Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul and after a massive hiatus due to the pandemic, the walking dead is back with it’s season finale.
Episode 16 has just dropped on AMC and though I know it airs on TV tomorrow I thought I’d get this out in between the two releases so people can check it out.
Throughout this, we’re gonna be breaking down everything that you need to know about the entry as well as our thoughts on where things could be going in the future.
There will be Heavy Spoilers here so if you haven’t had a chance to check out the episode yet then I highly recommend that you turn off now.
With that out the way, thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into our breakdown!
The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 16 Recap
Ok so the finale very much deals with the culmination of the whisperer war. Alpha is dead and the last time we saw Beta he was descending on the abandoned hospital that the survivors had set up as their base.
We pick up in the midst of this with the undead at the door but there is hope in the unity that the four central locations have. I love the little fist thing that Gabriel does to count the kingdoms and throughout history fists have been used as symbol of Defiance.
Where they are together Beta’s actual forces are at the bare minimum and this episode is very much about the few vs the many. Now it’s been a long long time since episode 15 dropped and you may have forgotten exactly what was going on.
Basically there are several survivors out in the wilderness looking for forces that will help them and alongside Maggie, Princess was also discovered. Kelly told Carol last episode that her superpower was going off on her own but like she learned, no one is an island and we are all stronger together.
This is exemplified in Eugene’s arc in this entry as initially he seems completely defeated, however Ezekiel helps him find his strength and pulls him back on his feet. I think this episode definitely feels like it’s about community and even though they’re living on borrowed time you really got the feeling of the heart of the show which I felt was missing throughout the prior season.
This aesthetic of trying to bring everyone together massively plays into the ending of the episode and though we don’t see this group as much as we should, the way things end makes it seem like they somewhat completed that goal, though what’s around the corner we don’t quite know.
There’s more family talk here than a fast and the furious film and I think seeing Lydia forgive Carol over what happened is a mark of just how far she’s come. She’s not looking for another mother but she has found one in her and a father figure in Negan.
I have to say, I missed these guys and it’s great to see them back.
He gives Lydia her mothers mask and says that he’s pretty much taking the easy way out. Lydia has this option too and she could easily blend in with the undead but unlike him she chooses to stay behind with the community.
Now Negan, of course, comes back but we’ll talk about that later.
The Plan
The plan is to lead the undead off the edge of a cliff and leave the Death Stranding and a lot of the entry centres around the group formulating a plan before they enact it. It really feels like the calm before the storm for a lot of the entry and even when they come face to face with the dead they tend to use their wits more than their fists.
With the guts of the walkers, they once more create camouflage for themselves and though this has been done several times in the show before, I don’t think it’s ever been this tense. Never before have we seen the survivors going against an army like this and though it isn’t balls to the wall action it’s still thrilling to watch.
Using archers for cover the brave survivors that head out into the herd manage to draw them away from the hospital. However the whisperers manage to stab Beatrice which makes her scream out in agony. It’s heartbreaking seeing Carol having to leave her behind because the duty she has means more than her death.
Now it’s at this point that Lydia arrives with her mothers mask and decides that she wants to help.
Burning Down The House
Playing The Talking Head’s song “Burning Down The House” they lead the horde away from the hospital whilst taking out the whisperers as they try and sabotage their plan.
I really hoped that this was some foreshadowing that would end with the survivors burning down the house Beta thought he was speaking to some Talking Walker Heads but unfortunately the showrunners don’t love crap puns as much as I do.
It’s here where things really pick up and The Whisperers manage to shut down the wagon whilst they storm the hospital, forcing Gabriel to remain behind to buy the others time. Just before they’re about kill him Maggie arrives and elsewhere we see that Negan has actually gone after Beta.
The Death Of Beta
He knocks him on his back and Daryl stabs him in the eyes and the character begins to hallucinate that he’s being almost surrounded like Jesus. He’s unmasked and Negan recognises him and asks if Daryl knows who he is. He replies “yeah, nobody” but as we know, the character was actually a rock star before the world went to hell and one of his LP’s was even spotted in Fear The Walking Dead as a cool little easter egg.
Now due to the wagon being dismantled, someone has to sacrifice themselves and lead the walkers over the edge. Whilst Lydia was originally going to do this Carol takes over this herself and this again calls back to her super power being her ability to go off on her own.
She’s just about to end her life, however she’s saved by Lydia who of course embraces her as a mother figure now and we watch as the horde all walk off the edge of the cliff like when you used to get bored in lemmings and send everyone to their death.
Lydia tosses the mask over the edge too, symbolically throwing her mothers hold over her along with her horde and the survivors are finally free with the looming threat over their heads now gone.
In the end, Maggie is reunited with the group properly, namely Judith and I would actually love to see her become her maternal figure now that Michonne has also stepped away from the series. Maggie of course delivered Judith from Laurie so there is a lot they can do here.
We still don’t know who her companion is but make sure you let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Negan has remained behind too and when this season first started I never thought I’d actually like him as much as I do but by far my favourite character.
Carol And Daryl Spinoff Show
Finally we get Carol and Daryl and as we now know the two are going off and doing their own thing together at some point in a spin-off show. Now this won’t actually be coming out until 2023 so there’s still a lot of things that could happen in between now and then.
We don’t have very many plot details just yet but we do know that it will predominantly be a road show that centres around them going out into the world to see who’s left. Norman Reedus said that the pair will encounter a revolving group of people so every week will have a different cast of characters that they bump into.
This sort of monster of the week thing will allow for some really big name actors to come on board and do standalone so there’s a lot to look forward to.
Virgil
Now elsewhere see Connie waking up in the woods completely broken and she collapses on the floor before being found by Virgil.
It’s sort of like history repeating itself and though Virgil might not be the bad guy that he once was, I’m still really worried for Connie because she’s in a very vulnerable position.
I think Virgil will wrestle with his inner nature and he could even be tempted to turn back to his old way. Because of the way he picks Connie up he actually has the potential to paint himself out as a good samaritan. I kinda got those sort of vibes from him here and in the story the samiratan, of course, came across someone in trouble and helped them out. Now that could mean that he’s gonna actually redeem himself and heal her or like we said, turn into a villain once more.
I guess we will see but the episode ends on a huge cliffhanger that actually lets us know where the show is heading from now on.
The Commonwealth
Eugene and co arrive at their destination to find it seemingly abandoned but rather than turning back they decide to press on and find more like-minded people.
He is one really horny dude and just as they have a moment of Levity they’re surrounded by some power ranger looking dudes who seem like they’re something out of a time travel movie.
Now this is actually the commonwealth who have been teased for quite a while now.
The commonwealth are actually a massive community made up of over 50,000 survivors and in this infrastructure they’ve build up a massive base of shops, commodities and pretty much got things back to the way that they were before the apocalypse.
People have jobs, there’s banks, barbers and it’s basically all the good things we had before 2020.
Now though you would think that this would be amazing, as with all societies, there’s a structure in which the higher ups rule over the lower classes and they can often be corrupt and selfish.
The commonwealth view themselves as superior to all and this means that they don’t really accept others in.
Heck, these soldiers are intimidating enough as it is.
Now we actually also now have the release of the Walking Dead world beyond which could even be taking place in the commonwealth. I haven’t had a chance to check out the show just yet but I do know that it’s set 10 years after the apocalypse in a time when society has pulled itself together and learned to live alongside the walkers.
I don’t wanna go too in-depth on it as like I said I haven’t seen it yet and it might not be set at the commonwealth but yeah lots of potential avenues they can go.
Your Thoughts
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode so make sure you comment below and let me know.
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