The Walking Dead 1017 Home Sweet Home recap

Fans have waited for quite some time for new episodes of The Walking Dead to premiere. The wait is over. “Home Sweet Home” kicked off the third section of season ten of the series. This is the first of six bonus episodes that made the cast and crew very creative as it was filmed in a pandemic.

The episode starts with a monologue by Lydia recapping events in season ten. We see scenes of what transpired for her during season ten. She learned that things could be different than what her mother, Alpha, taught her.

Immediately after this, we see Maggie take down a walker with a well-thrown knife to the head. She is with Judith in the woods, and they talk about Michonne being gone and touch on Maggie being gone.

Next, we see Maggie approach the road as a wagon moves away, and she sees Negan for the first time since her arrival. This was a reunion fans have been waiting to see. Maggie holds herself together, no matter what she is feeling inside. She has a look of disbelief as Negan tells her he didn’t escape. She doesn’t respond but hurriedly turns and walks away as the most amazing theme song in TV series history begins to play.

Where has Maggie been all this time, and how has she spent her time?

We all knew going into this episode that we would get some details on Maggie’s life since she left the communities. It seems there is much more to the story than we will learn in this episode.

In the next scene, we see Daryl and Carol in the woods. They are joined by Maggie and her two new companions Elijah and Cole. Maggie has brought more of her group with them, and they are safely hidden somewhere with little Hershel. Cole reassures her that her son and everyone else is safe. She introduces them the Daryl and Carol and tells them their village was destroyed.

They have to break the news about Hilltop to Maggie. Not only that, Carol has to be the one to tell of Negan and her plan to rid them of Alpha. Maggie is shocked but was appreciative that Carol told her instead of letting her find out some other way.

Cole is vocal about not being happy with the fact that their people will have to live in Alexandria alongside the man who helped burn down Hilltop and killed Maggie’s husband. Daryl gives him a look and tells him they are working things out. I wonder if we will see some tension between Daryl and Cole!?

Daryl tells Carol she didn’t need to tell her all that. But she felt she needed to. Maggie, Elijah and Cole head off to find Hershel and the rest of their group. Daryl tells Carol he will go with them and try to smooth things over with Maggie.

Kelly runs after Daryl telling him she wants to go along, thinking it is a good way to look for clues about Connie’s whereabouts. He agrees.

As the group moves along towards the location of Maggie’s people, things are going pretty smoothly. Cole says they need to stop for the night, but Maggie wants to press on. They find a place to get shelter for the night. The group does an impressive job of killing many walkers behind a fence where they want to stay for the night.

It’s a kickass fight, and we get to see the talent Maggie and her crew possess. Kelly and Daryl fight right alongside them. Some walkers try to escape confinement from a storage container, Maggie is cut, and Daryl and Elijah help her out. It is an impressive scene of these two groups working together. This scene is reminiscent of episodes earlier in the series. Instead of fighting a human villain, they are back, killing the undead.

Maggie, sitting inside her shelter for the night, is tending to her wound when Daryl enters. He tells her he is glad she returned and that he had become worried when her letters stopped. Daryl wants her to tell him what’s been going on with her. She explained about Georgie and how they found other groups and help where they could. She lost track of Georgie when they were in Knoxville, and their village was attacked. She could tell him any more of the story because the hurt is too fresh.

She told him that she took Hershel to her Nana’s house on the ocean. She and Glenn talked about going after Beth died. But they never did. She felt she needed to take Hershel there to experience the ocean and the waves and the sunsets. She spent quality time with him telling him stories of his family. Hershel asked about how his daddy died. She told him a bad man killed him, and he wondered if that man got what he deserved and if the man was dead.

After that, she decided she couldn’t return and allow Negan to take up any more space in her head. That is when she met with another group who needed them as much as she and Hershel needed them.

It was a touching tale of how she has had to deal with her pain of losing Glenn and the joy of raising her son to remember his family that he will never meet.

Daryl tells her nothing is decided with Negan and that she should come back home. They both understand that Carol had to do what she thought she needed to do, just as Maggie did when she left.

In the morning, the group wakes to find Kelly is missing, who was supposed to be standing guard.

We see Kelly in the woods searching. She comes upon an abandoned supply truck and takes a look for any signs of Connie. She sees a blanket on the top of the truck, and as she climbs up to take a look, she is grabbed by the ankle. Luckily it is just Maggie who immediately reprimands her for abandoning her post and running off alone. Daryl tells the group that Kelly is looking for her missing sister. Elijah scales to the top of the truck with ease, throwing down the object he finds there as Maggie shares with Kelly that he just lost his sister.

