The Walking Dead season 11, episode 20 review: "A step backward"

Following last week's game-changer, The Walking Dead makes us wait for more 'smart' zombie action, taking us back to the Commonwealth – where a vengeful Pamela Milton is hellbent on restoring order within the community. And in doing so, unintentionally highlights one of the season's biggest flaws, too: how disjointed everything's become. 

It's been ages since we've seen Maggie and Negan, and we're still waiting to find out what Lance Hornsby did to those rounded-up Oceansiders, but the biggest downside is how much flitting between subplots kills momentum. It was so exciting to see Aaron, Jerry, and co. stumble across a new variant of walker and realizing the savvy survivors are on the backfoot for the first time in a long time – so it's jarring to immediately follow that with 'What's Been Lost', which doesn't address the discovery at all. It's difficult to emotionally invest in certain characters, too, given that you might not see them from one week to the next. Not exactly ideal when you're gearing up to say farewell to most of them for good.

That's not to say there aren't interesting things going on at the Commonwealth. Desperate to see Eugene (Josh McDermitt) punished for "killing" her son Sebastian, Pamela (Laila Robins) bullies Yumiko into prosecuting him in court. Turns out, she's had her cronies round up all of Yumiko's friends and the only way the lawyer will get to see them again is if she cooperates. Knowing how righteous and loyal Yumiko is, Pamela adds that if she doesn't obey her orders bad things will happen to her brother Tomi as well. But condemning her pal to death just isn't something Yumiko can stomach. 

After years of watching our heroes navigate a lawless new world, the Commonwealth's menace lies in how similarly it operates to the old one, how easily its more privileged players manipulate those "beneath" them. One early moment sees Pamela assure a bunch of fancy-looking types that their "contributions to the Commonwealth's future have not been in vain", and that everything's under control. Even now, over a decade into an apocalypse, the wealthy find a way to assert their authority. The writers subtly propose that the rigged community is the source of real horror and its most powerful are as sinister as the walkers beyond its walls – only they're more difficult to spot and even harder to stop. 

To see people like Daryl, Magna or Rosita push back against such a system is satisfying but unsurprising; it never served them before, why would it now? Yumiko's situation was different in the before times, so her wrestling with her morals makes for a more thought-provoking watch.

That said, intelligent and stoic, Yumiko was always one of the better additions brought in when Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes skedaddled, but Matsuura – melodramatic at times here – doesn't sell her so well when she's spiralling. Fortunately, she makes up for it later when Yumiko tells the Governor she intends to defend Eugene ("We must always seek justice, if we are to preserve who we are as a people"). Likewise in a lovely scene with Lauren Ridloff, when their characters share a moving goodbye in American Sign Language, she's great. (The Walking Dead continues to lead by example when it comes to refreshing representation). We buy their exchange because the show has previously invested the time to develop their friendship and make their bond clear, but when Yumiko visits Eugene's cell for a teary heart to heart, the same can't be said. Have we ever seen the twosome share the screen before? Another negative side effect of having an unmanageably large ensemble.

Speaking of pairings, Carol and Daryl come together to break Hornsby out of his confinement, hoping that he’ll lead them to their kidnapped allies – and their narrative is arguably this episode's best. Having previously worked on both Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, director Aisha Tyler proves she sure knows how to craft an action sequence as Carol and Daryl storm the Commonwealth prison, put down the reanimated Sebastian, and pluck a delirious Hornsby from his blood-and-guts covered cell. 

At first, Daryl stays behind to keep the troopers off their trail, which gives Lance the opportunity to voice his assumptions about Carol's relationship with Daryl – are they hinting at potential romantic feelings here? – and probe her on "what comes after" they burn the Commonwealth to the ground (a line that nods to Rick's final episode). She can't answer, so he puts forward the idea of rebuilding a fairer society. I wonder where we've heard that before?

When Daryl eventually reunites with them, Lance tells them there's a working train that will not only take them to the hostages but to other communities and the sea – it's clear already that the locomotive will play into The Walking Dead's final four episodes. When Daryl and Carol hint he won't be hopping aboard with them, Lance insists that he "won't make it out here" – and when they refuse to back down, he grabs a gun. Before he can do anything with it, though, Carol shoots an arrow right into his neck and he bleeds out.

Josh Hamilton is so magnetic as Hornsby that it's a shame to see him go. He imbued the gabby character with an odd sense of slippery charm, and an unpredictability that no other The Walking Dead baddie has really possessed. Were Daryl and Carol right not to trust him or did he mean what he said about the Commonwealth 2.0? We'll never know now. While it's good to see Daryl and Carol finally on the same page again – bonding over murder is a bit messed up, mind – their lack of willingness to trust Hornsby doesn't really ring true when you consider their treatment of Negan. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan has done way worse things than Hornsby ever did, but they let him live? They've even made him one of their own. The lack of consistency is frustrating, but it does make for juicy TV.

'What's Been Lost' ends with a blindfolded Ezekiel (and presumably the others) being drugged aboard a bus heading to god-knows-where. With Carol and Daryl already on their trail, it's safe to assume the next installment, titled 'Outpost 22', will see most of our heroes congregate in one place, as separate storylines finally converge – and the horror drama's conclusion approaches. Here's hoping, anyway.

Make sure you never miss an episode with our The Walking Dead season 11 release schedule, and check out our how to watch The Walking Dead guide if you're wanting to watch/rewatch the main series and its spin-offs.