The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 Review: The Attack on The Train, The Fate of Pamela Milton’s Prisoners Is Revealed
Cast: Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Khary Payton, Ross Marquand, Lauren Ridloff, Josh Hamilton, Laila Robins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director: Tawnia McKiernan
Streaming Platform: AMC
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
While The Walking Dead is very close to the conclusion, we honestly cannot say that we feel close to the final series of the most beloved zombie drama of all time. Indeed, with the approach of the last episodes, showrunner Angela Kang pulls out of the hat new dynamics relating to the organization of the Commonwealth itself, just as a new zombie variant had appeared a few weeks ago. It must be said that the removal from the kingdom of Pamela Milton allows a greater variety of situations and settings, as well as triggering good chemistry between the characters.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 Review: The Story
This week’s episode goes straight to the heart of the action, as we discover that an armed convoy is leading the Alexandrian prisoners of the Commonwealth to an unspecified place. We find Ezekiel and Negan, unaware of their fate, but unable to rebel against Pamela Milton’s militias. Maggie, Rosita and Gabriel have more luck, in a daring way manage to sabotage their transport and earn their freedom. This week’s episode goes straight to the heart of the action, as we discover that an armed convoy is leading the Alexandrian prisoners of the Commonwealth to an unspecified place. We find Ezekiel and Negan, unaware of their fate, but unable to rebel against Pamela Milton’s militias.
Maggie, Rosita and Gabriel have more luck, in a daring way manage to sabotage their transport and earn their freedom. So here we are again face to face with Carol and Daryl, who through Lance learned of the existence of a Commonwealth train, part of the Hornsby and Milton project. The plan is always to rescue the prisoners, but the unknown factor represented by Connie, captured by the Commonwealth and destined for a fate that is perhaps much worse than her comrades, complicates the situation and forces the protagonists to better articulate their plan.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 Review and Analysis
This week’s episode of The Walking Dead gives good sensations and, while we have omitted several details so as not to even attempt to justify the title “Outpost 22”, from a dramaturgical point of view there are several interesting things that break the qualitatively fluctuating trend of the last few episodes. The fact that we have detached ourselves from the Commonwealth and have fallen back into a survival phase where the threats to be faced are more concrete and our protagonists are allowed greater freedom of action, undoubtedly represents an incentive for vision. But the focus of the script is still on the characters and it is once again Carol who, having left behind the wicked phase of the Whisperers, represents the real glue of the team, bringing her own experience as an example for Daryl, this time more impulsive and decisive to do their own thing, but also confronting Maggie herself on the value and strength of their family against the individual drive for action and self-pity.
Maggie’s storyline works too, especially in portraying her concern as a mother despite her grit as a fighter and leader. The crowning of both sides of the coin occurs in the relationship with the wandering child in the first part of the episode. We also have the opportunity to witness the dialogue between Ezekiel who has never forgotten the death and destruction brought by the Saviors, and a Negan aware of his past, but willing to join forces to free his pregnant wife and with her all others.
Beyond the in-depth analysis during the writing phase, “Outpost 22” also works in the staging, thanks to the fluid editing that accompanies the various sequences and cuts, and a direction that manages to juggle well between the action needs and the more introspective ones. We always consider the fact that three episodes from the end, Angela Kang is once again opening the dynamics of the series, expanding the world of the Commonwealth in extremis; a choice that, we repeat, perhaps comes out of time and contributes to fueling a narrative that, instead of tending towards a natural, longed-for and definitive climax (remember that according to a producer, the ending of The Walking will be a remix of that of the comics), provides new elements that could have benefited the show previously.
The classic opening recap narrated by Judith Grimes makes it clear that in this round the lion’s share goes to Maggie before she – along with Negan – returns to television screens in 2023 in the miniseries The Walking Dead: Dead City. Meanwhile, this episode proposes a journey into her psychology, or so she would like to do, by showing a desperate woman who wants to be reunited with her child, symbolically represented by a zombie child whom she refuses to kill because he does not represent an immediate danger. A thematic graft that, like the rest of the findings of this third block of episodes, only slows down further a narrative that in terms of rhythm is already close to historical lows, now arriving at an important twist which, however, in turn, does not seem to be able to justify two more chapters before the grand finale.
And while he expects the two main storylines of this episode to inevitably converge, this fourth to the last appointment with the main series tries to refer to the western with the attack on the train, a noble intent that however betrays the now terminal state of health of a program that he can’t recover even with one of the most tried and tested action-based tricks. The shootings are devoid of bite, the train itself the mechanical equivalent of one of the many walking corpses that advance by default, without giving any push to the narrative progression. And the terminus, despite being very close, seems increasingly distant…
The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 Review: The Last Words
Near the conclusion and the final podium of the epilogue of The Walking Dead, we leave the walls of the Commonwealth to breathe a more survival atmosphere and see the plans and strategies of the protagonists in action. All this also translates into a further introspection of the characters, which does not hurt, especially if accompanied by a staging that works. Too bad that the new narrative elements introduced in this episode further remove the feeling of being close to a final series, and they would have done much more comfortably previously.
