Remember back to when we first met Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt), the scientist-who-wasn’t-a-scientist but had baffled his way into getting everyone to believe that he was? Also, remember how annoying it was to listen to his convoluted sentences?
Yeah, welcome to that Eugene in Episode 11 of The Walking Dead.
Also in the mix is a love story, a sci-fi novel, some paranoia, and Detective Eugene.
Before there was Detective Eugene, there was love
Episode 11, titled Rogue Element, opens not where we want it to, which is finding out about what Rosita (Christian Serratos) is going to do with the knowledge that Tyler Davis (Cameron Roberts) is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to rogue elements. Instead, it starts with Eugene declaring his love to Stephanie (Chelle Ramos). You know, fake Stephanie, as opposed to Max-Stephanie (Margot Bingham), or whatever name she is going by this week.
As soon as Eugene declares his love for Stephanie, you can see it on her face that she’s just not that into him. But she’s just read his sci-fi novel manuscript and perhaps she wants to get in on his fame before he’s actually famous because she tells him she loves him in return.
However, as soon as he is out the door, Stephanie reevaluates what she just said, packs her bags, and disappears.
Eugene is right on the case
Eugene immediately suspects Stephanie has been kidnapped when she doesn’t meet him for their 17.30 ice-cream appointment. Because that’s where you go rather than, “Oh, I’ve been dumped.”
Quickly — like Season 8 Game of Thrones fast — he is all over the case, putting up pics and joining them with red string. He gets Rosita to do a welfare check, which turns up nothing (and still no mention of her thoughts on Tyler either).
Next, he enlists Princess (Paola Lazaro), and they sneak into some guy’s place because, for a plumber, he certainly seems to do some shady s**t. There, they find a kill kit and also get busted.
Rather than seem like Eugene might be onto something about a conspiracy within the Commonwealth, Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) produces all the receipts for plumbing dude to be legit. He also shows some more receipts of Stephanie’s transfer and gets him to sign a piece of paper that says he might have had a paranoid episode.
Because that won’t come back to bite him in the a** at all.
Detective Eugene still won’t believe he’s been dumped
While Princess losses her every-loving s**t at Eugene for getting them both in trouble, Eugene still won’t believe that he’s not the hot catch he thinks he is.
And, like the audience, Eugene just won’t give up regarding the seedy underside of the community.
Searching further, he finally digs up some pretty decent dirt by way of… Stephanie.
It turns out she’s still floating around in the Commonwealth, albeit undercover now.
However, in the process of him finding her, he also gets a swift kick to the guts — both physically and metaphorically.
By this stage of the game, Eugene has had enough and loses it with Lance Hornsby, who is also involved in whatever the hell Stephanie is.
After a super-long monologue, I honestly thought that Eugene was about to take a swim with the fish. But, thanks to that little slip of paper he just signed, Lance is more than happy to let Eugene just wander around the Commonwealth as “lost his marbles” guy.
After all of this, Eugene realizes that life is s**t and everything is just a pipe dream anyway, so he sets about burning every last memory of Stephanie — who, according to Lance, is actually named Shira. This also includes his sci-fi novel, which is kind of a bummer.
As he is doing this — in a dark little back alley because that’s what down-on-their-luck detectives do apparently — Max-Stephanie turns up and starts reciting phrases that Stephanie used with Eugene when they first met via the radio.
So, is this Stephanie the real Stephanie, or is it her turn to step in and be Eugene’s boyfriend now? Who knows? I guess we’ll just have to tune into the next episode of The Walking Dead to find out more.
Connie knows something’s not right
Look, we all know that the Commonwealth is hiding some shady AF stuff, but currently, they are working on early-stage Woodbury where everyone gets along, and everything is perfect.
If Tyler just hadn’t done what he did last week, the illusion might have lasted a little longer, too.
While everyone is happy to just let that incident slide, Connie (Lauren Ridloff) is determined to find out the truth.
Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) probably should have taken a wild stab in the dark when it came to Connie trying to uncover stuff because the pair have a history, and Pamela knows damn well that Connie will dig up every last juicy morsel.
But, for now, Pamela seems to be prepared to let Connie run amok, allowing others to try and thwart her along the way.
But we all know how that goes with journalists.
So Connie continues to dig for the dirt. And comes up pretty much empty-handed (other than revealing that Mercer and Max-Stephanie are siblings) until someone slips a note under her door that contains a bunch of names, the last one being Tyler’s.
As for what that means, once again, who knows.
Although, as Insider points out, other than Tyler’s name, the others on the list belong to those who have either worked on The Walking Dead or for AMC. So, if you thought something might be gleaned there, no such luck.
Carol is working on getting Ezekiel better by sucking up to Lance Hornsby
Finally, Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) is working hard to get Ezekiel (Khary Payton) cured of cancer by sucking up to Lance.
This week’s episode of The Walking Dead sees her traveling with him to a drug farm.
Here, poppies are grown that are then used to make medication for the Commonwealth. However, as is the way with anything to do with the illegal drug trade, this is all as shifty as s**t.
There is a dispute that Lance wants Carol to observe and she quickly deduces that the head honcho is actually an a**hole. He is pocketing all of the extra cash and beating his staff to keep them quiet.
She knows this because she has been there before, she has suffered abuse, and knows exactly what to look for.
Once Carol alerts Lance to this, the guy is quickly taken into custody, and I don’t think he is going to get the Eugene treatment.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.