The Walking Dead review, Episode 1108: “For Blood”

“For Blood” is the final episode before The Walking Dead goes on a temporary hiatus until early 2022, and it definitely gives off midseason finale vibes. While the Commonwealth story is completely absent, this episode benefits from focusing specifically on what’s going on in Alexandria, as well as a fantastic, bloody battle against the Reapers.

So what is “For Blood” about? In this episode, there’s a storm in Alexandria that traps our survivors inside a house as zombies relentlessly try to break their way in. And over in Meridian, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and her small group, clad in zombie masks, launch an attack on the Reapers, and Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) true loyalties are revealed.

Before you read further, here’s your SPOILER warning!

There’s a storm in Alexandria

In Alexandria, our survivors find themselves trapped inside a house as a storm hits. Despite their efforts throughout the season to strengthen their defenses, the storm has demolished the walls and allowed walkers to make their way inside the community. With everyone trapped inside one house with no food and few weapons, how will they survive? The short answer: It’s a massive struggle.

Pretty much everyone in Alexandria is hauled up inside this house and there’s a looming sense of claustrophobia. The tension is palpable. Mainly it’s Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Lydia (Cassady McClincy) who risk their lives to venture outside and kill walkers who are close to breaking their way in. I felt like this entire plot channeled classic zombie tropes from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead: they’re boarding up windows, cramped together, etc. It’s executed perfectly.

It was nice to see Virgil (Kevin Carroll) there as well, now a member of Alexandria after surviving “On the Inside” alive, although badly injured. I liked how Virgil talks to Judith about Michonne; we needed a character moment like that in this action-packed episode. As the last person to see Michonne, he tells Judith that he doesn’t know where she’s gone or when she’ll return. However, he says he can see Michonne in Judith; she is fearless and strong.

Other than everyone working hard to clear out walkers, not much else happens in this subplot, besides the cliffhanger. Gracie drags Judith into the basement where they both get trapped by walkers. Meanwhile, everyone else has made their way upstairs. I can’t imagine they’ll kill off Judith or Gracie — unless they want maximum outrage within the fandom — so the cliffhanger doesn’t really hold much weight. But the cliffhanger in the other subplot; that should spur discussion.

The attack on the Reapers

During the previous episode, “Promises Broken,” Negan taught Maggie and Elijah how to don Whisperer masks. This way they can blend in and control walker hordes, allowing them to slip into the Reaper base, Meridian, unnoticed.

As we begin, our “Whisperer” horde marches towards Meridian as Pope (Ritchie Coster) watches on, confused. What I liked the most about this plot was how Daryl was doing damage from the inside. Whatever Pope thinks is the best way to eradicate the threat, Daryl sneakily slips in his own tactics that he thinks will help Maggie and her group.

Pope’s first idea is to send Wells (Robert Hayes) out to divert the walkers away from Meridian. However, Wells quickly meets his end when Negan comes out of nowhere as a Whisperer and kills him. It’s similar to the death of Jesus (Tom Payne) in season 8, except this time the tactic worked for our group rather than against them.

But as a former military tactician, Pope is far from beaten. It turns out that he’s planted landmines all around the base, so whatever walkers advance are blown up. As Maggie, Negan, Gabriel and Elijah are among the walkers, they’re all in danger of being blown up, so they veer to the sides.

When Daryl realizes he has no other option but to improvise to save our group, he goes full-on battle mode and sneakily kills a Reaper to allow Maggie and Gabriel to infiltrate Meridian. Once he gets hold of his signature crossbow, we pretty much know there’s no turning back: Pope will find out Daryl is betraying him.

Daryl continues to help out Maggie and the others until it much becomes obvious what he’s doing. It even feels like Pope knows what Daryl is up to. And when Pope finally decides to use a huge weapon filled with explosive arrows to take care of things once and for all, Daryl decides to let remove his mask. He tells Leah that he’s working to save his friends, and seeks her help. And her help isn’t guaranteed given that he’s been lying to her this whole time.

But she does act when Pope decides to launch his explosive weapon, which he knows will kill some of his own people. Leah kills Pope to prevent him from going through with it, which was totally unexpected. Pope seemed formidable, and he’s only been in the show for a few episodes. I would’ve liked to see more of him. But he’s definitely dead — there’s no way he’s coming back!

The bigger twist is that Leah tells the other Reapers that it was actually Daryl who murdered Pope. It turns out the only reason she killed him was because he was willing to murder his own people, her family; it wasn’t to do Daryl a favor. However, she could’ve killed Daryl, but instead allows him to make an escape. Why? Does she still care for him?

Anyway, it looks like Leah will now become the new leader of the Reapers. Almost instantly after Pope is killed, she begins calling the shots. And in a huge cliffhanger, she fires the explosive weapon down at our survivors.

Surely they aren’t all killed, right? In true Walking Dead fashion, we’ll now have to wait until the show returns after its break.

Here are a few of my favorite moments from this battle:

• Watching Gabriel use a sniper from the rooftops was pretty badass.
• Our group utilizing Whisperer masks in battle was a great role reversal from season 10.
• Daryl and Leah’s relationship has taken a twist. She now looks to have picked up the mantle as the leader of the Reapers.

On the flip side, I thought both Negan and Elijah were massively underused in this episode. Hopefully we see more of them when this storyline is picked up again.

Verdict

As various fans have already pointed out, there’s not been enough Carol (Melissa McBride) in the last couple of episodes. Fans are always talking about her relationship with Daryl, but the show appears to have abandoned her for the time being to focus on Daryl and Leah. But with Leah appearing to turn into a new big bad, hopefully, we see more screen time for Carol and Daryl in upcoming episodes.

At this point, we’re all accustomed to how The Walking Dead likes to irritate its fans by leaving things on huge cliffhangers, although I understand why they decided to go down this route again. There were already plenty of shocks throughout the episode, such as Pope’s death, so a cliffhanger didn’t feel too anticlimactic.

Still, fans are already voicing their annoyance at yet another cliffhanger on social media:

Overall, other than the lack of Commonwealth content, I don’t think I have too much to complain about. This was an epic episode. From the neat camerawork (clearly helped out by the switch from film to digital) to the soundtrack, this was so much fun to watch.

As we look forward to the rest of season 11, Leah appears to be a new villain, and Alexandria is looking less habitable by the day. Perhaps the Commonwealth can help out with that? We’ll find out when the new episodes air in 2022. In the meantime, AMC is giving is plenty more Walking Dead content with the return of Fear the Walking Dead and World Beyond season 2. After all, the zombies never go away.

Grade: A

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