After a couple fast-paced and drama-filled episodes, the action slows down a skosh to focus on the aftermath of Eugene and Max’s uncivil disobedience and the ensuing Founder’s Day Riot. With Eugene behind bars and awaiting trial, the focus turns to two of the strongest “migrants,†as they’re now known in the Commonwealth. There’s Carol, now determined to find her missing friends, and Yumiko, who’s feeling pressure to prosecute her pal. In some alternative timeline, both of these heroines and Pam Milton are probably keynote speakers at a Women in Leadership conference. But with Pam’s rival, Hornsby, officially out of the picture, and her undead son now dead-dead, she’s showing her true colors and not winning any awards — except perhaps Despot of the Year.
What begins as a light moment with Carol’s bakery goes south fast as Zeke, like Rosita last week, is kidnapped (or more accurately, silently vanishes without a trace). That sends Carol out here on these streets hiding from troopers and finding Daryl in the midst of a nasty wrestling match with more Commonwealth covert-ops thugs. (Nice assist by zombie thug No. 1, who conveniently takes a bite out of thug No. 2.) Mercer can’t be trusted to help their rescue mission, so Carol suggests the one person who knows all the “dark shit†that lurks within the Commonwealth. What they find is a horror show: Hornsby covered in blood and babbling while Zombie Sebastian growls and crawls across a crimson-soaked floor. Daryl puts the kid out of his misery, but Hornsby doesn’t even notice — he just mumbles and spins his coin.
Daryl and Carol play bad-cop/worse-cop with Hornsby, who seems at first to be a shell of his former self. He later admits that feeding his former henchman to Pam’s son put him in a bad headspace, understandably. But, it doesn’t take long for the old schemer within him to resurface — he compliments Carol on pulling off his rescue and salutes her for always playing 4D chess. This is just before he leads her into a tunnel that’s prone to cave-ins and is also crawling with perhaps the most disgusting strain of zombie, the foul-smelling water-logged variety whose skin slides off when Carol grapples with one. In the middle of this treacherous path, Hornsby takes a moment to pose a long-game question: What happens if Pam is actually overthrown? Will Carol let the Commonwealth crumble? Or will someone rise up from the ashes of revolution to lead its 50,000-some citizens?
While Carol fends off moist munchers and contemplates post-apocalyptic political upheaval, Pam’s top priority is to make sure her wealthy donors are satisfied (good to see some things don’t change after society crumbles). The key to Pam’s PR plan — as she explains to her new notepad-carrying flunky who’s taken Max’s job — is to prosecute Eugene, restore order, and regain the public’s trust. The town “can’t feel like a police state,†she insists, at the very same time her armored stormtroopers and undercover kidnappers roam the streets. Pam puts the squeeze on Yumiko to prosecute Eugene, a move she hopes will send a strong message that the interlopers have been put in their place and justice will be served.
Of course, Miko ain’t down with this bullshit. Pam passive-aggressively threatens her brother, Tomichi, and even he suggests that Miko should go with the flow and do Pam’s bidding. Does he even know his sister, we wonder? Perhaps Miko wasn’t made of such unbendable moral fiber before the world fell. As fate and the TWD writers would have it, Connie literally appears out of nowhere with a long story that ends with Miko failing to spy on another kidnapper. With her loyalties revealed, Miko chooses the nuclear option.
Not since the days of Anthony Scaramucci has the world seen such a disastrous presser, at least from Pam’s perspective: Miko goes off script to thank her brother for his “invaluable and irreplaceable†service as the Commonwealth’s top doc, assuring that if anything happens to him, the people will not stand for it. Then Miko declares that she’s defending Eugene and looking forward to her day in court. Is there even another lawyer in the Commonwealth? If only Pam could call Saul.
Hornsby is probably the most likely candidate for sleazebag faux attorney, but his career as rainmaker/chaos agent/psychopath is about to end. As he and Carol emerge from the water-zombie tunnel, there just happens to be a Commonwealth trooper greeting party waiting for them. Hornsby conveniently left Carol in the dark in that tunnel, and now they walk right into police custody — sure seems like he’s angling to get rid of her and Daryl, who arrives just in time to mow down the troops. Hornsby reveals there’s a supply train that runs to and from the Commonwealth — a major asset in community rebuilding for whoever survives this fiasco — and quickly moves into self-preservation mode. He’s a changed man! The coin-flipping fast-talking suit-wearing murderer died in that cell! Carol and Daryl let him make a run for it, presumably just so we don’t see these two heroes kill an unarmed man in cold blood. But Hornsby proves he’s always gonna Hornsby. Before he can grab a police rifle and spin around to fire it, Carol puts a perfectly-placed arrow through his neck. Those final gurgles as Hornsby lays wide-eyed on the ground are disturbingly satisfying.
Now it’s up to Carol and Daryl to save their companions, who appear to be sedated and packed into a transport bus with burlap sacks over their heads. The camera zooms beneath one of the hoods and we see one open eye and one dreadlock. Moments later, a soldier sticks Zeke with a needle and he slumps over. Eugene’s trial may be the hottest story inside the Commonwealth, but the fate of the captives will likely decide its future and that of the entire region. Assuming the Smart Walkers don’t make a meal out of all of them first.