Being a freelance writer means that I write many different types of things. I wrote this TV show recap for a client on Upwork March 1, 2022, right after the episode aired.
On The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 11, Alexandrians are finding out that once again, the newfound community they have in the Commonwealth is not as safe as it first seemed.
Detective Eugene
Eugene (Josh McDermitt) reports his girlfriend Stephanie (Chelle Ramos) missing after she fails to show up to their ice cream date. This is especially odd since Eugene just gave Stephanie a key to his apartment after they woke up in bed together at the beginning of the episode. He wakes up to find Stephanie reading his science fiction novel, which is a key part of their romance over the radio.
Poor Eugene, ever frustrated in love, is left holding two melted ice cream cones in his hands after waiting for her at the park all day.
Princess (Paola Lázaro) is concerned about Eugene locking himself away in his apartment all day. She’s also been giving him dating advice, so she pretends to show up with lasagna as an excuse to get him to talk to her about how he’s feeling.
But what she actually finds is a detective-style evidence smorgasbord of clues tied together with string detailing the events, situations and people leading up to Stephanie’s disappearance.
Eugene tells her he believes that Stephanie made a wrong move and angered someone in the Commonwealth government, causing her to vanish.
Princess isn’t so sure, but she cares enough about Eugene to go on a stakeout with him outside an abandoned warehouse with a sign that says Rudy’s Plumbing. Eugene tells Princess he has been following a mysterious man in a dark-colored coat who left Stephanie’s apartment on the night of her disappearance. His name is Roman Calhoun, and he claims to be a plumber.
Eugene suspects the plumbing business is a cover for secret operations.
“They never receive any mail,” he says. “There’s lights on at odd hours, when they’re ostensibly closed. And while people go in and out with a fair degree of regularity, it’s usually just the same four people over and over.”
This is not the first time these characters have felt betrayed by a community that they trusted. Devoted fans have seen this pattern with Woodbury, led by the sociopathic Governor (Season 4), the cannibalistic railroad camp Terminus (Seasons 4 and 5), a healthy collaboration between The Kingdom–Hilltop–Alexandria collective until their eventual collapse after wars with the Saviors and the Whisperers (seasons 6-10).
Sustaining community in a post-apocalyptic landscape is challenging, especially since several longtime characters like Daryl, Rick, and Carol have faced betrayal time and time again at the hands of people who seemed to be offering help or seeking refuge.
Episode 10 last week left viewers with the feeling not all is as well in the Commonwealth as it seems, after a waiter / former soldier slashes a painting of Governor Pamela Milton’s and took a hostage, claiming that there were thousands of other rebels ready to “resist the Commonwealth.”
Fishing Trip
Deputy Governor Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) takes Carol (Melissa McBride) with him on a horse-and-buggy ride to an opium farm beyond the walls. Lance tells her drug farms like this are how the Commonwealth’s hospitals stay stocked with painkillers.
The drug lord boss demands raises for the workers, claiming that they are on strike.
Always the politician, Hornsby takes the drug lord boss on a fishing trip to the river.
“It’s nice when your hobby is also an apocalypse skill,” Hornsby says.
Meanwhile, Carol finds out that he’s stealing from the workers and the workers are on strike because he mistreats them.
Hornsby orders the Commonwealth Army soldiers who came along with them to arrest the drug lord.
Uncovering the Truth
Connie (Lauren Ridloff) the Deaf investigative journalist is back on her beat with sister Kelly (Angel Theory), who serves as her interpreter.
The Commonwealth Tribune’s editor insists that Connie’s full story cannot be printed, attributing renegade Trooper Tyler Davis (Cameron Scott Roberts)’s violent outburst to mental illness and not part of a bigger rebellion.
Connie visits the hospital to talk to Tyler along with Kelly, but encounters Mercer (Michael James Shaw) guarding the doorway. Later, when Connie interviews Mercer on a mission near a military truck, she directly asks him if he’s influenced by the fact that Tyler took his sister hostage.
“I was wondering when you were gonna figure that out,” he says.
“If I was you, I would be really interested in who I was risking my life for,” Connie tells him.
“And if I were you, I might wonder why I’m out here digging for answers that we both know will never see the light of day,” Mercer says.
Plot Twist
Princess and Eugene are arrested for breaking into Roman Calhoun’s apartment on the top floor of the warehouse.
Lance Hornsby drops by the jail to bail them out and demands an explanation from both of them. He pulls out numerous documents which seem to back up Calhoun being a legitimate plumber, along with an invoice showing that he fixed a sink in her apartment building the night Stephanie disappeared.
Hornsby is able to ofter explanations for everything, including Calhoun’s illegal weapon stash. He tells Eugene no charges will be filed as long as he signs a paper that he was emotionally distraught and in a paranoid state when he broke into the apartment.
This conversation only more deeply convinces Eugene that his conspiracy theory is real, while Princess tries to tell him maybe Stephanie is breaking up with him and she isn’t who she seemed to be.
However, Eugene is convinced their love was real: “I know how it felt.”
“Okay, well, it was just a theory,” Princess says.
Eugene breaks into the dimly lit warehouse again, encountering several people in dark-colored clothing prompting “Stephanie” to kick him in the stomach.
Hornsby comes down the stairs, saying, “I’ll handle it.”
Eugene rambles on in his grief, piecing together that Stephanie must have been an undercover agent all along, gathering information about Alexandria. He accuses Hornsby of breaking his heart and thinking of him as an easy mark, isolating him from his friends when they were being processed as immigrants to the Commonwealth.
Eugene threatens to reveal to everyone who Hornsby really is, but Hornsby points out this is difficult.
“And who or what is that, exactly? The villain? The boogeyman? Or the best goddamn thing that ever happened to you?” Hornsby says.
“You’re right, Eugene. I did lie to you. Just like you and your friends lied through your teeth to get inside these walls.
Hornsby ultimately sees himself as a hero who uses the ends to justify the means.
“But who’s keeping score, right? So, I did what I had to do to get you here. And you know what? You should be thanking me for it.”
But, surprise. While “Stephanie” might hate Iron Maiden (one of Eugene’s interests), she did actually enjoy reading Eugene’s book, Hornsby says, trying to soften the blow.
Eugene burns all of the missing posters for Stephanie, crushed that their relationship was built on a lie. He tosses the typed draft of his novel into the flames alongside the posters.
But a woman steps out of the shadows behind him, asking to talk. Then she explains she’s the real Stephanie, the person he was talking to on the radio back in Alexandria.
Eleanor Skelton 