The Season 11 premiere of The Walking Dead ended on quite the cliffhanger. Finally, a whole week has passed and viewers can learn whether or not Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) survives.
So, let’s have a look at whether Maggie became walker fodder or if AMC pulled a dumpster fake-out again.
Maggie faces the walkers
The episode picks up with the majority of Maggie’s group dropping down into a subway carriage and working out pretty quickly that Maggie isn’t among them. They also take a really short amount of time to decide to carry on using the excuse that that’s what she would want.
Once that’s out of the way, they make agonizingly slow progress along the train carriages because all the doors seem to be rusted shut. Why they didn’t just continue on along the roof of the train is beyond me, but hey, this is their journey, not mine.
Along the way, they hear some tapping underneath them and work out pretty quickly that it’s Morse code, so open up a door in the floor, and in pops Maggie — who immediately pistol-whips Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). To say she isn’t impressed at him for leaving her behind is an understatement.
Gage reappears
Episode 1 of The Walking Dead Season 11 saw Gage (Jackson Pace) and Roy (C. Thomas Howell) taking a little detour. And, by that, I mean they ditched and ran with all the food and ammo.
So, neither is on anyone’s list of favorites in Episode 2.
Then, Gage turns up in the carriage behind them, wanting to rejoin the group. Except, Gage was obviously born in a tent and forgot to close the door behind him.
Walkers now approach him and even though Alden (Callan McAuliffe) wants to save him, Maggie is ruthless and refuses to let Gage in.
She doesn’t want to risk prying the door open and risking walkers entering. But, seriously, they had a pretty decent debate about it before the walkers finally got to Gage so I feel like there was plenty of time.
So he kills himself rather than have to suffer through being pulled apart by walkers.
Things then turn again to how they are going to escape their own personal Train to Busan moment. But, not before Maggie can tell a truly harrowing tale about her narrow escape.
At this point, it becomes very apparent that Maggie has seen some sh*t and she is not the same woman we all first met in Season 2 of The Walking Dead, which should make the ongoing tensions between her and Negan extremely interesting as the season progresses.
Meanwhile, sh*t is about to get real because even though those doors seem impossible to open, now that there are a bunch of walkers on the scene, they are onto breaking it down and entering the carriage — Gage at the front.
But, first, let’s take a small detour and see what Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) is up to.
Daryl takes a detour
Daryl and Dog are cruising the tunnels and come across further remnants of the tunnel’s use after the fall of civilization.
He also comes across Roy, who is in pretty bad shape. He gives Daryl a gun and a grenade and he returns to the main group just in the knick of time to save them all.
Getting off the train to Busan
Using a grenade, he finishes off the carriage-full of walkers without even smashing out any of the windows. Which, by my calculations, means that Gage’s head — which managed to crack the glass — is stronger than a grenade.
The group picks up Roy after that even though he is a deserter just like Gage and head on out of the tunnel. Maggie announces that they are making a little detour to a place where Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) stashed some supplies.
And that’s where they run into a bunch of Reapers.
Roy is promptly killed and everyone takes cover. However, viewers will have to tune in next week to find out what happens next with Maggie’s group.
Meanwhile, at the Commonwealth
Ezekiel (Khary Payton) has gone missing even though the group returned from their aborted escape mission. This freaks Eugene (Josh McDermitt) out, but Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) and Princess (Paola Lazaro) insist he sticks to their story.
Yumiko is then questioned and she quickly gets tired of their sh*t and calls their bluff since all she wants to do now is find her brother. She’s a lawyer and has seen enough courtroom cross-examinations to pick their personalities. It seems to work too.
Outside the room, Princess is busting for the bathroom and leaves Eugene alone. After some time, he questions what is going on and where everyone is.
And, totally gets gaslighted.
Everyone thinks Eugene is the weakest link
While Eugene has been eager to crack since they arrived and spill the beans on their settlement, it turns out no one should have doubted him.
After all, this is the guy who played the long con at the very start and had everyone believing that he was a scientist with the cure.
Of course, no one at the Commonwealth knows this, and they put pressure on Eugene.
Who goes on to tell them a long yarn that has kernels of truth seeded through it.
It is a tale of woe and virginity and love. And they all fall for it.
This is when the group is reunited and the announcement is made that they have officially made it through level one of the Commonwealth game.
Then, Stephanie (Margot Bingham) turns up and who knows how things are going to go between them when The Walking Dead returns next Sunday night.
Season 11 of The Walking Dead is currently airing every Sunday night at 9/8c on AMC.