‘The Walking Dead’ Delivers a Shocking Change From the Comics in ‘A New Deal’ (RECAP) – jacksonprogress-argus

[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2, A New Deal.]

Well, were definitely not getting The Walking Deads source material ending.

That much is made clear by the surprising final minutes of A New Deal, which sees Sebastian Milton (Teo Rapp-Olsson) wind up as walker chow. Given the impact Sebastian has on that storys final events in the comics, its a shock to those who expected something similar to happen on the show. But first, quite a bit happens in the episode before we get to his big death.

Jace Downs/AMC

Just as Team Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) are about to come to blows, Carol (Melissa McBride), Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) walk in. (How did they get there so quickly? Meh, who cares.) Pamela de-escalates the situation and takes Hornsby into custody for Sebastians crimes, but not without Daryl stabbing him in the hand first. Dont worry, he says, as Hornsby screams in pain. Hell live.

The whole group goes back to the Commonwealth, although some depart to start rebuilding Alexandria; Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Lydia (Cassady McClincy) among them. Lydia has a particularly heartfelt goodbye with Carol, which makes it at least questionable whether these two characters will see each other again. On a show like this, emotional goodbyes are always suspect! Plus, Judith (Cailey Fleming) tries to tell Daryl they should try to help the people of the Commonwealth, which is not what her semi-adoptive dad wants to hear. Goddammit, just stop! he snaps. Stop it. Yikes, Daryl. Yikes. Him getting angry at Judith, I understand but the swearing just felt mean.

Most of the episode revolves around a Commonwealth celebration called Founders Day, which is exactly what it sounds like: a day that celebrates the communitys founding under the Miltons. Judith goes missing after Daryls outburst only to be found hiding in Gabriels (Seth Gilliam) church, and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Stephanie (Margot Bingham) go to Hornsby for damaging information about Pamela only to be told theyd be better off making nice with her than trying to bring her down. As Hornsby says, its impossible to bring down the Miltons without toppling the entire Commonwealth.

Jace Downs/AMC

If Hornsby wont help them, they opt to get that damaging information for themselves in the form of a confession. As part of Founders Day, Sebastian is expected to give a rousing speech. Stephanie, however, gets him to admit that the whole things a joke; the random lottery at the celebration is rigged, and in fact, the whole place is rigged so that the rich can do what they want while the poor stay poor. The Commonwealth is built on buying into bulls**t, he says. Unwittingly, hes said all of this on a tape recording.

Later, at the ceremony, Sebastian steps up to the podium to give his speech and instead, what comes out is his rant to Stephanie. Naturally, the common people of the Commonwealth arent pleased to hear themselves called pathetic and that their whole lives are lies. And while all of this has been happening, Hornsbys mysterious group killed a group of workers, who then turned into walkers. The unrest and the undead throw the party into total chaos. People scream, run, get devoured by the dead only Judith and Daryl seem able to fight back.

Realizing Stephanie was responsible for his embarrassment, Sebastian tries to throw her to a walker. Instead, he ends up struggling with one, and as he screams for help, not a single member of the Commonwealth lifts a finger to save him. The walker tears into his neck, and he bleeds out in the street as his snide recorded voice echoes through the streets.

Jace Downs/AMC

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'The Walking Dead' Delivers a Shocking Change From the Comics in 'A New Deal' (RECAP) - jacksonprogress-argus

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero