Another new Walking Dead episode and another montage intro. This time it was all centered around Eugene and his backstory about being a coward in season 4. This intro directly correlated with the main episode storyline, which was cool, and I like them so far. Although, this episode seemed a little slow to me, mainly taking up most of the time with interrogations about Eugene and the Commonwealth looking for Eugene. I give season 11 episode 19 “Variant”, a two out of five stars. The episode didn’t even touch on the new variant walkers enough to me either…
Eugene Turns Himself In
Most of episode 19 revolved around the Commonwealth looking for Eugene and various characters getting questioned for the murder of Sebastian Milton. Princess, Max, Rosita, and Daryl were all questioned. Most of them didn’t give Mercer much but Princess and Max did. Princess realized that most of the men in the world are bad and seem like her abusive father, so Mercer and Princess broke their relationship at the end of this episode, and Princess is leaving with the rest of the group back to Hilltop or Alexandra. Max is making Mercer believe that the way that the Commonwealth runs things through Pamela Milton is wrong and Mercer should rise up for the greater good of the civilians and not to think through the eyes of a Milton worker anymore. I believe that by the end of the series, if Lance doesn’t kill Pamela, Mercer will and be the new leader of the Commonwealth. While the group is getting integrated, Daryl and Rosita is helping Eugene stay hidden in Gabriel’s church. By the end, Eugene turns himself into Mercer because he is tired of being a coward and not brave. Rosita and Eugene had a powerful goodbye before he turned himself in, making me believe that both of them are not going to make it out of the series alive. Eugene even gave Rosita his necklace for Coco, for her to remember him by. All signs point for Eugene to die by the end of the series, but I feel like its too obvious, so I am going to go with Rosita. One of them will see the other again, but it will be in walker form. At the end of the episode, Rosita gets captured while trying to leave the community by some Commonwealth soldiers, so episode 20 will go right into the capture of most of our group and Daryl trying to break them out of there.
The “Variant” Walkers
While on the road to Oceanside, Jerry got injured by trying to move a horse cart that was stuck and the rest of the group had to stay the night at an abandoned renaissance fair. We got a cute moment between Lydia and Aaron by Aaron telling Lydia to just go for her feelings because you don’t know how long we have in the world and you’ll want one more memory before they are gone. Lydia was hesitant to give into her feelings for Elijah because of the whole Henry situation in season 9, but after Aaron brought up the story after his marriage fell through, he met Eric, and he misses him to this day. As a result, Lydia kissed Elijah at the end of the episode, and I feel like one of them is going to die before the end of the series. However, the episode did highlight some walkers that were “new” to The Walking Dead, that was mentioned before in the series finale of World Beyond. The group saw some walkers that could climb walls, open doors, and pick up a rock. Aaron thought it was Whisperers but after taking off their face, he found out that they were normal walkers. This episode didn’t go into the “new” walkers as much as I thought it would but I feel like we will see them pop up now and then before the series is over and they will definitely spill into the spinoff shows. Also, Aaron looks like he is going to be the big death in season 11. Every time he is highlighted, he talks about loss or being lucky to still be here. I feel like his character is on the table for the episode 24 death.