Review: The Walking Dead Episode 1017, “Home Sweet Home”

“Home Sweet Home,” the first of these six mysterious extra Walking Dead episodes, throws Maggie (Lauren Cohan) right back into the action.

When AMC announced that The Walking Dead season 10 would return for six additional episodes this year, fans were confused. What would these episodes be about? Now, the first of these six mysterious episodes is out, and things are becoming clearer.

There are SPOILERS for the latest episode of The Walking Dead below. Consider yourself warned.

“Home Sweet Home,” is very much a Maggie-centric episode. Taking place shortly after her triumphant return to the franchise in the season 10 “finale,” she learns more about what has been going on in the time she’s been gone. Viewers have been wondering for months what her reaction will be on seeing Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) out of prison, alive and well. But if you’re expecting anything more than tense glances, you’ll be left disappointed.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this episode was how it managed to tell Maggie’s backstory without the need for flashbacks. There’s not a single flashback in the entire episode. I think the vast majority of viewers expected the show to take us back in time to explain what went down during her time away, ever since the season 9 episode “What Comes After” (which also happens to be Rick’s final episode, incidentally). Instead, most of her story is told through conversations with Daryl (Norman Reedus).

But this is much more than a backstory episode. When a member from an enigmatic group known as the Reapers causes a stir, Maggie, Daryl and Kelly (Angel Theory) must mount a rescue mission.

Leaving and returning Home

Maggie spends the opening minutes of the episode looking like she’s seen a ghost. Really, she’s just seen Negan, and the tension is palpable.

This is a moment fans have been anticipating for a long time. There’s a whole lot of backstory between Maggie and Negan. She has yet to get her revenge after he killed Glenn all those seasons ago. When she left the show, Negan was still in prison. Now, he appears to be a respectable member of the community. Upon their first seeing him like this, she chooses to ignore him, and Negan is happy to let her.

This might seem disappointing after such a long wait. It’s clear that their relationship is going to be a huge plot point going forward. We’re just going to have to play the waiting game.

The aftermath of the Whisperer War has changed the landscape. As viewers, we get a fresh look through Maggie’s eyes. It’s completely different compared to how it was when she left. She is joined by two newcomers to the series: Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) and Cole (James Devoti). Elijah is the mysterious guy in the mask introduced in the season 10 finale. We know that Maggie returned with him at the eleventh hour to help everyone defeat the Whisperers, but we didn’t know why she returned. What’s in it for her?

We still don’t know the big picture, but we get the gist of what went down. Firstly, Maggie says she took her son Hershel to a seaside home where she taught him everything about the past. Even about his father, Glenn, and what happened to him. “I left home because I couldn’t have Negan taking up any more space in my head,” she says.

She also spent some time working with Georgie to help other communities. After that, she lived in a village with a bunch of other survivors, but it was lost in an attack. Her people are now camped and she is seeking refuge, which is how she got the idea to return to a place she knows well: the Hilltop.

What she doesn’t know is that the Hilltop was burned to ashes during the Whisperer War. Carol is left to explain everything to her.  Disappointed, her gaze wanders to Alexandria as the next best thing. And so — joined by Daryl and Kelly — she heads off to her camp to escort everyone to Alexandria.

The Reapers

Once the group arrives at the camp, they find it completely burned down. Hershel has disappeared and Maggie begins to panic. It’s assumed that a member of a new group of villains called the Reapers managed to break into the camp and kill several members, burning down the place in the process.

While they assess the damage, our group is ambushed by (presumably) the same unnamed Reaper, who wears a ghillie suit and snipes at them from the trees. He’s a pretty tough warrior. Not only did he decimate an entire camp by himself, but he’s skilled at laying out traps. If all the Reapers are like this, there’s a tough road ahead.

There’s a cool battle. It’s fun to see Maggie and Daryl fight side-by-side again. A few stray survivors from Maggie’s camp show up, and a couple of them are killed. By the end, the mysterious Reaper is surrounded, and although Maggie is keen to question him, he remains silent. He says just three words before he ultimately pulls out a grenade and blows himself up: “Pope marked you.”

Who is Pope? We have absolutely no idea.

The Walking Dead has had its fair share of villains over the years. Some make themselves conspicuous, others stick to the shadows. I don’t recall any being as enigmatic and short-lived as the Reapers. It really feels like we’re seeing Maggie at the very end of her storyline with them. The lack of flashbacks doesn’t help. They could have been much more interesting with some sort of build-up.

Whoever they are, the Reapers are original to the TV universe. They never show up in the comics, which means AMC can do whatever it wants with them. It remains to be seen whether we’ll see more of them in upcoming episodes, or whether they’re just part of this short story arc. Given how ominous “Pope marked you,” sounds, I suspect this won’t the final time we hear from them.

Reuniting with Hershel

It’s strange that Hershel doesn’t show up until the final moments of the episode considering how often he’s mentioned. By the time we finally meet him, hiding in a tree, it’s like we know everything there is to know about him. He’s really grown up!

Now that the group is heading to Alexandria for refuge, I hope they can work Hershel into the story more often. While he’s relatively new to the series, he’s got built-in interest thanks to Maggie and Glenn. I love Negan’s little glance at him; it sets up some potentially very interesting interactions going forward.

Maggie still seems unsure about entering Alexandria, although you get the idea that she can handle herself, whatever happens. “I’ll deal with Negan if I have to,” she says. “Right now the only thing that matters is Alexandria.”

I wouldn’t call it a happy ending because we’re still mourning the losses to Maggie’s camp, even if the characters introduced were only present for a couple of minutes. It’s somewhat bittersweet. Maggie finds Hershel and safely takes him to Alexandria. She’s back.

Verdict

For the last couple of seasons, new episodes of The Walking Dead have balanced multiple storylines from different communities. But “Home Sweet Home” is focused entirely on Maggie, making for a welcome change of pace. It’s feels similar to the anthology style of Fear The Walking Dead season 6, and I suspect the five remaining extra episodes will continue in this mode.

The whole episode seemed determined not to use flashbacks, but I think it would have benefited from a couple.

Overall, I thought it was enjoyable. A new generation of survivors is coming thanks to characters like Judith and Hershel. They haven’t just brought Maggie back for the sake of it. She’s got an interesting story to tell. There’s definitely a big payoff coming between her and Negan, and I can’t wait for it.

And obviously, kudos to the cast and crew for filming additional episodes in the midst of a global pandemic. That can’t have been easy.

Grade: C+

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