Now that is how you respond to a meh episode one and a season premiere too. A lot of the things in episode two I loved. The only thing that I did not love was the cliffhanger, which I said in my episode one review. We all knew that Maggie was going to survive the fall from the train car. The opening scene of episode two, AMC was still setting up Maggie’s death but it was too predictable that she was going to get out of it. Another thing I did not like about this episode was Maggie’s monolgue about her witnessing a death and she isn’t effected by it anymore, but i’ll get to that later. Like I said, I loved a lot of things about this episode. I loved all of the walker kills, Negan’s “redemption”, the tension between Maggie and Alden and Negan, Eugene’s acting throughout the episode, and the major twist at the end! This was a strong episode and I enjoyed it a lot. I give Acheron Pt. 2 a 8/10!
We have to start with Maggie… Maggie was a rollercoaster throughout this episode. First, she was saved by the bottom of the bus by crawling to an opening and performing an SOS signal in morse code until Alden saved her. She channeled her inner Glenn by crawling under the bus, like he did in season 6 by saving himself by crawling under the dumpster. Then she went ballistic to Negan by not saving her and leading her to fall, but I don’t blame him at all. If she wants to kill him at all times, why bend over backwards to try to save her. Maggie hit Negan with her gun by the end of the episode their relationship is turning around. Reluctantly, she gave him a gun to help fight off walkers when they got into the train and when Negan went to give it back to her at the end, Maggie told Negan to keep it. You might be asking yourself, how did the walkers get into the train? Well, you know how Gage and Roy left the group to go back to Alexandra with all of the supplies… They never made it back and Gage ended up on the bus but forgot to close the door. Faced with walkers all behind him Gage pleaded to the group to help him but Maggie said “We do not have the ammo to waste.” Alden and Negan wanted to help Gage but the others insisted not to. This brought Gage to his death and a lot of tension between Maggie and Alden and Negan. Negan was definitely thinking I told you so… Maggie’s reasoning was when she was her old community she saw a ton of people die, in more gruesome ways, so she doesn’t feel anything anymore, but I don’t believe that at all.
Check out Gage’s death below:
On the flip side, Eugene’s group made some serious progress to the Commonwealth. Yumiko made the group stay after she saw a picture of her brother on the missing person board. Yumiko wanted everyone to keep quiet and let her do all the talking from now on in processing, since she is a Harvard lawyer, but Eugene did not follow the rules. Eugene kept seeing all of his friends leave him and never returning so he took matters into his own hands. He told the truth to Mercer about why he was at the railroad station to begin with. He came clean about the radio he has, the stuff about Stephanie, and even the fact that he still is a virgin, but still recounts that he’s seen sex a bunch of times (shoutout to Abraham and Rostia). However, he did not say he was from Alexandra or say where it was. Eugene’s truthfulness paid off because he got dropped off at a train car with Mercer and he was reunited with Ezekiel, Princess, and Yumiko. They told him that they helped them all and Mercer told the group that they were accepted to the Commonwealth. Eugene even saw Stephanie at the end of the episode. I am very excited to see what the Commonwealth brings us this season, what it looks like inside, how it is going to help the survivors, and if anything inside will connect to Rick Grimes.
The ending scene brought me with absolute surprise. I did not expect to see the Reapers or them killing a person from the group. If Negan’s entrance is one, being so badass, the Reapers have to be second. They instantly killed Roy by shooting an arrow at his head and slashing Cole so he is severely hurt. The Reapers aren’t to be messed with. Maggie wasn’t joking around. She did say that if you saw them, they probably would be dead. Daryl and company will get out of it but I think certain people won’t be as lucky. You’ll have to check out my episode 3 prediction article to find out, but I think one of Maggie’s people will be killed. We also know that Daryl is going to be captured by a person named Pope so I want to see how that shakes down. This is all leading to the Daryl and Leah reunion I was talking about earlier but I wonder how long the Reapers will be around for…
Check out the ending scene below: