WARNING: The following container spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2, “Acheron: Part 2,” which aired Sunday on AMC.
The Walking Dead‘s highly anticipated Season 11 premiere left the protagonists in dire straits. After setting out in search of much-needed supplies, Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) group, which included series’ staples Daryl (Norman Reedus), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Alden (Callan McAuliffe), found themselves trapped between a subway car and a herd of mean-looking walkers. While Daryl ran off after Dog, the others climbed on top of the car. However, Negan left Maggie to fall into the zombie swarm, leaving fans with a cliffhanger ending.
“Acheron: Part 2” picks up where the premiere left off, spotlighting a left-behind Maggie fighting off the encroaching walkers. Meanwhile, Alden, Negan and the group descend into a train car. After discovering their way out — the train car door — is rusted shut, they also realize Maggie is not with them. “She was right behind me,” Negan responds, throwing a casual “I’m totally innocent” look over his shoulder. While Alden wants to go out and look for her, the rest maintains that Maggie would want them to keep going.
The scene transitions to Daryl reuniting with Dog. He enters a tunnel that appears to be a former community for the homeless. It also seems that some shady stuff occurred there. Along with graffiti reading: “It comes for us all,” Daryl also spots a now-deceased man handcuffed to a briefcase filled with money. After, he shines his flashlight on a mural depicting people sporting crowns fighting those without as what look like shadowy walkers approach in the background.
Back at the Commonwealth, Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) and Princess (Paola Lázaro) discuss her brother and how to get through to the person in charge. Eugene (Josh McDermitt) approaches in a state of distress, worried about where Ezekiel (Khary Payton) is. Yumiko decides enough is enough and demands to speak to the “manager” in a truly Karen-inspired moment. Ultimately, she gets her wish. They bring her back into the questioning room, where Yumiko’s past as a lawyer shines. She calls out the two interviewers’ tactics from the details she’s observed. For example, she believes that they use money as their currency because they “raked one of [her] people over the coals for a two-dollar bill.”
In the subway, the group struggles to get the rusted door open but is interrupted by banging. Come to find out, Maggie slunk away from the walkers and found a trap door beneath the car. The group pulls her up, and Maggie immediately clocks Negan across the face, revealing that he left her to die. When the group accuses Negan of trying to kill her, he responds that there is a big difference between trying to kill someone and just not helping them. Nonetheless, the group erupts into an argument.
However, they are interrupted by banging once again. This time Gage (Jackson Pace) — who ran off in the last episode — is on the other side of the train door, pleading to be let in. Walkers funnel in behind him, but Maggie makes the executive call to leave him, deciding saving one life is not worth endangering the rest of the group. Despite this, Alden and Negan try to save the teenager. Gage — now seeing Maggie as a traitor — proceeds to commit suicide and transform into a walker, hoping to get revenge in death — and he partially does.
Maggie’s group decides they have to break down the door. Doing so unleashes the walker swarm, led by Gage, to infiltrate the car. Maggie momentarily sets aside her differences with Negan and hands him a gun to help. Burning through ammo and utilizing melee weapons, the group takes down as many of the undead as they can. However, it’s not long before they are overwhelmed. Luckily, Daryl shows up just in the nick of time, epically making his way through another walker-infested train car. After, he removes the chair locking his friends inside and ushers them into safety. Once they are clear, he tosses a grenade into the car, killing the walkers in a gore-filled explosion.
The episode transition back to The Commonwealth, where Eugen is carving a weapon in his cell, anxious and terrified after being separated from Yumiko and Princess, who went to use the bathroom and never returned. The guards apprehend him and bring him to the interview room where Mercer (Michael James Shaw) has a one-on-one with him. Mercer encourages him to tell him the truth about his community. Despite Mercer’s intimidating presence and Eugene’s severe anxiety, he lies to not give away Alexandria’s location. After the emotional interaction, the guards transport Eugene with a bag over his head to a cell containing Yumiko, Princess and Ezekiel. Mercer joins them later, where he announces they’ve been admitted to the Commonwealth. He then knocks on the door, and a woman enters, introducing herself as Stephanie, the mysterious voice Eugene met over the radio.
After the drama in the tunnels, Maggie and the group finally make it topside. However, the sight they encounter is far from comforting. Bodies are strung upside down in trees, lining the road on either side. Just as Negan comments that the place has “gone to shit,” the group faces an onslaught of projectiles, and one catches Cole (Sebastian Sozzi) in the leg. As the group ducks behind cover, Daryl pokes his head out only to see a menacing-looking group of masked individuals coming right at them. And from what information Maggie has shared, this hostile group must be the fearsome Reapers.
Season 11 of The Walking Dead drops new episodes each Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/CT. However, AMC+ subscribers can catch the episodes several days early.
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