A Walking Dead episode without Daryl Dixon… Who would have thought? And before you give me “what about the Covid episodes in the extended season 10”, no that doesn’t count… But episode 11 was really good. It showed a side of Eugene that we haven’t got since season 8. He finally opened up and let his heart do the thinking but ended up getting hurt in the end. This episode revolved around Eugene and Princess looking for “Stephanie” after she was pressumed to be kidnapped. This is how “Rogue Element” got its name. Eugene believed that the plumber inside the Commonwealth kidnapped her and a rogue element was the reason why. Episode 11 produced a huge twist at the end that I didn’t even see coming. I give “Rogue Element” a 4 out of 5 stars just for that moment alone… This episode also revolved around Kelly and Connie trying to find the truth about the Commonwealth and what really happened to Tyler Davis by interviewing several people inside the community. Mercer was visibly upset about the actions and questions that transpired because of the Tyler Davis fiasco last episode. Mercer is an important character to look out for in season 11B. I believe he is going to go off the deep end and there are already signs that he is going to. Maybe he’s the one to expose the Commonwealth for what they truly are. He is becoming my favorite “new” character in the series.
Eugene and Princess Plan to Find “Stephanie”
Eugene seemed like he found the girl of his dreams in Stephanie. They woke up in bed together, she read the first draft of his science fiction novel, and even said I love you to each other. This was the first time that Eugene finally opened up to a girl and gave his true feelings to her (if you exclude Rosita). He was definitely in love but that usually spells a disaster in a zombie apocalypse. She ended up ghosting him and she was never seen again. Since Eugene is head over heels over this girl, he starts to worry that something seriously happened to Stephanie so he makes a missing person board for her. Eugene tells Princess his plan to find what happened to her. His theory is that the plumber inside the Commonwealth kidnapped her and she is held up inside their place of business. They went to investigate the plumber’s apartment but ends up getting caught by several Commonwealth soldiers. Lance lets them go but requires Eugene to sign a document that his mind wasn’t right and has some mental health problems. Princess ends up telling Eugene stuff that he doesn’t want to hear and gets his heart broken. Princess tells him look at the facts why Stephanie left in the first place: signing a work order to move jobs, a moving company moving her stuff out of her apartment, and her leaving without saying goodbye. Princess tells Eugene to move on with his life but he isn’t done trying to find Stephanie. His next course of action is to go to where the plumbers all work…
“Stephanie’s” True Identity Revealed
When Eugene gets to the plumber’s business he gets jumped by a few of the workers. He is on the verge of giving up until he sees Stephanie on the steps with a familiar face, Lance Hornsby. Eugene finally figures out who Lance truly is. Lance is the one that is going to overthrow the Commonwealth and is working from the inside to overthrow Pamela. Lance told him all about his plan of hiring Stephanie to find Eugene, Princess, Yumiko, and Ezekiel to kidnap them in the train car, go to the Commonwealth, Stephanie to spy on Eugene to get him to trust her, tell her about everything about their communities, and to read his book. I believe that Lance is going to kill Pamela by the end of episode 16, unless Mercer steps in and ends up killing Lance in the process. But the biggest bombshell of them all is Stephanie is a spy and not even named Stephanie. Stephanie’s real name is Shira… Many Walking Dead fans, including myself, theorized that Shira was a fake and the real Stephanie was out there. The ending scene pulled at your heart strings again by seeing Eugene defeated that his “true love” was a fake and just a pawn in an elaborate scheme. He is seen sitting by a fire burning his book until a woman approaches the gate asking for his help. The woman is “Max”, Pamela’s assistant, but that isn’t her real name… Max tells Eugene that she is the real Stephanie that he was talking to on the radio in season 9. If you aren’t convinced by now, she even calls Eugene “tater bug”, something that only she would know. Walking Dead fans were also right on calling that “Max” was the real Stephanie all along…
Connie’s & Kelly’s News Reporting
Connie and Kelly went on a Commonwealth mission with Mercer and several Commonwealth soldiers to find out the truth about Tyler Davis. Although their initial mission was bust because Connie ended up writing what they wanted to hear from Pamela’s press release inside their newspaper, the end brought up more questions for the community. They got an anonymous letter that had a lot of Commonwealth names on it that felt like the Commonwealth wasn’t as it seemed. It confirmed it because Tyler Davis was the last name on the list. I think that the list is the people that got exiled from the community and was sent away for silence. I have a fear that Connie’s or Kelly’s way of news reporting is going to get her killed because they want to expose the truth about these people, but that’s something to worry about for episode 15 or 16… However an important thing to note from their news reporting is that they found out from Mercer that Pamela’s assistant, “Max”, is Mercer’s sister. That could come into play in the next episode or down the line in season 11.