11.10: The Walking Dead - New Haunts

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The heroes experience Halloween in the Commonwealth; Daryl and Rosita undergo military training led by Mercer; Carol investigates Ezekiel's medical condition.

 

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I assume from the massive Halloween theme that this was originally aimed for the normal slot, making this as a second episode for autumn season. As a dedicated horror episode it really doesn't work, but as a look into how they settled with the Commonwealth 30 days after Dr Evil's introduction, it works very well.

AMC didn't spare on the PR front efforts on saying that the last season is very special, and it truly is, so a huge thank you for all of the crew and AMC's people. You truly have made the last season to be the best of The Walking Dead and I have no doubt that you have invested as much to the ending as you did to the beginning.

I apologise my harsh words during the course. They were meant for the good of this series. Big Thank You for Kirkman for making this world.

It is so good to see them smiling and happy, even wearing costumes as if the Old World is still existing. For Judith and other children this is the first time, when they see normality as far you can call it normal. But it's also equally weird that this happens during the invasion time, and we'll see commonwealth in the setup that mr pee meant for Ukraine.

I'm sorry if it bothers anything that I see parallels. It's just I can't help it. God blessed me with many gifts and this one of them. It is also interesting to see that the Commonwealth people took the people from ASZ as what we are doing at the moment with the evacuees. In the Commonwealth case, all their raffles and stuff are illusion and I assume that we see the reality spiralling down to the darkness.

Of our characters it was sweet and somewhat scary seeing Carol baking again. I kept thinking when she's going to turn Sweenie Todd and release the beast, but so far, she had kept the devil inside her. I think it's a good think as well as seeing Kingdom people being actually as happy as what they were when it was operational.

All while they were kept monitored by the Commonwealth Stormies. If the collective has accepted them, then why do they need be guarded so closely? Why Commonwealth don't keep their troops on the walls?

A working hospital, with staff having time to chat casually. That is a miracle. I liked that Carol used the old distraction tactics to get the keys. She too, as usually, must be wondering about all sorts of things and she's using her abilities to get some answers. I loved that she confessed to "snooping," and she used it to get to know about the secrets that the doctor should have kept quiet about.

"Would you keep that yourself?"

"Of course," Carol answered and wiped tears off from her eyes. "Does Ezekiel know how bad his chances are?"

Doctor sighed. "He knows the odds aren't good. But he doesn't know there's likely no chance he'll get the surgery." Oh, sweet little lies. Essentially all that Commonwealth is, is a lie. Big fat smelly turd that is slowly turning something very nasty. "Unless by some miracle he'll get pushed up the line."

If it wasn't obvious she's kept looking, even recruiting Judith to dig information on the "elite," and Carol found out that the elite has some very expensive tastes.

I cried at the end when King Ezekiel met her Queen Carol again. It felt good that they're doing a fresh start.

"Welcome to the Kill House," Mercer said. "In this exercise, killing is not your primary goal." Whaaaat? "I'm looking for speed and teamwork. Two teams of two will start the course simultaneously. One teams goes to house on right, the other team takes the house on left. There's one weapon to the team that must be shared. Your objective -- get through the house and all rotters inside."

Dude, there's easier ways to determine individual capabilities. It felt that what Mercer were doing were gladiator games. Stuff to amuse and to be as a game for some people to bet. There is no sense in anything that was going inside the kill houses.

I hated to see that the end result was Governor's brat son Sepastian. Dissing the weapons and acting as if he's the Champion of the Commonwealth with his "advanced training," when he knows really nothing about anything. He's just a pompous dick.

Mercer didn't wanted to explain anything about how the power get in the hands of the Spencer's family. I felt sick when I saw the elite in their party acting like bloody aristocrats. They were all acting as if there is no Kirkman's world outside the walls.

The most intriguing thing was that there were no guards in the ball. Only servants and the elite. One who has no idea on what it takes to keep the illusion going on. Governor Milton said, "Brick by brick, block by block we are putting world back together the way it was." For a moment it reminded me about "Make America Great Again" movement. Mrs Milton even has a blond hair.

"My father would be so proud to see what Commonwealth would become..."

