IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!
It’s been a couple of months, but I’m happy to say that The Walking Dead is back, with, rather unusually, the third part of a season. That’s right: This series of episodes are, essentially, part three of season ten, something we’ve never had before in any Walking Dead series.
In any event, if you’re unfamiliar with what I do here with Things To Note, allow me to explain: Each week, I go back through each episode of The Walking Dead and try to find all the little hints, clues, references, callbacks, and trivia, and gather them all in one place so that you don’t have to go looking for them!
Maggie is back in The Walking Dead, but she’s learned that “Home Sweet Home” isn’t quite so sweet and may get even LESS sweet.
With this new episode and all the new things we saw — Maggie’s new group, the Reapers, Hershel — there were also many little things that you might have overlooked. Hopefully, my efforts here will prevent that from happening.
Are you ready? It’s time for a brand-new installment of The Walking Dead: Things To Note!
1) This episode begins with, essentially, a recap of season ten up to this point, from Lydia’s perspective. This is the first episode of The Walking Dead to begin in this fashion.
2) Right after Lydia’s recap, Judith is seen being put on a wagon back to Alexandria; upon that wagon leaving, Maggie sees Negan, which is their first encounter with one another since Maggie’s ill-fated attempt to kill him back in Rick’s final episode, season nine’s “What Comes After.”
3) At the end of the title sequence, there are an additional eight or so walkers. This carries on from the previous episode, “A Certain Doom,” where this new addition to the title sequence debuted.
4) Right after the title sequence, Carol and Daryl discuss Oceanside “Taking the rest.” While we don’t get a complete explanation of this, considering that the pair show Maggie the devastated state Hilltop is in the right after this conversation, it’s almost certain that they’re talking about taking in the displaced Hilltoppers and Kingdommers. Since this wasn’t really addressed following the community’s destruction by the Whisperers, this is a nice bit of continuity.
5) In another nice bit of continuity, Maggie introduces Daryl and Carol to the ninja (Who helped her save Father Gabriel from the Whisperers in “A Certain Doom”) as Elijah. That episode left off with us getting no explanation of who the ninja was or what relationship he had to Maggie, so, again, nice to see that loose end get tied.
6) At no point in this episode (Or the previous one, for that matter) does Elijah speak. Is he mute? If so, why? Was he born so, or did he lose the ability to speak after the apocalypse hit? If it’s the latter…will we learn how?
7) Daryl rushing to help Maggie close the shipping crate door as the walkers inside attempt to push their way out is very reminiscent of Rick’s group (Which included both Daryl and Maggie) coming together to keep a herd from pushing their way into the group’s barn sanctuary on their long march to Virginia in season five’s “Them.”
8) While staying in the shipping crate lot, Maggie tells Daryl that she doesn’t know if Georgie is still alive. She also tells him that every group she and Georgie helped would have things go sideways on them. Did they all run into hostiles, like Hilltop? Did they run afoul of the CRM?
9) Maggie mentions that Georgie, Hilda, and Midge were last heard heading out for a community west of the Knoxville area. How far out west, Maggie doesn’t know. I wonder if they made their Nebraska, Oklahoma, or Texas…I mean, they’re out west, right?
10) Not too surprisingly, this is the first time anyone’s really mentioned Beth since season five, and the first mention of Maggie’s stepbrother Shawn (Who was already a walker by the time we saw him) since Beth discussed him with Daryl during the pair’s time together following the fall of the prison in season four’s “Still.”
11) During her rundown of the events between her departure from the communities and her return, Maggie doesn’t mention Rick. This feels strange, as it seemed like a point of contention between her and Michonne (Maybe even why Michonne had fallen so out of touch with her that she didn’t know about Maggie’s departure until quite a while after).
12) What happened to Elijah’s sister? We hear that he lost her, but no one elaborates whether it was to the Reapers or a walker or something else entirely.
13) During the explanation of the Reapers’ relationship to Maggie’s group, the captions credit Elijah with giving that explanation, even though Cole is the one doing it.
14) When Daryl leaves with Maggie to search for the missing members of her group, there’s a quick cut to Elijah, who watches Daryl as the pair leave. Why?
15) Jen, Billy, and Matty are the first three named characters to die in this…half-season(?), though, to be fair, we don’t see them die. If you don’t want to count them, I won’t hold it against you.
16) Gus(?) is the fourth named character to die this half-season, and the first we actually see die.
17) Ainsley(?) and Maya are the fifth and sixth-named characters to die this half-season. If you’re only counting the ones we’ve seen die, they’d be second and third.
18) By the sound of his accent, the sniper appears to be British. If so, he’d be the second Brit we’ve seen in The Walking Dead, behind Yumiko.
19) Who is Pope? Is he the leader of The Reapers?
20) The sniper is the first hostile to commit suicide. What this says about the Reapers or their leader is entirely up to your imagination.
21) Maggie’s group got severely cut down in this episode, starting at approximately twelve people following the Reaper attack (If you assume that the ninja who helped Maggie and Daryl fight the sniper was not Kim), and ending with five. Like…damn.
22) As Maggie and Hershel enter Alexandria, you can see the graffiti Dante left on the perimeter wall (“Silence The Whispers”) has been defaced to read “Whispers Into Screams,” with the words “Silence” and “The” crossed out in the same red paint “Into Screams” is written in. The phrase “Whispers Into Screams” is the title of Volume 23 of The Walking Dead trade paperback series, which, if compared to the show’s timeline, roughly covers the events after the Whisperers’ introduction until just before the festival massacre.
23) This episode gets its name from Cole asking Maggie, “So, this is home, sweet home?” as they arrive at Alexandria.
And that ends our installment of Things To Note for this week! Was there anything you missed? Was there anything I missed? Let me know! If you like this and want to read more of my writings, specifically about how to survive a zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! And you can get it from Amazon here and on iTunes here!