WARNING: The following container spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 3, “Hunted,” which aired Sunday on AMC.
The Walking Dead‘s two-part premiere ended on quite the cliffhanger. With Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Co. finally out of the subway tunnels, the group came face to face with the nefarious Reapers, who didn’t hesitate to fire projectiles at the group. “Hunted” drops audiences right back into the attack, with the sequence playing out like a slasher movie as the survivors are picked off one by one. Amidst the action, Daryl (Norman Reedus) runs off with Dog, leaving Maggie to square off against a Reaper wearing a terrifying skull mask.
While she makes it out of the woods, her attacker pursues her, following her into a nearby building. After a close-call in the stairwell, Maggie makes it to the building’s top floor, where she crosses paths with Alden (Callan McAuliffe). However, Alden and Maggie are attacked once again by the relentless Reapers. As Maggie struggles to fight off her attacker, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) saves her, allowing Maggie to save Alden from his respective bad guy encounter. Unfortunately for Alden, he sustained a nasty gut wound during the struggle.
As Negan and Maggie support a wounded Alden, they find Agatha (Laurie Fortier), one of Maggie’s people, fighting off a group of walkers. She is protecting a dying Duncan (Marcus Lewis). After Maggie shares a final emotional moment with Duncan, she puts a knife throw his head, preventing him from returning as a walker. Agatha joins the trio, but Negan and Maggie continue to butt heads. While Negan offers Maggie a few suggestions for best getting out of their predicament alive, she is quick to shut him down, believing that Negan hasn’t actually changed, he just as everyone fooled — including himself.
As they make their trek through the woods, they come up against more walkers. While fighting them off, Agatha is bit, and the ravenous undead quickly descends on her. Although Maggie tries to help her, Negan pulls Maggie away, and together they make their escape with Alden. The trio stops to rest at a church. There, Negan implies that Alden is slowing them down, and Alden agrees. Alden tells Maggie to leave him behind, but she protests. However, Negan encourages Maggie to make that hard decision. She snaps back at him, insisting they wouldn’t be in this position in the first place if it weren’t for him. Her statement stems way back to Negan’s Season 6 debut when he was “reckless” with people’s life. While her comment seems to affect Negan, he still reminds her that it doesn’t change anything: she still has to choose.
After some internal debate, Maggie decides to leave Alden with a weapon and some food., promising him that they’ll come back for him. Alden assures her it’s the right thing to do because getting the supplies is the most important thing now. He barricades himself in the church, and Maggie and Negan — The Walking Dead‘s unlikeliest duo — set off to hopefully finish the mission they started.
Back at Alexandria, Carol (Melissa McBride) is determined to find the horses that ran off during the Whisperers War, knowing they won’t be able to move supplies or expand their hunting territory without them. She ropes Rosita (Christian Serratos), Kelly (Angel Theory) and Magna (Nadia Hilker) into her plan. While they come close to lassoing a horse, they fail, sending them back on the hunt. Their search sends them deeper into the woods, where they discover some of the horses ripped to shreds by walkers along the river’s edge.
The scene discourages the group, particularly Kelly, who knows Alexandria’s fate rests on finding the horses. Despite Rosita suggesting they head back, Carol demands to push onward. Along with feeling the pressure to save Alexandria, Carol clearly holds extra guilt. Given Carol’s reckless pursuit of Alpha caused a seemingly deadly cave-in and more retaliation, she feels responsible. Magna seems to understand Carol’s internal struggle and hugs her, signifying she forgives Carol for the cave-in, one of Carol’s biggest regrets. Luckily, the group’s efforts are not in vain. They soon discover a quartet of horses, which they corral into a nearby dairy farm.
The sight of the horses delights the people of Alexandria, providing an inkling of hope for the destroyed settlement. However, Carol’s happiness is short-lived. Magna confronts her about giving Kelly false hope of Connie’s (Lauren Ridloff) safe return by accompanying her on searches. After, Carol also must kill one of the horses to feed the community. Later, Carol sets off on another search with Kelly, despite her conversation with Magna earlier, proving Carol’s stubbornness is hard to combat.
“Hunted” opened with a hectic slaughter, depicting many of Maggie’s people getting killed. Unfortunately, those who survived the encounter, like Agatha and Duncan, didn’t see the episode’s end. While it marks yet another devastating blow to Alexandria, there’s still hope. Deran presumably made it out safely with Dog, and interspersed scenes of Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) confirm the priest is still alive, although perhaps struggling more than ever with his waning faith. Now, The Walking Dead fans can only hope that Maggie and Negan can put aside their differences to get the desperately needed supplies for Alexandira without coming across any more Reapers.
The Walking Dead proves the Reapers aren’t a group to mess with in Season 11 of The Walking Dead. The series airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and is available to stream early on AMC+.
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