"bullsh**," the former trooper shouted as he interrupted the party. "Do you really believe that the Commonwealth cares for all its citizens?" My trooper. It was too bad that Daryl was also in the party and went after the boy, when he realised he'd made a huge cock up.

"I just wanted to talk to her..."

Daryl talked the boy down, which is amazing for knowing how few words he''ll get to use. Then the ******* boy showed up...

Daryl handed the trooper willingly. You can see from his face that he knew that this was the end. And so did Daryl as he watched the Governor dispatching the boy as if he meant really nothing. "You know nothing. There's thousands of more like me," the former trooper shouted as they marched him out. "Resist the Commonwealth! Visibility for workers! Equality for all!"

"Are there thousands more?" Governor Mills asked.

"No," the mouthpiece answered.

"Make sure." Oh ma'am, you are out of your depth. There are billions and they are all DEAD. Try turning their heads. The cracks are starting to appear on the facade. So why is it exactly that while Daryl saw everything he got to lead the troopers?

Is he a resistance fighter or a yes-man? Taking the position got him and Judith a better place to live and some money to spend. I wonder if it's worth being an attack dog for the elite. I'd hate being in his shoes.

 

[REBerg]

Well, we've had the Governor and Woodbury, Alexandria and Deanna Monroe, and now, the Commonwealth and Gov. Pamela Milton.

Each has initially projected an appealing appearance of the good, old days before the zombie apocalypse, but both Woodbury and Alexandria proved to be more illusion than reality -- unable to withstand the onslaught of walkers and surviving nogoodniks outside their walls. With an underground resistance already undermining Gov. Milton's elitist authority, the Commonwealth may have even less time on its clock than Woodbury and Alexandria.

I thought the situation was well summarized in an exchange between Carol and Daryl in the first few minutes of the episode.
"Maybe we don't have to do anything to make it work," Carol said.
"No, there's always something you got to do to make it work," Daryl replied.

I am reasonably certain that Daryl is something less than a fully committed soldier under his Commonwealth armor. Otherwise, he would be sporting a Mercer-style haircut.

 

[nixie]

Weird, cultist, there are a lot of words to describe The Commonwealth.
The masquerade party, Pamela Milton, its wrong on so many levels.
The bratish, spoiled son, hopefully when he tries it on with Rosita she kills him.
Daryl is staying for the sake of Judith and RJ, he'll do what's needed to keep them safe.
I don't think the commander of the troops agrees with how things are run but goes along with it because he feels it's safer than what's outside the walls.
Problem is they use walkers to train troops one mistake and they will overwhelm the city. Some of them behind the walls haven't faced the dead or haven't recently. They haven't faced the constant danger our group has, Alexandrian children probably could put up a better fight.
Rosita worries me she looks to be buying into the myth.

 

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Each has initially projected an appealing appearance of the good, old days before the zombie apocalypse, but both Woodbury and Alexandria proved to be more illusion than reality -- unable to withstand the onslaught of walkers and surviving nogoodniks outside their walls. With an underground resistance already undermining Gov. Milton's elitist authority, the Commonwealth may have even less time on its clock than Woodbury and Alexandria.

Well, everytime Ricknation people have moved, another community has struggled to cope with new influx. They don't know that it's end of the days or they'd all be partying.

I don't think the commander of the troops agrees with how things are run but goes along with it because he feels it's safer than what's outside the walls.

He might not agree but he's willing to walk the extra mile to keep the status quo. I wonder what the governor is holding over his head to keep him so loyal?

 

[Dave]

It reminded me of the community in The Walking Dead: World Beyond.

They don't know that it's end of the days or they'd all be partying.

SPOILERS Follow

World Beyond indicated that there was still quite a large number of people alive. TWD and FTWD give the impression that hardly anyone is left (especially FTWD.) I think the greatest threat to the living is that the population falls to such a low level that recovery is impossible, which is why the Civic Republic exterminating communities because they cannot feed them all doesn't make a great deal of sense.
In the Commonwealth we saw a large number of children...

Daryl is staying for the sake of Judith and RJ, he'll do what's needed to keep them safe.

I agree with that idea, but how is it they have they nurtured so many children. Are they just very lucky compared to every other community and never been attacked, or come into contact with the CR, the Whisperers, the Saviours.... This also seems a little beyond belief.

