The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: Deals And Compromises

The Walking Dead season 11 episode 18

Don’t make deals with the devil. 

If we look back at this whole situation the group finds themselves in, it starts back with Eugene getting arrested in the Commonwealth and being forced to make a deal with their Director of Operations, Lance Hornsby, to secure his release. He swooped in at just the right time and offered Eugene exactly what he needed exactly when he needed it. How…convenient.

The common trope of someone making a proverbial “Deal With The Devil” usually involves someone making some kind of agreement with Satan (Obviously) or some other force of evil but wind up losing out in the end, usually with the one making the deal either losing their soul or their deal not working out how they’d hoped. This is what happened to Eugene.

In exchange for his freedom, Eugene had to give up the location of Alexandria and Hilltop, relinquishing their strongest defense from potential encroachment by the more powerful Commonwealth: Their anonymity. This, in turn, led to Hornsby eventually deciding to try to annex Alexandria, Hilltop, and Oceanside on behalf of the Commonwealth, with him as their overseer. Basically, all of the problems the group is dealing with now were borne out of Eugene’s deal, which Hornsby himself worked to ensure Eugene would be forced to make. He was being walked into a trap from the start.

I guess then what I’m saying isn’t so much that you shouldn’t “make deals with the devil”, but, more accurately, you shouldn’t let yourself be walked into situations where your only option is to make a deal with the devil. Don’t let yourself get put into a position so compromising that you basically have to screw yourself over to get out of it. Once that happens, it’s tough to dig yourself out of it.