The Walking Dead S11 E4: "Rendition" Review

 The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 4: "Rendition" Review

[WARNING: Major spoilers for The Walking Dead seasons 1-10, spoilers for season 11.]

After being absent in the previous episode, Daryl returns for his own bottled adventure, marked as 1/6th of the way through The Walking Dead's final season. Starting at the same point as the previous episode, this entry follows Daryl as he is on the road escaping the Reapers. However, upon daybreak, Daryl is alone, having lost his dog, Dog, in a scuffle with some Reapers in the forest. He ends up coming across a Reaper that's holding Dog captive. At first, Daryl pulls his knife on the individual, intent on taking Dog back no matter the bloodshed that would ensue. But his plans change when the figure takes off her mask, revealing it to be Leah, a girl who lived in a cabin that Daryl had a relationship with way back during the timeskip when he was in the woods looking for Rick. So begins an episode where Daryl tries to convince Leah and the other Reapers that he's alone and his traveling with Maggie and her group was a coincidence.

This is how most of the episode plays out, alongside glances at who the Reapers are as a group, what they believe, and why they operate the way they do. All the while, Daryl is managing his loyalty to Maggie and her group while trying to play off his lack of connection to them so he can survive as well. This episode was definitely a weird one, and I can't say I was all too impressed with the notions of the Reapers themselves. They seem to be a well-armed, ragtag group of people whose name seemingly only applies to outsiders. That is to say, the Reapers never refer to themselves as such, a slight indication there may be more to this group than we've been led to believe by Maggie. From a world-building standpoint it creates a bit of intrigue, though many of the mysteries surrounding who the Reapers are and what they do are revealed in this episode. All speculation is tied up here, with a multitude of answers being given as well as a few new questions springing up.

To an extent I enjoyed the idea of Leah being a Reaper. I thought it was a fun twist, but I also feel like they could have done a little bit more with it. Not only does she appear to be the only female in the group, but she also seems to have the most amount of clout when it comes to how things go. This isn't always the case, as is seen by a few procedures Daryl has to go through in the episode, but it is clear that she has a bigger role than she's letting on when speaking with Daryl. I hope this was done on purpose and that it will come back somehow as the season progresses. This, however, is not a guarantee, as there appear to be a multitude of unanswered questions we have yet to see resolved (For example, where is Luke and why has no one mentioned him? Also, what has Alden been doing out on the road with Maggie's group when he's supposed to be taking care of Gamma's baby after she died last season?). Hopefully this final season will be sure to address all of this when the time is right.

The story the episode told was pretty decent too, although I can't help but feel like some moments were a little goofy. One of these moments happens at the very end of the episode, and while I saw it coming from a mile away, it felt jarring compared to everything else we'd seen about the group thus far. I believe that's the point, that we're supposed to understand this group is much different than what they appear to be on the outset. My only qualm is that this certain event at the end of the episode happens in front of Daryl, and given the development between him and the Reapers up to this point, it makes little sense for them to do that in front of him when trying to be presentable. Just a few very strange choices that were made, feeling more like the kind of thing the writers wanted to do to build suspense. It was cool, but it could have been done a little later as a bait-and-switch instead of firmly establishing the Reapers as antagonists (despite the name). I don't know, maybe I just want to see a group like the Saviors again who are more dynamic and not outright evil.

When it comes to the rest of the episode's content, though, it seemed like a decent--albeit slow--build as Daryl does his best to survive amongst the Reapers. What I do wish, though, was that the show was more interested in the visual aspects of some of its ideas instead of only indicating them verbally. For example, there's a scene were Daryl is having a conversation with Pope, the leader of the Reapers. Pope is telling Daryl the story of the Reapers' origin, discussing a general timeline of how their group was established. Listening to him speak, I remember thinking the same thing I thought when Maggie had her speech about a house full of tortured Walkers two episodes prior: "It would be great if I could see this play out." Sadly, I fear this comes with the territory of having a show that has regressed in viewership as much as The Walking Dead has. Budgetary restrictions are the likely cause of this, with more focus being put on present dangers instead of possible flashbacks that could have developed characters in a "show don't tell" sort of way. I'm reminded of two flashbacks from season 5 of the show, one involving Terminus and the other involving Abraham. Both did a great job of establishing reasons as to why both parties do what they do because we, the audience, got to see it firsthand. When I'm told stories about what different survivors are doing, I don't really care because it's just an info dump. I'd rather be shown what's going on, or at the very least have it verbally communicated in a more creative way than the character pretty much talking at the camera.

Other than that, though, this was a serviceable episode. It did the job that it set out to do and laid more groundwork for the coming conflict with the Reapers. Which I do hope ends up feeling a little more threatening than established thus far, given this is the final season of the show. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I hope that there's a lot more about the Reapers we've yet to uncover, some kind of twist that maybe either bolsters them as a threat or even ties things back into the bigger Walking Dead universe, since that's where things seem to be headed in the other shows. Hopefully a bit more happens next week that I can write about substantively, because for the most part this episode was decent but not as well-developed as it could have been. I enjoy the idea of Leah being a Reaper, but I think we need a little more time with the group before I can establish a proper opinion as to their goals, behavior, and how important Leah's presence really is to the overall story. I decent episode with plenty of good moments, but falling flat in the few places where it really mattered.

***

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