The Walking Dead “What’s Been Lost” was written by Erik Mountain and was directed by Aisha Tyler. The episode gives us some terrific Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) action – and makes me even sadder that McBride opted out of the spin off series. We also find Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) faced with an impossible choice – but seriously doing the right thing in the end. Great performances from Reedus, McBride (really, does Carol EVER disappoint?), and Matsuura. And I’d be really remiss in not calling out Josh Hamilton (Hornsby), who has simply been a delight on the show. #RIP
The opening collage with Judith’s (Cailey Fleming) voiceover is of Carol’s miraculous transformation – and some serious words of wisdom: “the only thing more dangerous than the dead is the living. But without the living, we might as well be dead.” She goes on to say it’s not just about words but actions – and that’s going to play out in both storylines in the episode. The opening finishes with the importance of putting others’ lives ahead of our own – and aren’t those words that the world needs to hear right now??
Carol is fetching some food from the bakery for the group leaving when Ezekiel (Khary Payton) shows up to give her some extra medical supplies to take with her. She thanks him and turns around to continue packing her buns, telling him that she’s left him some extra bagels. I love how these two just continue to care for each other even if they don’t seem able to get back together. When she gets no answer, Carol turns around to see he’s gone and is then attacked herself! Naturally, Carol gets away.
Carol finds the wagon and supplies (and Daryl’s bike) deserted and strewn about. She also finds blood on the ground. We flash inside the warehouse beside all this to find Daryl in a fight to the death with a guy and another dead guy on the ground in the process of turning. Carol comes in and whacks the guy across the head with a 2x4. The dead guy turns and takes out his buddy – Daryl ends them both with a knife to the head. Daryl tells Carol that they’ve taken the kids, and she tells him that they’ve taken everyone!
The action switches to Pamela’s office where she assuring a number of people (WHO ARE THEY???) that she has everything under control. They tell her that they’re glad that their contributions to the Commonwealth’s future haven’t been in vain… The express condolences about Sebastian, but the meeting is interrupted by Yumiko – who decks the guard – AND IS HE WEARING A CRM UNIFORM???? – and demands answers. She tells Pamela to dismiss her guests because she isn’t leaving until she gets answers…
Pamela tells her that she’s been expecting her. Her friends have been removed because of their rebellion – which has been neutralized. Pamela tells her that she hired Yumiko to ensure justice prevailed – to restore order to chaos. She wants everyone to see that the trial of the person who killed Sebastian is impartial – and who better to do that than Eugene’s (Josh McDermitt) friend? Yumiko is supposed to prosecute Eugene! Yumiko is furious – but Pamela has two aces up her sleeve – she’s already got all of Yumiko’s friends – but then she also adds a threat to Tomi (Ian Anthony Dale). Pamela is calling a press conference and expects Yumiko to be there.
Daryl tells Carol that they jumped him – AND TOOK DOG!!! Carol asks if he thinks it was troopers, and Daryl says he thinks they were working for Pamela – but he doesn’t say he thought they were troopers – and wouldn’t he know all for them? Daryl suggests going to Mercer (James Michael Shaw), but Carol worries that he’d turn them in. Reluctantly, she suggests one other person: Hornsby…
Yumiko goes to see Tomi. She tells him all her friends have been taken from the Commonwealth and Pamela is demanding she prosecute Eugene. Tomi immediately realizes that Pamela probably threatened him too. He tells her that his advice isn’t what she’s going to want to hear. There isn’t some kind of justice waiting around the corner – it’s survival. The best way to save her friends is to sacrifice Eugene and do what Pamela wants. Is Tomi talking sense or just protecting his own skin?
As Yumiko goes to leave the hospital, she’s pulled into a closet by Connie (Lauren Ridloff), who managed to get away by stabbing one of them in the leg. She doesn’t know if anyone else got away. Yumiko tells her that she was right to run. Connie came to the hospital because she knew the guy she stabbed would need medical attention – and he’s in the next room! Connie is planning on following him when he leaves. Yumiko ways it’s too dangerous and they won’t be suspecting her if she follows. Connie points out that they can’t risk seeing each other again – and she’s got to go after Kelly (Angel Theory).