As they continue through the forest, Maggie asks about Connie. Daryl tells her they have been looking for a while, and maybe it is better if Kelly doesn’t know. Maggie says it’s better to know that Hershel always told her, “A wound can’t heal until it hits air.”

Maggie tells the group there are almost there, and she is excited for Daryl to meet little Hershel. Suddenly Daryl spots smoke coming ahead of them. Maggie thinking the worst, runs to the rendezvous point. Cole looks and says it’s them; they found us.

As Maggie approaches, a building is smoldering from a fire; she searches for Hershel. They find two of their group dead and burnt. Cole feels it is some group that has followed them and tells us it is The Reapers.

Maggie tells everyone to get their heads on straight so that they can find their people and her son.

As Daryl tracks footprints in the woods, he informs everyone the tracks are scattered. They follow a set of child’s tracks, sure that they are Hershel’s tracks. When they come upon a spot where the tracks split, they decide to split the group to look for the remaining survivors.

Cole, Elijah and Kelly take one path, and they hear twigs snapping but can’t see who or what is making the noise. Kelly and Elijah hid behind a stump, and when it’s time to continue, Elijah is frozen in place. Kelly asks him to take off his mask, and we see a young man who looks to be overwhelmed with the situation. Kelly tells him that Maggie is counting on them and that they are in this together.

Daryl and Maggie, on the other path, also hear something or someone approaching. As we watch Daryl, we see someone watching him with a spear. He grabs a girl and holds a knife to her neck only to find out these are some of Maggie’s people. They tell them someone attacked the building. They all feel it is the mysterious Reapers. The man who is part of Maggie’s group gets a bullet through the neck, and as the group runs, you can hear bullets being fired around them.

They continue their search through the woods, looking for whoever is shooting at them. They heard a scream and one of Maggie’s people has been shot. Daryl tells Maggie it’s a trap that that shooter is trying to flush them out one by one.  Another girl comes to the injured girl’s aid only to be shot herself. The dying girl tries to signal to Maggie where Hershel is.

More shots hit the trees near Maggie and Daryl. But, they realize there is only one shooter, and Maggie goes to flank him.  As she comes upon the gun with no one near, she starts to look elsewhere. We see a camouflaged man tracking her. He goes at her Maggie is caught in a snare as Daryl comes upon them, firing an arrow into the man’s side.

He throws Daryl into a tree. As Daryl tries to focus on the man, Maggie frees herself from the snare.

Kelly, Elijah and Cole arrive, and Kelly shoots an arrow into his chest with Daryl’s discarded crossbow. As Maggie interrogates him, he refuses to answer. He drops his knife, telling Maggie, “Pope marked you.” He pulls the pin from a grenade and blows himself up.

Could he be one of the Reapers who have attacked Maggie’s people in the past?

As she and Daryl continue, she hears a whistle and returns it as an acorn hits her head, and she looks up, and we see a little boy say “Hi, Mom.” This is our first real introduction to little Hershel, who is the spit of his father, Glenn.

Next, we see Hershell asleep next to Maggie and Kelly. Elijah comes in and gives Kelly a pear. They talk about Kelly helping Elijah and that they have all lost a lot. Kelly opens up to Maggie about Connie and their childhood. They also talk about Beth.

Daryl comes in to check on them and tells Maggie they will stay in this location for a few days. This will allow them to sweep the area to be sure the man that attacked them is alone. She says no one must follow them back to Alexandria. Daryl says they will take a long way and cover their tracks. He asks if that means she is coming home. She says her people and Hershel deserve a home and that she will deal with Negan if she has to.

The group is heading back to Alexandria, and when they approach, they see that the Whisperers have left Alexandria in shambles. We see Carol and the others trying to make repairs as she notices the group approach.

Negan sees Maggie and the group, and he looks concerned about their arrival.

Cole asks Maggie if this is home sweet home, and she takes Hersehls hand and says yes, it is.

We Negan cautiously watch Maggie and Hershel enter the community.

I think it is a strong start to the bonus episodes. We get some of Maggie’s back story, and we get to meet some of her new friends and see lots of action.

AMC will release The Walking Dead’s  “Find Me” on Sunday, March 7.

AMC+ members will be able to stream in on Thursday, March 4.