The Walking Dead S11 E8: "For Blood" Review

 The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 8: "For Blood" Review

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

After eight weeks of buildup, The Walking Dead has finally shambled its way to the Part One Finale of its final season. Yes, this is real. And no, the show is not over, which means these posts won't be finished after this one either. But I digress. This episode features two stories from our characters who are still located in the DC area, namely the head-on confrontation built up last week between Maggie's group and the Reapers, as well as the survivors back at Alexandria. Seeing as the Alexandrian side of things wasn't as important to the overall plot of the show, we can discuss that sub-plot first before heading into the real meat of the episode.

A storm has passed over Alexandria, the torrential downpours giving cause for a group of Alexandrians--who just so happen to be important characters in our ever-expanding cast--to take shelter in one of the houses. While one group goes outside to try and repair the wall, unheard from again after they depart near the start of the episode, the rest try and fend for themselves against the walkers that have managed to break through. This includes boarding up the windows and finding weapons to try and defend themselves as the herd outside continues to grow.

As a concept, the idea of walkers invading Alexandria is something that has happened before in the show. And every time it's happened afterwards--specifically when the Whisperers led an army of them into the empty walls during the previous season and in this episode--it always reminds me of the show's sixth season and the heroic triumph of Rick Grimes and the crew against a slew of walkers. Those walkers meant something, helping to bring the people of Alexandria together after so many misfortunes. Here, though, it feels like just another event, something to slowly start pushing the idea that Alexandria can no longer survive on its own and lending to my prediction that the Commonwealth will soon take the whole community under their rule. It's a fine direction to push the show in conceptually; I just wish, in the final season of the main series, there was less focus on each Alexandrian episode being a one-and-done type of deal and instead had genuine focus and build-up on a larger threat.

Luckily, on Maggie and Daryl's end of things, this is becoming more apparent. After leading the herd of walkers to the gates of Meridian, Maggie, Negan, Gabriel, and all the surviving members of Maggie's crew take to attacking its gates by night. While that's happening, Daryl does his best as the mole within the Reapers' ranks to keep them distracted while Maggie and her group can sneak inside. Having gotten on Pope's good side, however, Daryl is remiss to destroy that patronage with such rapid abandon, making it a slow burn as he does his best to try and make sure the group is able to get past Pope's defenses--both human and secret weapons alike.

While it's not the height of The Walking Dead in its younger years, this part of the episode was well done and felt meaningful the more it went along. Daryl's slow, secretive betrayal of the Reapers while doing his best to save face in front of both Pope and Leah was great to watch, and while it was clear the whole time that Daryl wasn't in any real, major danger, it was still intriguing to see him juggle everything. He really was the star of the show this time around, as Maggie and Negan were more in the background doing their best to sneak into the Reapers' walls to get the food they needed for Alexandria.

Though this episode, and this plot in particular, made me realize just how long this arc took. What, at the end of the day, was a story arc about getting food to try and feed a starving Alexandria, has taken eight episodes--half of a normal season--to reach its climax. That's about eight hours of television building up to what is essentially an elongated food run with a set of villains in the way for good measure. It feels like, if the storytelling was a lot tighter and focused more on just Maggie's group and, of course, Eugene and the crew at the Commonwealth, we could have gotten here a lot faster and not have had points throughout where there didn't seem to be one. The climax was pulled off well for the current state The Walking Dead is in, but the slog to get here didn't really feel that justified. Especially because it appears the conflict is only just beginning, though where it could even go from here is anyone's guess.

It appears, from this episode especially, that the Reapers are being set up as the final "big bad" of the show. Compared to previous villains, however, they just don't have the same level of engagement as others. Pope, while interesting on the surface, peters out here into a rather generic antagonist whose mumblings of "family" are cast asunder with fierce hierarchal punishments. Leah seems like she still has potential as a threat in the Reapers; only time will tell where her story will go. But it also just feels strange to have the Reapers be playing such a seemingly big role when, in reality, they're just a group of about three dozen or so people. That doesn't seem to be much of a threat when it seems apparent Alexandria, and by extension Maggie's group, will have the backing of God knows how many Stormtrooper-style soldiers at their disposal. Just comparatively, if the Reapers were to go up against the Commonwealth, they wouldn't stand a chance. So it strikes me as a very strange decision to have them as the final major antagonist. Unless there's a twist with the Commonwealth, though how our heroes would even stand a chance against a group like that is beyond me.

But I digress. Overall, this episode had some interesting things going on, a few shocking twists, and a decent cliffhanger ending that will, at the very least, make you wonder just how much the series is about to jump the shark when it comes back. Which, by the way, will not be until February 20th, the longest break between mid-seasons The Walking Dead has had (barring the restrictions of the pandemic, of course). I think the show has some real potential to break out of the rut it seemed to find itself in for the last 8 episodes if it continues vying for quality as it appeared to do during the Daryl segments of this episode. Though with 16 episodes left, I can only hope those behind the scenes utilize every hour to the best of their ability. I genuinely think The Walking Dead can justify having 16 episodes left given how much it feels like we have left to uncover before we leave these characters behind for good. And I hope that the series truly feels like this extended season was necessary by the end.

There's just one thing still bothering me: This doesn't feel like a final season at all. It still feels like your typical season of The Walking Dead. And, with a new spin-off series announced to be airing after this final season ends, it has me worried that the show isn't going to end. That this is really only "The Final Season" in name and that this new spin-off coming after the curtain call on everything we've known is really just going to be a direct continuation leaping off of whatever cliffhanger ending we get in Season 11. I hope I'm wrong and that this isn't the case. I hope the series can have a proper ending without it being utilized to try and tease a wider world, as done during Rick and Michonne's final episodes. I hope The Walking Dead will get to close the book without directly opening another one. But I have a funny feeling that's not going to be the case. I hope I'm wrong, but I also think I'm right.

Though I still hope against all logic that The Walking Dead will have some level of a definitive ending. Even if it's with the Reapers or the Commonwealth as the final big bookends, I just want to see the series end on some level of closure for our characters, no matter what that is. It's a bleak world, this apocalypse, and it's clear that the zombies aren't going away anytime soon. But, in just 16 more episodes, the characters we've been watching survive all this time will soon vanish, likely never to return in the same form. I just hope the series can end the way it deserves to. The way that a show still running, even after the highest highs and lowest lows, has finally earned.

But, of course, today is not that day. We still have a long way to go. See you all for Part Two this February!

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