 

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Are they just very lucky compared to every other community and never be attacked or come into contact with the CR, the Whisperers, the Saviours.... This also seems a little beyond belief.

Seems very unlikely. They iterated in the dialogue that people had gone missing, but nobody talks about other groups, only that they'd been assimilated. Helicopter people should definitely know about them.

 

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I can't get rid of that image of a ballroom and the elite party out of my mind, while the Ukraine conflict is going. It's true that I research and write on that side, mainly for the audience of military minded people, but it's the corruption that is striking me most.

In the Fear we saw the elite going down with the rest, when the Dead arrived and the Dead didn't care if you had Rolex on your wrist or not. In TWD we saw the original Governor trying to hold on the Old World tooth and nail. He even invaded the Prison with his mighty, tiny tank and got his bottom handed out to him.

Every single place, even the Reaper camp got through a revolution and they were only a morally corrupted. It's almost as soon as TWD crew arrives to a sight of any place, the blinders are stripped away soon later, while the carnage happens. But they do it for righteous reasons, even if some of the occasions are super dubious ones.

Commonwealth feels like a humongous trap. More so then what the Terminus was. It is the end place, where they have to fight their way out and then it's a question of who survives. I'm also intrigued to know if we will see Negan and Michonne again, or will they be in the Rick movies?

 

[nixie]

I know the current conflict is on everyone's mind but please remember to keep it off the forums.

 

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Though they don't see eye-to-eye just yet, Reedus says it's only a matter of time before the Mercer-Dixon dynamic turns from friendly fire to friends.

"I knew as soon as he and I were kind of [butting heads] that we were going to team up and be friends. I knew that was coming," Reedus said in an exclusive interview with ComicBook's Brandon Davis. "But that relationship's interesting because, as backward as that place Commonwealth is... he's the poster for the place. He's the hero of the place. They love him there."

Mercer takes Daryl and Rosita along for the spoiled Sebastian Milton's (Teo Rapp-Olsson) "advanced military training," teaching the privileged punk how to survive and kill rotters. Though the Commonwealth's upper-class elite looks down on the working class, "This place is as good as anything I've seen. It'll give you a decent life if you can cut it, and I want you to succeed," Mercer tells Daryl. "But you gotta get out of your own damn way."

"You can tell that he doesn't all think it's roses right off the bat. And I think that's something that is very evident to him, to Daryl, and to Rosita, when they meet him for the first time. So I kind of had a feeling," Reedus said of Daryl's growing understanding with General Mercer. "I was like, I know how The Walking Dead works. So it's like, we hate each other, we're probably going to be friends. It's not my first rodeo. I know what's what."

Five months in the future, soldier Daryl and a squad of white-armored troopers show up at the Hilltop gates in a tense standoff with leader Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan). "He's very reluctant. I mean, Daryl's been wearing the same pants since season two, you know what I'm saying?" Reedus said of the six-month time skip ending last week's episode. "He's very kind of... He's himself. You ever put a dog in the shower, and they're like, 'Yah!' That's kind of what [Daryl's like]."

Norman Reedus Teases "Interesting" New Relationship on The Walking Dead

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “New Haunts” episode of The Walking Dead. “Sometimes we have to set each other up to win,” the armored General Mercer tells trooper recruit Daryl in “New Haunts.” 30 days after Alexandria’s residents relocate to the Commonwealth, Daryl (Norman...

comicbook.com

When you read this next piece you will go oh, because I certainly did and I couldn't figure out the connection. Now it's obvious. Bless.

There was some dad-daughter bonding on the set of The Walking Dead. King Ezekiel actor Khary Payton reveals that's daughter, Maya, making a cameo as the mini Mercer in Sunday's episode. In "New Haunts," the Commonwealth celebrates Halloween with a carnival and a costume contest judged by Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins). She awards the first-place prize of 10 lottery tickets to Celeste, a young resident dressed as the red-armored General Mercer (Michael James Shaw) of the Commonwealth Army. Payton has shared a behind-the-scenes look at his daughter's cameo on The Walking Dead, which you can watch in the above clip exclusively revealed by ComicBook.

