The Walking Dead S11 E15: "Trust" Review

 The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 15: "Trust" Review

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

Why does this continue to happen?

I feel like I don't say this enough, but I want to make it very clear now that we're 15 posts into my weird obsession with reviewing every episode of the final season of The Walking Dead. I do love this show. Not in a way where I'm blind to where it was at its peak compared to where it is today, but I do still harbor a certain soft spot for the entire series. Hence why, even after it's dropped dismally in ratings and begun to show cracks of shoddy quality, I continue to tune in each week to see where the story--and the show as a whole--are going. I like The Walking Dead, which is why I want to see it get better and retain quality from one episode to the next. But it's also why I criticize it so brazenly when I feel it warrants criticism. Because I don't want to see the series become a shambling version of itself. Instead, I want to see it rise to new heights never before seen in the show. All the puzzle pieces are there. The introduction of the Commonwealth this season coupled with the moral grayness being introduced in antagonists strengthens the overall staying power of the franchise. But because of a number of behind-the-scenes factors--the pandemic, new writers, what have you--I fear that The Walking Dead will not be able to live up to the expectations a final season is supposed to deliver on.

A big reason I say this is because, in this penultimate episode of Part 2 of Season 11, the show falls back into old patterns of filling up time where unnecessary or building tension for something that doesn't end up having any overarching consequences. To start is the main story, where, after the death of Toby at the hands of our heroes, the survivors are forced to answer for their crimes as Lance Hornsby shows up to the apartment complex. Aaron and Gabriel lie about what transpired, saying the people at the apartment complex overwhelmed the Commonwealth soldiers before disappearing. Lance, for some reason, decides to go to Hilltop to antagonize Maggie into letting him search for the survivors there. This is mostly predicated on Maggie's unwillingness to rely on the Commonwealth for assistance, something that doesn't really have anything to do with the current situation at hand. So most of the main plot of this episode is Lance and his group plodding to Hilltop in order to questions Maggie and search the premises for apartment complex people. Which...how would they be able to tell who was and wasn't an apartment complex person? Unless Commonwealth has been keeping track of Hilltop without their knowledge. But I digress. Better safe than sorry, right?

While moments of tension are sprinkled throughout the episode, nothing massive happened. There was one cool shot in the episode that tricked me into thinking we would get a perilous action scene, but it was soon thwarted by everyone agreeing to put their guns down. I feel like that scene in particular underscores my biggest issue with the show at this point in time. The stakes don't feel real anymore. When was the last time a major character was in genuine peril, where they died or even had some sort of debilitation? Alden, maybe, but even then the consequences of his death--such as his orphaned child--were never expounded upon. I feel like there's been a bit of a downplay when it comes to how tense the stakes are getting. When things do get tense, it's presented well. But there's a consistent lack of staying power to the intensity--made all the more prevalent by the fact that at least three major characters are already confirmed to survive past the end of the series due to spin-off announcements. I do wish there were more real, heightened stakes within intense episodes like this one, as it would make me feel more connected to the situation and amped up by the unpredictability of what could happen.

The side-plots to this episode range from anywhere between expounding on what we've already learned last episode to just downright strange. The first one of these involves Mercer and Princess starting a relationship, while at the same time Mercer struggles with his decision to kill his own men in the previous episode. I feel like this is a bit of a heel-turn from how stoic he was about the decision last episode. While I do like the idea of transitioning Mercer from a Commonwealth loyalist to another rebel like our main cast, I feel like there's a bit of a character re-write going on here, since it seemed from the outset he was a man whose morals could not be moved, but whose allegiances could. Maybe I'm just nitpicking, I don't know. Either way, I do like the developmental direction they're going with Mercer and I think him and Princess together is neat to see. It's nice to see any form of happiness in a bleak world of the dead. But beyond that, I didn't find myself all that engaged with Mercer's inner struggle, maybe because I just didn't buy given its contrast to the way he handled himself last episode.

Speaking of the previous episode, Rosita ends up confiding in Eugene what happened when Sebastian sent her and Daryl out to look for money in a house, including the deaths of the people who had previously been sent beyond the Commonwealth walls for Sebastian's benefit. Eugene alongside several other characters who have gone anti-Commonwealth--including his love interest Max--begin to devise a plan that will make the people of the Commonwealth notice the corruption within its walls. I have to be honest here, within hours of watching the episode, I fully forgot what the plot consisted of. Which brings me to another issue I have with this Part of the season: A consistent need to fill time with things people won't remember. I can't recall the content of a conversation between Rosita and Carol 10 episodes ago, but somehow that's clearer than whatever Eugene was cooking up in the Commonwealth. It makes me feel like, just like Part 1, this is just a transitional Part into what will serve as the real final season of the show. But thinking about that, it makes me wonder how many transitions the show is going to need to go through before we're finally at what should be the endgame.

And now we come to the weirdest storyline of them all: Ezekiel and Carol. Ezekiel opens a secret clinic for people far down on the list of hospital patients in need of life-saving surgery and recruits Tomi--you know, the baker who doesn't want to be a surgeon anymore--to help him. It's the strangest part of the entire episode because half the time, the audience is kept in the dark as to what is going on, and even then things aren't properly explained. I don't mean to spoil it but...come on. I have to in order to talk about it, and it doesn't have any bearing on the main plot at all. There's a scene where Ezekiel is in the place where he houses animals for his petting zoo, and a pulls back a curtain revealing a woman receiving surgery on a bed inside. Happy music plays as they operate on her, with Tomi determining it as success before the operation is complete. Or something to that effect. It was just incredibly jarring and felt like it didn't make sense from a story standpoint or a character one. Especially for Tomi, who so far is the most sympathetic Commonwealth survivor on account of him being forced into a profession he just doesn't want to do. Let the man bake his cakes for God's sake!

I don't know if it's worth giving final thoughts on this episode since the whole thing felt like a bloated transition into the Part 2 finale. Once again, I want to illustrate that my criticisms of the show are not built on a hatred for it, but rather a longing for it to go back to the high levels of quality seen in Seasons 3-5, where (in my opinion) the series peaked. I think it would be great to see The Walking Dead find its footing again come the last 8 episodes of the season. And I do think it can do it--hell, Season 9 of the show, while not perfect, wasn't really that bad. If we could go back to even that level of quality in the series, I think it would make the grand finale all the more impactful. And I do hope, with one episode left in Part 2, the series can prove me wrong and become just as good as it was in its glory days.

***

If you like the blog and want to support me, consider buying one of my books here.

For more information about The Root, subscribe to The Crown Informer!