I loved Daryl and Carol working together to take out the troopers guarding Hornsby. They find Hornsby, covered in blood, playing with his coin. Sebastian (Teo Rapp-Olsson) is swimming in the blood and gore of what’s left of Roman. That could NOT have been fun to shoot! Daryl puts Sebastian down.
Daryl has Hornsby up against the wall by the throat, and then shoves his fingers into the wound on Hornsby’s face in an attempt to get answers. Carol pulls him off. She’s not much less brutal – she holds the point of her knife to his eye, telling him that they tell them where their friends are or he dies. He tells them he’ll show them – he knows a way out of the city. Daryl notices that he has a leg monitor on. Daryl isn’t prepared to carry Hornsby, so they can’t cut his leg off. Carol tells him that he better be prepared to run fast. He tells them he has something he has to do first. They are pretty much immediately set upon by troopers. Carol gets out with Hornsby, and Daryl tells her to go – he’ll hold them off and then catch up to her.
Yumiko does a terrible job of following the guy – who is dressed all in black like a good little CRM soldier. He notices her and she’s forced to give it up.
Pamela is planning a big press conference to win back the public. She has a new secretary. She’s interrupted by a phone call about Hornsby getting out, and we find out what Hornsby had to do. He’s chopped Sebastian up pretty thoroughly, but most gruesomely, he’s clearly stomped his head in and left his lucky coin in what’s left of Sebastian’s brains. Pamela is clearly furious.
Hornsby and Carol are going cross country. Hornsby realizes that the Commonwealth looks like a prison from out there. He tells her that she was right to leave Daryl behind – he was only slowing her down. And Dude. Really? Absolutely nothing else he could have said would have pissed Carol off more. He keeps laying the flattery on thick – she’s not like other people. She thinks ten steps ahead all the time. He marvels that no one else could have done what she just did. Then he says he hopes Daryl makes it – but that really is the thing that makes her most suspicious. She knows he doesn’t give a shit about Daryl and she wants to know what he’s really up to. She holds her gun on him, and he tells her to go ahead, but good luck finding her friends. They’re interrupted by a trooper patrol. Hornsby has a plan to lose them and gets Carol to follow him.
Yumiko goes to visit Eugene. He can’t believe that everyone is gone. McDermitt is fantastic. His eyes fill with tears. He tells her that it’s ok. He knows she has to prosecute him to the full extent of the law – he’s made his peace with it. But they still have to figure out where their friends are. He’s worried that the Governor will renege on her promise to let them go. He tells her that he has to believe that there is something that they can do – if they are all gone, he just won’t be able to live with it. Yumiko tells him that this isn’t his fault. Eugene tells her that it’s not her fault that she lost the guy Connie stabbed. Eugene tells her that they simply have to believe that this is NOT the end.
Hornsby leads Carol to an underground passage. He tells her again that he meant what he said about Daryl making it. It’s hard to find anyone these days who you would do anything for. He felt that way about Pamela, and thought he could make her feel the same way about him. They built the Commonwealth together, but she took all the credit, and now there’s nothing he could do to change the way she saw him – especially after what he did to Sebastian! He tells Carol he was the chauffeur’s son!
Hornsby wants to know what happens after. If they defeat Pamela, there will be a power vacuum and the civilians will suffer. Carol starts to get pissed off and wants to know what his point is. He tells her that after, she and her friends will hold the lives of 55,000 people in their hands! Carol looks a bit taken aback – but she tells him that until she finds her people there is no after – and she’s not worrying about that right now. Hornsby tells her that she’s going to have to decide if she’s going to let the Commonwealth burn. She tells him that’s not her problem. Hornsby then brings up the kids – oh, good one Hornsby! Don’t they deserve a better life?