"When I got this job, my daughter, Maya, wasn't too happy. It meant I would be away in Georgia much of the year," Payton wrote during a takeover of The Walking Dead's Instagram account Sunday. "She'd say, 'Just quit, daddy. Adults quit their jobs all the time!' I'd fly home as often as I could but during the pandemic, it's been especially tough. That's why this episode means so much to me."

Payton's post continues, "Maya played the part of Celeste, a little girl who dresses up as Mercer for Halloween. We had an awesome day. She was so professional and so committed to telling her small part of the story. I could not be more proud."

The Walking Dead Cameo You Might Have Missed in "New Haunts"

There was some dad-daughter bonding on the set of The Walking Dead. King Ezekiel actor Khary Payton reveals that’s daughter, Maya, making a cameo as the mini Mercer in Sunday’s episode. In “New Haunts,” the Commonwealth celebrates Halloween with a carnival and a costume contest judged by...

comicbook.com

 

[REBerg]

Commonwealth feels like a humongous trap. More so then what the Terminus was. It is the end place, where they have to fight their way out and then it's a question of who survives.

At least they didn't serve rebel rump roast at the Commonwealth gala.

 

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At least they didn't serve rebel rump roast at the Commonwealth gala.

Are you sure? Maybe there were nibbles made from rebels. But you are also right, maybe the elite are cannibals and that's why there aren't that many people. Everyone has been told to be quiet or they'll be next.

 

[Jeffbert]

Interesting discussion! The possibility that Daryl might turn 'against' Alexandria for their own good, or at least appear to be doing so! But there very few episodes remaining!

 

[Mr Cairo]

Interesting discussion! The possibility that Daryl might turn 'against' Alexandria for their own good, or at least appear to be doing so! But there very few episodes remaining!

Looking at the history of the walking dead I am predicting something along the lines of this,

Daryl and the rest of the Alexandrians know something is wrong in the commonwealth, With Mercers help they get Daryl in a position of power but don't have enough people to take over the commonwealth

cue lots of flashbacks showing Maggie and Daryl working out a way to get all the Alexcandrians into the commonwealth

Coo takes place and ends with a council being formed not a leader although no doubt it will be Eugene, Ezekiel, Father Gabriel and Maggie in charge of the commonwealth

Daryl turning on Maggie the way they are trying to make it look like he has ...never happen, I think this is all flim flam.

 

[nixie]

Coo takes place and ends with a council being formed not a leader although no doubt it will be Eugene, Ezekiel, Father Gabriel and Maggie in charge of the commonwealth

You've probably hit the nail on head. Although I wouldn't have Eugene or Father Gabriel anywhere near the council.
Ezekiel may not survive, hopefully he will go due to his illness with Carol and Jerry at his side , not from some meaningless sacrifice.
I'd go for Aaron, Maggie and Rosita.
Odd number no tied votes.
Rather not have Maggie, she is to unpredictable but she wouldn't settle for anything less.

 

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cue lots of flashbacks showing Maggie and Daryl working out a way to get all the Alexcandrians into the commonwealth

I don't think it'll happen as we have seen Hilltop people, including Maggie showing a long face for Commonwealth turning up on the gates. I assume there was resistance on moving and they split. So getting those people into Commonwealth is going to need some doing, when a lot of them say, "I ain't going, p*ss off."

 

[Mr Cairo]

I don't think it'll happen as we have seen Hilltop people, including Maggie showing a long face for Commonwealth turning up on the gates. I assume there was resistance on moving and they split. So getting those people into Commonwealth is going to need some doing, when a lot of them say, "I ain't going, p*ss off."

Yeah but I think thats all part of the way its get done I think that is all being done as a test for Daryls loyalty "go arrest your old friends to prove yourself" and this is all being done for show

I just don't see Daryl ever being the police and I really dont see him turning on hilltop.

I mean I am probably wrong but Daryl has never been one to follow those kind of rules.

 

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I mean I am probably wrong but Daryl has never been one to follow those kind of rules.

True but there are still way to go till we reach that six month timeline. A lot can happen and there has been moments, where he has considered flipping. I too don't think it'll ever happen, but he's also realist.