The Walking Dead review: Episode 1120, “What’s Been Lost”

With just a few episodes to go before it ends, The Walking Dead still isn’t giving out answers to long-unanswered questions, but delivers an entertaining episode in “What’s Been Lost.”

This episode is all about the Commonwealth. We explore the repercussions of Eugene handing himself in to save Max, and Carol and Daryl searching for our missing group (with the help of an unlikely “ally”).

Here’s your SPOILER warning.

Daryl, Carol, and Lance

This episode picks up almost exactly where the previous installment, “Variant,” ended. Governor Pamela Milton has sent people to capture everyone in our group with links to Eugene. Of course, at the end of the previous episode, we saw Rosita get attacked and ultimately defeated. Turns out most of our group was kidnapped and taken hostage at Pamela’s orders. Clearly, she’s making rash decisions as a result of her losing her son Sebastian.

Right away, we see Carol and Ezekiel get attacked by the same people that captured Rosita. Ezekiel can’t hold them off but Carol is able to escape. It’s a great, action-packed start to the episode.

Eventually Carol meets up with Daryl — who was also attacked by Pamela’s men — and they assess the situation. The brutality is pretty crazy, even for a show that is famous for it. Daryl literally stabs the assassin in the head, wasting no time for questions.

I loved seeing Daryl and Carol share the screen; there were so many good moments. I’ve been somewhat critical of episodes that have utilized this duo in the past; look no further than the incredibly boring season 10 episode “Diverged.” That said, I’ve always loved seeing them together when it’s done well. From season 1, they’ve been the beating heart of the show. In this episode, I loved seeing them team up and try to get the group back together.

In order to learn where the Commonwealth has taken the group, they pay a visit to Lance, who’s locked away in a cell. It’s a pretty grim scene. Lance is coated in blood, flipping his coin and mumbling under his breath… it’s all very reminiscent of the Batman villain Two-Face. Daryl and Carol approach this interrogation differently. Daryl is forceful and doesn’t hold back, while Carol takes a slightly softer approach.

Carol and Daryl attempt to smuggle Lance out of his cell. Of course, this results in alarms going off and a swarm of Commonwealth guards attacking them. It’s a nice action sequence, although I never felt any of them were actually in danger. I haven’t seen shooting this bad outside of stormtroopers in Star Wars.

Daryl single-handedly takes on the Commonwealth soldiers while Carol takes Lance away. Once outside the walls, Carol and Lance travel to find the group. I enjoyed seeing these two together. You’ve got Lance’s delusional daydreams of a functioning Commonwealth contrasted with Carol’s realism.  Lance is so slimy and horrible. He tries to act like he actually cares about Daryl and the rest of the group. Let’s not forget that he tried to have everyone killed just a few episodes ago. Thankfully, Carol buys none of his remorse. She only keeps him alive so he can guide them to the rest of our group.

At one point, they get cornered by Commonwealth guards, but in comes Daryl to kill them all. I think everyone saw that coming, right? I would’ve liked to see how Daryl managed to escaped the first set of guards. Looks like that’ll be left to our imaginations.

Carol and Daryl give Lance a simple choice: die or leave and never return. Defeated, he decides to leave, but as he does, he picks up a gun and attacks. Clearly, Carol expected this. She puts an arrow through his neck. That’s the end of Lance Hornsby, folks! I loved him as a villain, but he’s evaded death too many times at this point. It was probably the right time for him to die, especially now that Pamela is the main threat.

Turns out the Commonwealth has a working train system, a nice nod to the comics. And in the final reveal, our group is confined to a bus. They are drugged with sacks over their heads, traveling to an unknown location. It’s kinda confusing, Where are they being sent?

Yumiko

Meanwhile, Yumiko is enraged by the decision to kidnap the entire group and hold them hostage. She even throws some punches, which is kinda wild. She confronts Pamela about the situation. I’ve got to say, despite the fact that I’m still annoyed at the writers killing off Sebastian, his death has led to Pamela becoming a much more interesting character. She’s unhinged and acting like she’s got nothing to lose. This is the first time I’ve actually feared Pamela. She even threatens to kill the group and her brother Tomi if they continues to act against her.

After this, Yumiko turns to Tomi for advice, but he’s pretty unhelpful. She also finds Connie, who wants Yumiko to track her attacker so that he might lead her to the other members of the group. I thought this part of the plot was a little lazy and didn’t need to be included. It doesn’t really add much to the plot.

Anyway, Yumiko then meets up with a very broken Eugene in his cell. She relays to him what Pamela told her: that she’s to stand against Eugene in court if the rest of the group is to remain alive. Eugene has accepted his fate. It’s sad to see him in this state, although he feels like he’s done the right thing in trying to save Max.

Later in the episode, Pamela gives Yumiko a script to read: she is to condemn Eugene for his treason. Pamela tells Yumiko several times to stick to the script. Funnily enough, she wrote Sebastian’s scripts too, emphasizing how she only wants people to know what she allows them to know. The twist is that Yumiko goes against the script and instead tells Pamela that she will fight on behalf of Eugene in court. I mean, I could see this coming from a mile away. Even so, I can’t wait to see how Eugene’s trial plays out!

Verdict

Yes, I am once more going to groan about how we still don’t know what happened at Oceanside. At this point, it’s getting silly.

This definitely feels like an end-of-series kind of plot. We’ve got our core cast on their way to help rescue the rest of the group. It feels like an endgame is approaching…and it is. I was disappointed that there was no variant stuff. I’m sure they’re setting that up for the spinoff shows.

Grade: B

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