11x17 Lockdown

[6.5/10] Here we are, I guess. “Lockdown” is a competent enough hour of television, one which picks up on enough developments from the last batch of episodes to qualify as meeting the usual standards. Still, I started this one a little unsure as to what the stakes were and why I should care about what’s happening in a given corner of the world.

The Walking Dead grew more and more diffuse over time, but typically, that meant that different people were off on different storylines that could be picked up or set down. Different story threads would still intersect, especially in the climaxes of stories, but they were at least comprehensible.

Here, with everything orbiting around the Commonwealth, it becomes unclear who’s doing what and why and how everything connects, especially with a six month gap between episodes, and the “Previously On” being more of a “Hey, remember all the characters we’ve had over the course of the show?” deal rather than something actually helpful in terms of getting the audience back up to speed.

But the basics are clear enough. Daryl and Maggie and their crew have to escape Lance and his crew. Negan needs to get into the Commonwealth to protect their families from being used as pawns by Lance. Carol needs to protect the kids from Lance’s Gestapo agents. Connie and her contingent are stoking the demand for change that came from their expose. And Governor Milton is working with her operatives to settle the citizens down, with Rosita and Yumiko feeling conflicted about how to walk the line between their responsibilities to the government and to the people.

That’s plenty for forty-five minutes of television to cover. Much of it turns into generic action material that has little hold over me after eleven seasons. Daryl and Negan orchestrate a shootout/car chase. Carol and Jerry sneak the kids away from those who mean them harm. Daryl and Maggie spring a zombified trap on Lance. A redshirt (white clamshell?) gets eaten in half by zombies with Mercer holding the other end. Yawn. None of it’s bad, but it’s all pretty rote at this stage.

The same goes for the character developments. I’m glad the show takes time to address that Daryl killed someone he loved to save Maggie, even if it’s glancing. Negan interacting with Mercer is a bit interesting, even if it seems like a cheap ploy on the part of the show to just deposit him in the Commonwealth despite the hoops others have had to jump through, despite the fig leaf they put on it. Rosita being conflicted about whether to participate in crowd-suppression versus zombie neutralization has some legs. And the general need to protect their friends inside and outside of the Commonwealth from Lance’s machinations does add some urgency, even if plot armor and timing suggests real danger is unlikely to arrive at this point.

The only part of this that really made me sit up and take notice is Carol’s plan. Her efforts to hunt down Sebastian as a bargaining chip is sharp, even if, again, Negan’s involvement seems fairly convenient. More than that, Carol’s implication to Governor Milton that she’s willing to pin the blame and drop the hammer on Lance to save Sebastian’s skin while eliminating a threat to the Alexandria/Hilltop survivors is savvy and mercenary as always from her.

Otherwise, this is the standard block and tackle from The Walking Dead at this stage in its run. The show seems to be making some muddled parallels to racial justice protests that occurred during the pandemic, but beyond borrowing some imagery and emotion from them, it’s not entirely clear what the show means to say. There’s some plotty scheming going on, with little in the way of character beats, which is never my favorite mode for the show.

All-in-all, this is a pretty typical leap back into the proceedings, which, I’m sad to say, makes me glad we’re embarking on the final batch of episodes for the series. I gotta admit, much of this felt tedious despite the theoretically monumental stakes and clever ploys from our heroes. The show’s outlived its usefulness, to where what thrills and novelty once persisted have fallen into the doldrums of standard patterns despite changing settings. I’m still invested in some of the familiar characters and intriguing newcomers (Mercer chief among them), but at this stage, TWD needs something big to make the final jaunt to the end worth it.