The Walking Dead review: Episode 1118, “A New Deal”

As we edge closer to waving goodbye to The Walking Dead, the stakes get ever higher. The Commonwealth is in disarray. Prepare for chaos.

Here’s your SPOILER warning.

Like this week, this episode opens with a little monologue from Judith as she remembers the sacrifices of seasons past — we’re shown more iconic moments from throughout the series. Once again, it’s a real tear-jerker.

We left Episode 1117, “Lockdown” on a cliffhanger which saw Daryl holding a knife to Lance’s throat, beginning a standoff with the Commonwealth military. Things start exactly where they left off. Turns out Pamela and Mercer are now on the scene, trying to talk him down from killing Lance. Daryl drops the F-bomb for the second time this season; swearing like this was never usually sanctioned by AMC. Seems exceptions have been made for the final stretch.

Daryl is ultimately talked down by Carol, who says she has “made a deal” with Pamela Milton. With Carol in his ear, Daryl steps down, but not before brutally slicing Lance’s hand open. Clearly Daryl is taking no prisoners at this point. You love to see it!

Carol’s deal with Pamela is pretty simple: if the fighting stops, the slate can be wiped clean. It all sounds too good to be true. But there’s a price to everything. Pamela thinks Lance should take the fall for her son’s crimes. Daryl is reluctant to go along with it, but he has no choice. It sounds like a good enough plan, but when do these plans ever work out as intended?

To give Lance a little credit, he is quite intelligent, or at least sometimes he appears clever. He’s good at playing mind games. It’s entertaining to watch him play them on Mercer, who towers above him. As a prisoner, he learns from Pamela herself that his time in the Commonwealth is officially over. It’ll be tough for him to slide his way out of this one.

Daryl and Judith

We get some lovely moments between Daryl and Judith. While not integral to the plot, I wanted to give them a special mention. Daryl’s scenes with Judith add a much-needed emotional pulse to the show. We were always going to get references to Rick and Michonne here in the final episodes. There’s something very symbolic about Daryl holding Rick’s iconic gun and offering it to Judith…but she doesn’t want it. Nor does she want Michonne’s katana. They may be gone, but they’ll never be forgotten. Judith wants to honor their legacy.

The two share another scene later. Daryl learns what it means to be a father figure to Judith when she runs away to a secret place inside the Commonwealth and he has to hunt her down. He finds her alone in a church. There’s a huge connection between them and their scenes together are powerful.

Meanwhile, Maggie heads back to Alexandria and Aaron takes a group to Oceanside, which we still don’t actually learn any more about. C’mon, I wanna see the consequences of Lance’s ominous coin flip already. I wished we got more Oceanside here but I understand that they want to keep the Commonwealth at the center of the story.

I also liked the development in the relationship between Lydia and Elijah. It’s nice to see Lydia settle down and find some happiness after all she’s been through.

Founder’s Day

It’s Founder’s Day at the Commonwealth! There’s no better excuse to put Lance on trial and prove that Sebastian is the “good guy.” Everyone seems happy. Especially Ezekiel, now that he’s getting the treatment he needs. When Carol asks him if he’ll be returning to Alexandria with her, he declines. He feels like he’s found his home in the Commonwealth, somewhere he can make a difference.

In the Commonwealth hospital, Negan and Annie have a baby scan. We’re seeing a totally different side of Negan here. He’s empathetic, it’s really hard to imagine that this is the same Negan as the one we met back when he killed Glenn, who was about to become a father.

Meanwhile, in Pamela’s office, Sebastian is still a nuisance despite being let off the hook. He’s at that age where he’s super immature and it doesn’t help that he’s totally ignorant of everything going on around him. He literally moans about doing a speech. Pamela is on his back, but that’s no excuse for him acting so stupidly.

Max and Eugene head to Lance’s prison cell to seek advice on how to take down the Miltons, and while he can’t give them anything concrete, he does give Max an idea.

Of course, Max works in the office with Pamela and Sebastian, which is where she hatches her plan: she secretly records Sebastian speaking out against the Commonwealth and intends to play it over the speakers at Founder’s Day. It’s actually fairly a clever plan. I like the way that it’s happening right under his nose and that he has no idea. It takes some nerve from Max to go ahead with it.

The fall of Sebastian

The fanfare is fully underway. I mean, Pamela Milton has set up a wrestling match and everything. There’s the lottery, too, which incidentally Sebastian said was rigged earlier in the episode. Yikes. And everyone is about to hear all of it because Eugene plays Max’s recording through the speaker system.

I like how in a couple of episodes, the Miltons go from beloved to hated, back to beloved, and now they’re loathed by everyone all over again. But this time, it turns very nasty. Sebastian instantly knows that Max has set him up, so he goes after her.

All of this occurs while Lance sits patiently in his cell, waiting for his moment to escape. He’s the one pulling the strings. I love his snide, smarmy grin. He knows that he’s got away with it, after everything he’s done. His men previously killed some people, allowing them to turn into zombies and disrupt things even further.

Ultimately, Sebastian meets his demise. He’s bitten by a walker as the people of the Commonwealth stand over him, refusing to help.

I’m actually a little annoyed that he is killed prematurely. I felt like he had a lot more to offer the story. All things considered, he hadn’t been as central to the plot as I would’ve liked. I mean, if we look at the comics, Sebastian goes on to kill Rick Grimes. In the show, he just dies after getting caught badmouthing the Commonwealth. It was definitely a shock, I’ll give the writers that.

With Sebastian out of the picture, there’s a high chance that Lance could be the one the one to kill off a beloved character. He’s clearly been set up as the main villain since the Commonwealth was first introduced.

Verdict

Another great entry to the season. Sure, some parts of this episode moved slowly, favoring deep character moments over action. That said, everything feels very balanced. And the payoff at the end was highly unexpected. It’s left me wanting more, and that’s always the best place to leave something.

Grade: B

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