The Walking Dead Season 11 Review: With A Hopeful Ending And A Few Cliffhangers That Whet Our Appetite for Spin-Offs Episode 24 “Rest in Peace”
Cast: Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Khary Payton, Ross Marquand, Lauren Ridloff, Josh Hamilton, Laila Robins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director: Greg Nicotero
Streaming Platform: AMC
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The iconic series The Walking Dead completed 12 years, 11 seasons and 177 episodes. Numbers in hand this is the final assessment of one of the most successful TV series in the history of television. The Walking Dead ends today, but the era doesn’t end with him. The AMC universe born from the pages of Robert Kirkman says goodbye to its main creation and does so in perhaps the most natural and predictable way, with great consistency compared to the recent past, be it a strength or a weakness, depending on your point of view. We will avoid revealing the twists and turns of the plot here, but for the sake of completeness of analysis, we will go into certain aspects which inevitably could leave room for deductions.
The latest episode of The Walking Dead will certainly go down in history, but it will probably not be counted among the best series finale of tv series, despite being a perfect epilogue to what TWD has been for the last few years. Ultimately, however, this episode has the merit of not closing the narrative on itself, but of relaunching, very late, most could argue, its breath with a pinch of fan service, to put it mildly.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Review: The Story
Episode 11×24 of The Walking Dead opens with Daryl breaking into the hospital with Judith in his arms. She sees everything distorted with walkers lurking at the door. But before they can get inside, she locks the door and falls unconscious. In the Commonwealth, the survivors are surrounded. A walker bites Jules and another attacks Luke. Carol manages to open a path through which all the others escape. Trying to help Luke they amputated both legs, but he has lost too much blood. Carol tells Daryl that there is no medical staff because Pamela has taken everything and left the community to her own devices. Yumiko gives her a harmonica and they tell her that they will keep her music alive.
Daryl proposes giving Judith a blood transfusion while Carol sets out to make sure the hospital is safe. Princess and Max go in search of Mercer: they free him from his cell and set off. Maggie and Negan prepare to go after Pamela along with Mercer and Princess and Lydia and Aaron break out of the horde and join them. For their part, Rosita, Gabriel and Eugene arrive at the place where the children are, besieged by walkers who are putting their boots on with the babies. They arrive in time to save Coco.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 24 Ending Explained
Judith wakes up and asks Daryl if he’s going to die. She soon loses consciousness. Carol receives a call from Rosita: they are in trouble because her vehicle is broken down. The situation in the hospital is desperate: one of the smart walkers uses a rock to break down the door and they enter en masse. Daryl takes Judith’s gurney and they flee through the corridors. Gabriel, Eugene and Rosita decide to escape by climbing up a pipe but Rosita falls backwards with Coco on top. She finally jumps off and manages to hook onto the pipe to safety.
Night falls over the Commonwealth. Yumiko’s brother treats Judith, but she is very delicate. Lydia is in shock after losing Elijah, Luke, and Jules. They give up Jerry as well. Negan tries to go off on his own to finish off Pamela. He explains that he’s going to do it for her and that when he was kneeling next to Annie about to die, he realized how Glenn must have felt. That he is very sorry for what he took from her and her son. Maggie takes the rifle from him and tells him to go back inside her.
Eugene chats with Rosita once Coco falls asleep. He tells her about summer and how she hopes she can teach her little girl to swim in Oceanside. Rosita shows him a bite mark on her back and they both break down in tears. She doesn’t want to say anything yet but she knows her time is up. Eugene tells her that she loves her very much and she tells him that he loves her too. Daryl and Carol stand guard at the foot of Judith’s gurney. When she wakes up, Daryl asks about Michonne, and she confesses that she knows her mother will be back.
The walkers start to climb the walls and the situation is desperate because the soldiers shoot at the people to contain them. Mercer decides to prevent the massacre, orchestrated by Pamela. The survivors decide to support him instead of leaving the place and they all come to support him. The citizens of the Commonwealth are trapped with the horde behind and Gabriel decides to open the gate. Daryl confronts her and tells her that they are not like the living dead, that they give Gabriel the keys to open and the soldiers return to Mercer’s command. They re-enter the community. Jerry and Elijah are among them.
In the front row, behind the gate, is Lance, who pulls Pamela towards him. But Judith yells at him that it’s not too late and she has to fight for the citizens. Maggie shoots Lance in the head and they retrieve it at the last moment. They then come up with a plan: flood the sewers with gasoline to detonate explosives there and lure walkers in with the music. After a spectacular explosion, they finish off the horde. Pamela is handcuffed and caged. She tries to explain her point of view, but Carol makes it clear that she doesn’t care and that no one will have to worry about taking her house anymore because she’s blown up.
Maggie and Negan talk: she thanks him for his words and tells him that she will never be able to forgive him because Glenn was wonderful, and she will never want anyone the same for his kindness and the way he made her feel. Every time she looks at him, she is reminded of the blood on her face, her voice calling out to her and him mocking the situation as he died. She tells him that she is very grateful for the fact that she saved her son but that she can’t forgive him: she doesn’t want to continue hating him, but she can’t turn the page. She has earned her place and she can have Annie and her child, but she can’t forgive him. The survivors gather around the table to celebrate. They toast to Luke. Yumiko and Magna kiss. Negan stands aside. Rosita and Gabriel talk: she explains her situation in her ear but Judith notices.
