To save his pregnant wife from a grisly fate, Negan crosses a critical line. Warning, spoilers follow for The Walking Dead Season 11 episode 22!
Although Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has proven his loyalty to Alexandria, Hilltop and Oceanside on numerous occasions – his assassination of Season 10 foe Alpha (Samantha Morton) comes to mind – many are still not particularly fond of him due to his time as leader of the Saviors.
The Walking Dead Season 11: Ezekiel already has a bad premonition
Negan, Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Kelly (Angel Theory), Princess (Paola Lázaro) and other prisoners have to do hard work on the railroad tracks. To find a way out of their misery, they observe the guards’ routines and habits and pass them among themselves. But Negan, who is actually responsible for recording this information in writing, is distracted by the presence of his pregnant wife Annie (Medina Senghore).
Worried about her and the unborn baby, Negan tries to bribe a guard, but his plan backfires: he is brutally beaten up and finally brought before the warden. He seems to know exactly how he can use Negan’s role in the group to his advantage and puts him under a lot of pressure. Unless Negan assists him as a spy, he will never see Annie again.
When Annie follows up on what there was to discuss with the warden, Negan waves it off and promises his wife he’ll get her out of the detention center. Back at the tracks, Ezekiel also asks, but Negan blocks again and as a result gets to hear an angry speech in which Ezekiel not only reveals to him that he still does not trust him, but also accuses him of not having deserved fatherhood after the deeds of the past.
The Walking Dead Season 11: “There are no martyrs here!”
As a result, Negan seeks contact with the warden, who demands new information. But instead of delivering his allies to the knife, Negan proves his loyalty and pillories himself as the leader of the rebellion. To nip this rebellion in the bud, the warden has all the prisoners gathered that night. They are to witness Negan’s execution.
When the warden realizes that by doing so he would make Negan a martyr, the guards also force Annie to her knees for an execution. “There are no martyrs here!” the warden clarifies. Before the guards can get a shot off, however, Ezekiel and other prisoners stand protectively in front of them.
Finally, the first guard defies the order to shoot, causing chaos in which the warden takes Kelly hostage. However, he did not count on Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Connie (Lauren Ridloff), who immediately intervene from the ambush and finish him off. In the last second, Negan jumps from the brink of death once again.
The Walking Dead Season 11: “You will lose everything” – where are the children?
Before Negan can finally send the warden to the afterlife, Rosita (Christian Serratos) intervenes. She is still looking for her daughter Coco and hopes to get answers from the warden. But instead, he just throws her a warning: “You’re going to lose everything!”
He’s at least partially wrong about that, though, because earlier Carol (Melissa McBride) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) managed to free son Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller) from the clutches of the Commonwealth. As he reports, however, he does not know where the other children are being held. Rosita has already searched all of Alexandria, so is the Army possibly hiding Coco, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and company in Oceanside or Hilltop?
The Walking Dead Season 11: New biter variant moves through the woods
It wouldn’t be impossible, because when Luke (Dan Fogler) and Jules (Alex Sgambati) meet Jerry (Cooper Andrews), Aaron (Ross Marquand), Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Aktwari), they report that the Commonwealth has completely taken over Oceanside and is now hunting down the fleeing inhabitants.
To protect themselves from the army and still make progress, the group decides to travel in hiding with a horde of biters. What they do not suspect yet: Among them is also the new zombie variety, which Elijah has dubbed “the clever ones”. When Lydia accidentally drops her knife, one of the “clever ones” picks up the weapon and now carries it with him. Presumably it is only a matter of time before the biter makes use of his find. The only question is who he will choose as his victim. From this point on, we can only hope that the group will escape with a scare…
The Walking Dead Season 11: “Let’s make the shit hit the fan!”
Meanwhile, Eugene (Josh McDermitt) must bow to the court of the Commonwealth, because although the citizens* demand his freedom, the judge sentences him to death. As a last resort, Max (Margot Bingham) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) ask Mercer (Michael James Shaw) for help, but he refuses to publicly stand up to Governor Milton (Laila Robins).
In his final appeal, Eugene states on the record in the courtroom that despite his impending fate, other people will stand up for justice because inaction would bring complicity, as Eugene experienced firsthand during his time with the Saviors. With that, unlike Max and Yumiko, he seems to get through to Mercer, as he intercepts him on his way through Death Row and greets him with the words, “Let’s make this shit happen!”
How exactly Mercer wants to save Eugene from death, what consequences this will conjure up in the Commonwealth, and what happens next for the companions outside the safe walls, we’ll hopefully find out in the upcoming episode, which will be available to stream on Disney+ airing on November 14, 2022.