WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 6, “On the Inside,” which aired Sunday on AMC.
The Walking Dead‘s “On the Inside” sees the protagonists tackling vital information they learned from a Whisperer in last week’s episode, “Out of the Ashes,” — Connie (Lauren Ridloff) is still alive. While the audience has known this since Season 10, the group assumed she died in the cave-in after Carol (Melissa McBride) recklessly chased Alpha (Samantha Morton) down. Back in Alexandria, Carol, Rosita(Christian Serratos) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) discuss the best way of finding their long-lost friend. However, Magna (Nadia Hilker) approaches looking for Kelly (Angel Theory), who has already taken off on her own in search of her sister.
Virgil (Kevin Carroll) and Connie kick off the episode frantically running from a walker horde and navigating a language barrier, as Connie primarily communicates with American Sign Language. They take refuge in a house. After securing the perimeter, Virgil encourages Connie to rest, but she’s adamant they are unsafe. Aside from displaying signs of PTSD from the cave-in, Connie has been away from Alexandria for a long time. As such, she never saw Alpha’s defeat or the end of the Whisperer War and likely fears the hostile group is still a threat. There’s also the fact the Virgil is suspect. After watching him lock Michonne (Danai Gurira) in a cage next to his imprisoned colleagues, most probably wouldn’t be too keen on closing their eyes around him — although Connie likely doesn’t know any of that backstory either.
Connie notices all the old portraits lining the hallways have their eyes scratched out upon searching the house. Then, she spots a pair of yellowish-looking eyes on the other side of the medicine chest behind the wall. From there, The Walking Dead transcends into full-blown horror movie tropes as Virgil and Connie deal with a seemingly feral man — complete with loincloth — living in the house’s walls. Of course, while running from the man, Connie ends up barricaded in the even creepier basement, where she uncovers the not-so-comforting scene of scattered human bones, pointing to cannibalism.
Meanwhile, Virgil also encounters a feral person, suggesting that there is more than one roaming around the old house. They engage in a struggle as Connie looks on helplessly from the other side of the wall. Just when things aren’t looking good for Virgil, Connie pounds on the wall, distracting the feral man. Virgil seizes the opportunity to stab him, and the wounded man drags himself back into the walls.
After, Virgil and Connie have a heart-to-heart. He tries giving Connie his knife and tells her that he wants her to keep going if anything happens to him. For those that smell things going downhill for Virgil — you’re not entirely wrong. As Connie and Virgil attempt to leave the house of horrors, they encounter a whole group of these terrifying cannibals. A woman jumps Virgil and viciously stabs him in the back. However, Connie refuses to leave him behind and drags him downstairs despite his protests. As the cannibals close in around her, she smears herself with zombie guts and opens the front door, allowing the walkers to fill the house.
With the cannibals primitively fighting off walkers, Connie gets Virgil into the front yard, where he collapses. However, just as the remaining cannibals plan to attack, Kelly appears — followed by Carol, Magna and Rosita — and shoots them with her slingshot as the others kill the remaining walkers.
Although The Walking Dead fans get an emotional Connie/Kelly reunion, this isn’t just a Connie episode. Daryl (Norman Reedus) — now accepted by the Reapers — must interrogate one of Maggie’s people to extract information regarding her location as Pope (Ritchie Coster) watches. The scene is pretty brutal, with Daryl chopping off one of the man’s fingers. After, he reveals the address where Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Co. are hiding out in a yellow house.
Pope tells the group to take Daryl and investigate the location. As the team pushes ahead, Daryl lags behind, taking the opportunity to try alerting Maggie subtly. After clearing the named yellow house, the team continues searching the neighborhood with military efficiency. Luckily, Maggie noticed Daryl’s warning. She and the others are hiding in a trap door, which Daryl spots and works to conceal from the others. Of course, Carver (Alex Meraz) continues to be Daryl’s biggest criticizer. He insists that Daryl can’t be trusted. Although Leah (Lynn Collins) tries to keep the peace, it culminates in an argument, which is interrupted when Carver notices the trap door. Luckily, he finds it empty upon opening it, as Maggie and Co. already escaped out the back.
Although Daryl tried playing Reaper, his effort may be in vain. After returning to the Reaper’s headquarters, Pope informs Daryl and the group that he got everything he needed from the man that Daryl had interrogated. Seeing as the man is now tied to a tree as a walker, the statement understandably terrifies Daryl, who now must deal with the consequences if the man outed Daryl as one of Maggie’s friends.
To see Connie and Virgil’s encounter with the terrifying cannibals, check out 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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