11x10 New Haunts

[7.8/10] Last week, The Walking Dead did one of those strange things it does now-and-then -- have a season finale-type episode smack dab in the middle of the season. This week, it did what it often does afterwards -- more or less repilot the whole show. Whether it’s a time jump or a shift in location or an introduction of a new set of enemies, after a big to-do, TWD will frequently reset the board along these lines to position things for the next big arc.

Accepting the weirdness of the timing here, I actually liked this one! Placing almost everyone in the Commonwealth changes the game for our heroes. There’s new characters, new dynamics, new tensions that we saw glimpses of in season 11a, but weren’t brought to the fore until now. I have every confidence that the show will botch the exchange somehow, but for now I’m in that blissful period where I’m intrigued by the potential or the new digs and new storylines.

Despite last week’s time jump, now we’re only a month or so into Daryl, Carol, and most of the rest of the survivors moving into the Commonwealth. It’s ostensibly temporary, a place to lie low while Alexandria is repaired, but as the characters get more and more comfortable there, might be a place to stay permanently.

Only, of course, it’s not the paradise that it seems. I appreciate the dichotomy of that. The Commonwealth has a lot. There is security. There is electricity. There are Halloween carnivals. There are record players and free cookies and a semblance of life before the fall in a way we haven’t seen anywhere else before.

But it comes at a cost. There is a rigid class hierarchy in place that not everyone loves. There are stormtroopers who seem omnipresent and oppressive. There are spoiled children of politicians who want to play soldier. And there is an increasing divide between the haves and the have-nots that causes friction amid all the conspicuous consumption.

The central question here is whether this is necessary or worth it. One of Magna’s acquaintances says the Commonwealth is like one of the cities in the before times, replete with its official and unofficial divides. The zombie apocalypse has taken an incredible toll on the world as our heroes knew it, but it also flattened things out. Everyone was closer to an even keel, and while there were still warlords and hierarchies (see: The Saviors), in general the world was flatter than it had been.

The central, intriguing question of The Commonwealth is (1.) Whether the galling level of inequality on display is worth it for peace and prosperity in a chaotic world and (2.) Whether the citizens of this place could still have those things in a more equal society. Those are big, meaty questions, and while I fully expect The Walking Dead to make a complete hash of them, for once I’m interested to see the show try.

I like the dynamics between the old guard and the new guard here. The motivations make sense and weave into the existing ecosystem and tensions within the Commonwealth in compelling ways. The prime example of this is Carol. We understand her motivation -- she still cares for Ezekiel and wants to do what she can to get his surgery bumped up so he has a chance to live. Their scene at the episode’s close is sweet and sad, and the same goes for Ezekiel giving away his most treasured objects to people he cares about, knowing the end is near.

So Carol does what she does best -- make herself useful with her particular set of skills. She ingratiates herself with Lance, even asking him “What’s next?” when she finds a hidden cache of nice wine to supply the vaunted Masquerade Ball, knowing how to work the angles. Lance is a good guy to work, because we can already see he feels overworked and underappreciated by President Milton, given how she blows off his vintner-y miracle and treats him as someone who needs to bend to her whims. And we also see him smile at the round of public cheers and applause he thinks are for him, only to realize they’re for Mercer, the man kids dress up as on Halloween. The underappreciated civil servant is the type of character we haven’t really seen on TWD before (give or take another Milton, the one who supported The Governor in Woodbury), so watching that political angle play out alongside Carol’s goals is intriguing.

Plus hey, I kind of like Mercer! Season 11a feels like a million years ago, but I remember feeling like he was a bit of an asshole. Here, though, he’s kind to Princess, even escorting her into the fancy ball and not letting the bouncer give her the business. He’s gruff with Daryl, but in a good way, and is mentally rolling his eyes at everything Sebastian does. He seems like a reasonable dude, despite his imposing premise and military efficiency.

Daryl’s got a good storyline too. I like him as a sort of single dad trying to make it work as a police officer. The arc there is simple, but the notion of him as a lone wolf confident in his own skills who needs to learn how to work within a team structure is an effective idea for the character adjusting to the new environment. His hangouts with Judith and RJ are downright adorable, especially the two of them examining themselves in the mirror, imagining the possibilities of who and what they could be in a place that’s a little more calm.

Hell, I even like his interactions with Sebastian, the definition of a guy born on third base who thinks he hits a triple. The guy is insufferable, and watching him use our heroes trademark weapons at all, let alone how badly he does with them, makes your blood boil. But Daryl rising from the guy’s shit list for killing a walker Sebastian thought he had under control, only to get back on the guy’s good side by giving Sebastian the collar of a would-be fugitive is some successful interpersonal storytelling.

That fugitive is an interesting figure as well. He provides the appropriate hints that there’s some sort of underground movement working against the “Know your place” class divide of The Commonwealth. He’s the canary in the coal mine, someone who seemingly lost everything because of one mistake, showing how tenuous all this peace and security is for those on the bottom rung. Governor Milton talking him down from a public hostage situation shows her skills as an operator; Daryl talking him down from suicide shows his ability to connect with people and appreciate the notion of family, and Rosita finding his hidey hole, a veritable shine to anti-upper crust sentiment, while “Eat the Rich” from Motorhead plays makes quite an impression,

Along the way, we get interesting little tidbits from everyone else. I like that Connie is a reporter, someone well-positioned to bring some of this crashing down. We don’t get to see much of Governor Milton, but the hints of how she’s a consummate politician, one whose father was one too before the fall, makes her an intriguing figure. Gabriel is doing bible study. Yumiko is well ensconced in the upper class, and has dragged her boring brother there against his will. THere’s new starts for everyone, both in-universe and for the storylines at play.

Again, who knows where TWD will take all this, but there’s more here to work with than I might have expected, and I’m interested to see where it all goes.