Carol and Maggie say goodbye to her and help her onto the bed next to Coco. Gabriel says a prayer and then takes the girl away. He tells her that they will see each other again one day. Eugene stays with her: he tells her that he wouldn’t be hers if he hadn’t met her. She is grateful that he is with her at the end. A year later, Eugene is going to bring flowers to the memorial. He and Max have had a baby girl named Rosie in his honour. Ezekiel, who is now governor, is giving a speech to the community where Mercer is still the leader. Connie gets a visit from Daryl. She works as a journalist and watches over the integrity of the government while Daryl patrols the border. Judith receives a package: a compass and a letter from Negan which she returns to him and thanks him for letting her use it.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 24 Ending Explained
Survivors who have returned to Alexandria are visited by others from the Commonwealth who are brought supplies. Daryl says goodbye to Carol: he would like her to go with him but she has taken the role of Lance. She tells him that he is her best friend and they hug. After Daryl says goodbye to Ezekiel, Lance, RJ and Judith, who tell him that he deserves a happy ending. Daryl tells Carol that she loves her and she loves him too. He leaves alone on his motorcycle. Rick and Michonne, each from where they are, remain united by memories and both write in their respective diaries that they are still together in some way and will continue to fight to find and return to their children. They don’t lose hope. Michonne continues his search on horseback while he continues trying to escape the helicopters: he is wearing a CRM jacket but is trapped by one that tells him to give up, that the living has no escape. However, they all repeat themselves like a mantra: “We are the ones who live.” Judith tells RJ that they can start from scratch while they wait.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Review and Analysis
We haven’t revealed the main plot twists of this final series to you, but we cannot fail to analyze in summary the themes and general direction of this episode in this critique. Let’s start immediately by saying that we appreciated the sense of impending threat and the rhythm that leads our protagonists to always be in balance, to have to carefully evaluate their destiny and that of others; at least for most of the episode. In this, Greg Nicotero manages to give us a good direction and to manage well the elements made available by the screenplay by Angela Kang herself, without sparing the classic fireworks as icing on the cake.
As in any self-respecting climax, there is no lack of losses (and moments in which the suspension of disbelief is tested), but in this case most of these – one is emblematic – only confirm our thesis on the failure of empathy towards some characters who have never really made inroads into the hearts of fans. The full-bodied cast of The Walking Dead has often and willingly – rightly in some cases – managed with obvious narrative sacrifices and the epitome of this trend leads to some junctures of this final series.
However, there is an almost elementary logic that guides the development of events and slides the dramaturgy towards the epilogue. A gloss that is inevitably a farewell, for some more metaphorical than for others, and, as we wrote just now, it relaunches the future of some supporting actors in a more than predictable way towards the productions announced months ago, trying to close the other development arcs in a hurry. In short, it is perceived how much for Angela Kang and AMC this whole final series is a crucial node for the Deadverse that has been budding in the last decade and which will still have a lot to say.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 24 Ending Explained
This also leads to some clear-cut and equally logical clarifications between characters who for weeks, if not months – if not years – have never managed to frame the logical possibilities of resolving their conflict; all of this has general significance even on a larger scale, consequently changing the perception of who The Walking Dead of the title are once and for all. Was Rick right? All this leads us to take note of the inevitability of a fan service that enters the epilogue with a straight leg, and if on the one hand, we understand its design, on the other we contest its intention to leverage an emotionality that is at times false, a legacy of better times; a farewell that reminds us why we spent 12 years in front of the TV suffering and rejoicing with the protagonists of a show that has nonetheless left its mark, but which has reached this moment by clinging on tooth and nail.
Even though none of The Walking Dead spin-offs has succeeded in sweeping audiences: neither Fear The Walking Dead, World Beyond, nor Tales of The Walking Dead, the three that have been released so far, it seems that the future zombie is in this type of series, focused, yes, on characters already known and successful among the public. We are aware, for the moment, of three series derived from The Walking Dead, two of which would arrive next year: Dead City, starring Negan and Maggie and Daryl Dixon, in which Carol was to appear before the actress distanced herself from the Project. Additionally, the series focused on Rick and Michonne will begin shooting in early 2023.
We are waiting for new stories related to the survivors and we say goodbye, forever, to The Walking Dead. An era ends, although it gives way to another. Paraphrasing one of the mythical sentences of the series: “We always believe that there will be more time… But it always ends”. The Walking Dead says goodbye with a hopeful ending and a few cliffhangers that whet our appetite for spin-offs focused on the main characters that will arrive shortly. It’s a fitting end to the season, with homage to all the characters in the series and very emotional moments.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Review: The Last Words
The Walking Dead is over, the curtain falls, and what’s left is a bittersweet feeling quite natural after more than a decade of honourable service on our part, too, as spectators. The resolution of the Commonwealth affair doesn’t leave much room for the imagination, but Nicotero’s direction and Kang’s writing manage to keep a good pace; for the rest, there are the characters and the interpreters, all to be weighed based on the development granted to them. Looking back, perhaps this is the ending this season deserved. Maybe it’s not the epilogue The Walking Dead deserved. A milestone, in the literal sense; this is the definition we could give to the episode, which sets the pace for the future of the Deadverse by relying on a fan service that is perhaps a little too cumbersome.