Hornby and Carol smell something horrific and see what looks like skin. Hornsby is grabbed from low to the ground and dragged down by a walker. Carol kills it with a knife to the head, but Hornsby’s shouting has attracted a herd. Carol picks up her gun and starts shooting in the dark. One gets too close, and it’s a fantastic effect as she skins him! She pushes him off and shoots him. And then Hornsby shows up and turns the light on again, saying feebly that he thought she was right behind him. There are more walkers coming, so they take off running out of the tunnel…. But the troopers are waiting for them.
Carol drops her weapon as ordered. One trooper tells the other to radio it in and that they have the authority to shoot them if they put up a fight. But Daryl is there and shoots the troopers from behind.
Everyone is gathered for the big press conference. Pamela asks how her stroll in the square was earlier. She tells her that Connie was picked up and placed with the others. Pamela tells her that she admires the loyalty she has for her people. Yumiko tells her that she knows Pamela is only loyal to herself. Pamela tells her that Yumiko’s words will help restore order in the Commonwealth, but Yumiko points out that they’re not her words – “Just bullshit theatre.” Pamela asks Colonel Vickers (Monique Grant) if there is any update on the escapees – and that’s the first Yumiko has heard about it! Vickers tells her that they have their best people on it – but where is Mercer?
Yumiko is called to the microphone. As she passes Vickers, she hears over the radio that they’ve all got away. She starts off reading her script dutifully. She talks about becoming a lawyer again and upholding justice. She talks about growing to know and trust Eugene – and how the events of the last 24 hours have shaken her to her core. She talks about how one must always seek justice – and really, she does believe all this. She stops to thank her brother. She has him stand up and receive a round of applause. She tells them that Tomi is an invaluable and irreplaceable member of the community – it’s clearly her way of trying to protect him.
She then goes on to thank her people for always having faith in her and now she wants to show her faith in them and honor the pursuit of justice by announcing that she is going to DEFEND Eugene who has been wrongly accused! The crowd is half aghast and half applauding. Pamela is pissed!
Carol, Daryl, and Hornsby have arrived at a building. Daryl sees only two walking the perimeter. Hornsby says it shouldn’t be any problem for them to take them out. He’s clearly relying on them to protect him. Carol wants to know what then. Hornsby tells them he knows where the supply train goes. Carol says the Commonwealth has a working train?!?! Hornsby tells her that it’s part of a plan, of a vision. Connect communities all the way to the sea. Carol says connecting or conquering. Hornsby tells them they should move before dawn. Daryl says they will, but Hornsby won’t. Hornsby says that they still need him – Carol and Daryl both say they can get there without him – just wait for the train.
Hornsby insists that Carol heard him when he talked about making the Commonwealth better. She tells him she heard because he wouldn’t shut up – she didn’t sign on for it. Hornsby keeps babbling. Everyone can start again… Carol and Daryl agree – not him. Carol tells him that all he gets is a chance to run. Hornsby insists that he’s changed. And besides, he knows he won’t make it out there. Daryl says good, but Carol says he’s smart – he might make it. Hornsby walks past the jeep and stupidly picks up a gun. Carol takes him out with an arrow to the neck. She and Daryl drive away as Hornsby slowly spits blood.
The final scene is hooded figures on a bus. A trooper walks up and down the aisle, giving shots to the passengers. Ezekiel has woken up – but not for long. When he’s done, the trooper sits down in a locked section. The shot pans out and there is a very long convoy of buses heading down a dark road…
Great performances from Hamilton, Matsuura, McBride, and McDermitt in this episode. Clearly, Hornsby should never have left his lucky coin behind! I’m wondering if all roads are now leading to the Civic Republic. Where was Mercer during this episode? Is Yumiko betting on Daryl and Carol to save the day? But what if Daryl and Carol are travelling just as far from the Commonwealth as the rest of their people? Will they even be able to get back to help Eugene and Yumiko? And what will Mercer think if/when he finds out Princess was taken??!! What did you think of the episode? Thoughts/hopes about the last few episodes? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
