11x11 Rogue Element

[7.6/10] There’s a common theme in this episode -- our heroes digging deep into some unpleasant areas and trying to uncover uncomfortable truths. It’s what unites Eugene’s, Connie’s, and Carol’s stories here, and gives the three disparate plots some shared DNA.

Eugene’s is my favorite, even if it’s the most over-the-top and bonkers. The opening five minutes this one isn’t quite up to Up levels of quick-fire heartbreak, but it’s still riddled with pathos. Watching Eugene seem truly happy and accepted for once, opening up his life to someone, saying “I love you,” only to watch that person disappear right when it seemed like things were going well, is heartbreaking.

Of course Eugene does up his own Crazy Carrie Board after that. Eugene turning his analytical mind to the mystery of what happened to the girlfriend who disappeared into thin air is a natural place for his thoughts to go. He’d invested so fully in this that the mental energy has to go somewhere, and now it’s poking his nose in places where it doesn’t belong or, at least, that are liable to get him in trouble.

The smartest narrative choice on that front is to involve Princess. You can buy Eugene just completely self-immolating over this, taking chances he ought not to, but not caring because he has nothing to lose. But wrapping Princess in his wild schemes means he’s putting someone else at risk and willing to make compromises to protect her, which adds to the ethical and emotional complexity of his stalking and surveillance routines.

I’ll admit, the one part of this I didn’t like is the attempt at a fakeout. Of course Eugene stumbled onto something. There’s a faint plausibility to Lance’s explanation that the bald-headed brute Eugene encountered was legitimately just a plumber with a go-bag. But this is television, and The Walking Dead at that, so the most dark and dramatic answer is probably the correct one. To pretend otherwise is to insult the audience's intelligence.

And yet, I appreciate the twist here. I assumed the answer here was that Stephanie had done something wrong and vamoosed before the Commonwealth secret police could “disappear” her, with an ensuing cover-up to mask any type of dissent or badthink in the town. The reveal that Stephanie was, in fact, part of a honeypot scheme to placate Eugene and force him to give up info about Alexandria is much more diabolical and destabilizing.

It makes Lance more complex and interesting as a villain, because he thinks the ends justify the means and that he’s undermined Eugene enough to where it doesn’t matter if he knows the truth. There’s something extra sinister in that, along with the belief that his deceptions are okay because his motives are good and because it ultimately worked out for everyone. It suggests there’s no limits to how far he might go and that he long had something mercenary in mind when it comes to our heroes.

It’s also a hell of an episode for Josh McDermitt. He goes a little over-the-top in his closing recriminations against Lance, but on the whole, he does tremendous work conveying a man who is, in succession: blissfully happy, crestfallen yet determined, and angry and beaten. He’s convincing at each turn and really sells Eugene’s emotional journey.

The symbolism of him burning the sci-fi novel he was working on, one founded on encouragement from someone who didn’t truly love him, only to find out that Stephanie was a stalking horse for the real woman on the other side of the CV radio is an intriguing coda to the whole thing. And we’re also left to wonder what exactly Lance’s game is with his secret society, what their mission and ambit is, and who else in the Commonwealth knows about them.

To the same end, I continue to be intrigued by Carol’s alliance of convenience with Lance. She too is someone perceptive enough to recognize what’s really going on. In this case, it’s that the head of an opium farm that’s secretly supplying the Commonwealth is beating his workers and pocketing their wages, while blaming price increases on a strike. There’s some not so subtle commentary there, and Carol’s ability to suss it out while the good old boys go fishing is telling.

You can see why she would be useful in a place like this, able to see through bullshit and get the real story. And you can see more of Lance’s character, someone who apparently worked his way up from lower on the totem pole, but who isn’t afraid to work outside the rules of the system to grease the wheels and keep things humming either. He’s the most interesting villain (though he’d object to that term) TWD has put forward in a while.

That just leaves Connie’s story, which is another winner. There’s a strong tension here, between Connie digging back into her muckraker roots and wanting to get to the bottom of what really happened with the guard who snapped in the prior episode on the one hand, and Kelly reminding her that this Commonwealth setup is only temporary, and so maybe it’s worth it not to cause trouble for the short time they’re here, despite Connie’s journalistic integrity.

You can see both sides of it: Connie not wanting to be a stooge for Milton’s propaganda machine like her editor is, and Kelly thinking they’ve got a good thing going here, to where it’s just not worth it. Kelly’s “not everything has to be a fight” speech hits hard.

At the same time, Mercer’s steadily climbing the list of my favorite characters on the show. I like the image we’ve seen of him over the last few episodes -- someone who’s decent and reasonable, who knows that not everything’s above board in this system, but who thinks there’s nothing that can be done to change it. He doesn’t necessarily disagree with Connie’s allegations or insinuations, but doesn’t see the point of entertaining them or pushing back on Sebastian’s “military training” because he believes it’ll come to nothing. The implication that he’s the one slipping Connie the names of potential agitators after witnessing the propaganda machine/secret police in action yet again made me raise an eyebrow, and I’m interested to see where he and Connie’s stories go from here.

All-in-all, a strong episode with three stories built around the same theme that go in markedly different, but still compelling directions.