The Walking Dead: looking back at Home Sweet Home

The Walking Dead gave fans a bonus season at the end of the tenth season. Known as season 10c, these episodes, filmed during the pandemic, focused on a smaller group of characters. Some fans feel these were unnecessary, while others were just happy to have some new series episodes.

On February 28, 2021, AMC aired “Home Sweet Home,” the first episode of season 10c. It was written by Corey Reed & Kevin Deiboldt and directed by David Boyd.

This episode focuses on Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) return with some of her new group. We are introduced to her faithful companions, Cole (James Devoti) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari). Viewers also get to see the older version of Hershel Rhee (Kien Michael Spiller), the son of Maggie and Glenn.

The Walking Dead season 10c

This episode begins with Maggie and Judith (Cailey Fleming) taking down some walkers together. They discuss Michonne (Danai Gurira) and how Judith explained her absence to her brother RJ (Antony Azor). She shared the story she told him of their mother looking up at the same stars in the sky each night.

In this episode, Maggie has her first encounter with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). She is shocked to see him outside the walls of Alexandria, but he assures her he didn’t escape, and after an awkward silence, she walks away.

When Maggie tells Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) about the destruction of her previous community, Meridian, she shares that she thought she, Hershel, and some others could settle at Hilltop. This is when Carol must have a hard conversation about Hilltop, the Whisperers, and the fact that she is the one who let Negan out of his cell.

As the group heads out to retrieve Hershel and the others, Kelly (Angel Theory) joins them, willing to help but also wanting to search for her missing sister Connie (Lauren Ridloff). When they break for the night, they must rid the area of the walkers present, and viewers see the skills that Maggie’s new friends possess. Daryl and Maggie have a great conversation about where she has been since leaving Hilltop years ago.

The remainder of the episode focuses on an encounter with a man who will be revealed as a Reaper, the group that destroyed Maggie’s previous home. He is a formidable fighter, but they get the better of him in the end, and he blows himself up with a grenade.

After this, we see the first appearance of an older Hershel, and they all head back to Alexandria. There is evidence of the destruction of the community during the Whisperer’s war. It was a solid start to the bonus episodes, and it was good to get information about Maggie’s time away.

Two years after this episode aired, it is interesting that Maggie’s story will continue in The Walking Dead: Dead City spinoff. During “Home Sweet Home,” she did everything to keep Hershel safe and had extreme hatred of Negan. In Dead City, Hershel will be abducted, and she will partner with Negan to retrieve her son.

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