show has been basically since the first season.
And Carlton’s stormtroopers were the ones that shot Jesse. You bastards!
Carlton is still cheating on being sober and taking a sip off his finger. Now he’s in full stormtrooper gear and sending inhabitants of the apartment off the rooftop. Negan, Annie and Gabriel are with more apartment dwellers clearly rattled by Carlton’s warpath. It’s not looking good for Negan and company.
That is until Maggie, Elijah, Lydia and Aaron make their way into the apartment after killing one of the Commonwealth soldiers. If ever there was an episode to make a hard sell for the AMC+ service, this was it.
Episodes like this prove The Walking Dead isn’t a stale carcass of a series. The dark side of The Commonwealth was finally revealed; Aaron and Gabriel show why they’re the best pairing in the series and Maggie earns some justification for her distrust. This was easily the most effective episode and a truly great installment.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: AMC
Pick up The Walking Dead Vol: 31 – The Rotten Core trade paperback for the comic take on The Commonwealth on Amazon.
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