The Walking Dead – Lockdown review S11 E17

In a lot of ways, Lockdown felt like an old school eventful, action-packed installment of The Walking Dead. It also had to compensate for the lackadaisical pace of early episodes this season as the writers sprint through the final seven episode of the series.

Ultimately, heavy action and accelerated pacing always wins out over slow strolls for character studies that don’t quite pan out.

There was a clever contrast with the war against the Commonwealth playing out. In the exterior subplot, Daryl, Maggie, Aaron, Gabriel, Negan and Annie were waging a hit and run assault on Lance Hornsby’s forces full of chaotic shootouts and a (relatively) high-speed chases through a dilapidated town.

With the other subplot, a far quieter war was taking place. Connie’s article about the likelihood of Sebastian Milton being responsible for the disappearance of various Commonwealth citizens struck a nerve prompting full-scale protests against Pamela Milton. To some degree this felt a little too contemporary and timely — and in fairness, I don’t know if Robert Kirkman was prescient in crafting an all-out protest against the government in the Walking Dead comic prior to 2020.

Connie, Kelly and Ezekiel were out front with the protestors while Carol kept out of the spotlight as she watched Judith, RJ and Gracie. Shooting TV series with kids is a tricky proposition as they betray the delay in filming as all three kids look like they got hit with a growth ray.

While panicked about Daryl on the loose, Hornsby does get word to his goons, Shira and Roman, to round up the kids. It’s a sinister strategy, but one that would work if anyone but Carol had babysitting duty. Daryl sent Negan off to warn Carol and the crew back at Commonwealth and in a sign that the series is nearing the home stretch, this ride didn’t take four episodes and a stranded car bubble episode.

Negan is chatting up with Mercer with his standard poetic way with words. It’s enough for Mercer to let Negan into the Commonwealth without the four-month vetting process. While still a new character in contrast to so many of the other big players, Mercer has quickly been established as a man of honor who will skirt the rules for the right reason.

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Pamela is slightly rattled that the citizens aren’t throwing rose petals at her feet. This is the life of any leader that allows Rick Grimes’ legacy crew into their midst, Pamela. While she tries some PR spin on the article, Negan and Carol search for Sebastian since Carol is sure is hiding somewhere in the Commonwealth. They find Sebastian’s safe house, which all things considered, is pretty crappy for the governor’s son.

Carol wasn’t interested in throwing Sebastian to the masses. He’s a better bargaining chip with Pamela to reel Hornsby back in line. This is where the quickened pace started to affect the episode. Commonwealth Clerk Henderson (Freddy Boyd) alerted the protestors a swarm/horde was en route. The timing was pretty interesting, but they were actually coming. That probably had nothing to do with Pamela radioing and telling someone to do it right away though, right?

Mercer, Rosita and a small cadre of Commonwealth troops went to take them down while employing some very questionable dispatchment techniques. Maybe instead of gassing the protestors, the troops could see if tear gas would affect walkers? Just a thought. Also, when the walkers are all en masse huddled together, this would be an ideal time to unleash the hounds…or grenades.

Annie suggests instead of walking around Hornsby’s men they go under them through the sewer. This was the most massive sewer system ever and was already used as an underground camp by residents who had somehow turned to walkers. Maybe it was the smell? Or the walker rats?

Daryl and Maggie see this as a golden opportunity and lure Hornsby’s men into the sewer. Too confident as ever, Hornsby walks right into a trap and gets Daryl’s knife at his throat as a very tense standoff wraps this episode.

Lockdown certainly wasn’t boring, but it did feel like two strong subplots that could have carried an episode were packed into one eventful outing. That’s not a bad thing, but could impact the weight of the final few episodes if that continues to be the case.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: AMC