The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 11 Review

The Walking Dead

Hostiles and Calamities

Season 7 Episode 11 Review

**SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW, EPISODE AND COMICS FOLLOW, 

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**

Generally "The Walking Dead" airs an episode during Oscars that isn't their best, at least in my opinion.  One year it was when Beth and Daryl were on the run, and the biggest event that happened was that Beth tried moonshine for the first time.  Another year was when Beth was at Grady Memorial, in which again nothing really huge happened.  This year the episode focused solely on Eugene and Dwight, two secondary characters that I really don't care much about, so thankfully once again they aired what I feel is their weakest episode during the one time out of the year I don't watch it.

So when I finally got around to watching it, I found it a rather mediocre episode that totally deviated from the comics, and once again established Eugene as a coward - or the smartest undercover spy in the history of the show.

The episode began with the discovery of Fat Joey's body, and Dwight discovering Daryl had escaped, along with the note that said "go now."  Negan returns with Eugene and is obviously upset, and has Dwight beaten up and locked in Daryl's cell - which used to belong to Dwight - and tells him he thinks Sherry helped Daryl escape, because both of them are now gone.  Dwight vows to go find Sherry and prove she didn't do it.

Dwight heads to an abandoned house outside the Sanctuary where he and Sherry planned on meeting if she would ever escape, but instead of finding her, he finds a note that confesses helping Daryl escape, because she didn't want Dwight to remember who he used to be, because he suffers from short-term memory loss.  

Meanwhile, Eugene finds life at the Sanctuary a lot more accommodating than Daryl did.  He has his own room with all the luxuries including a fully stocked fridge and video gaming system, and after impressing Negan with his idea of using molten metal to keep the Walkers guarding the fence from disintegrating, he's graced with the visit of three of Negan's wives - Tanya, Frankie and Amber.  He lies to everyone by telling them he was an important member of the Human Genome Project - the same lie he told Abraham to have him protect him - and Negan seems to buy it.

While Eugene plays video games, Tanya and Frankie look on while Amber stays back, getting drunk.  Eugene takes them out and ignites a balloon filled with hydrogen that pleases the wives, and then they ask Eugene for help - Amber wants to commit suicide and they need some pills for her so she could die peacefully.  Eugene agrees to help the girls and gathers the necessary ingredients - including a stuffed animal for himself that he calls a "grumbly gunk" - and prepares the suicide pills. 

Dwight returns and Dr. Carson tends to his wounds, and Dwight tells him that he caught up to Sherry, but she tried to run off and was eaten by Walkers.  Soon after Eugene is taken by Laura to the furnace, where Negan is holding Dr. Carson.  He hits the doctor in the arm with Lucille and tells him that he was the one who helped Daryl escape so he could look good in Sherry's eyes, and pulls out a love note Sherry wrote to him that he found in his office, except it was a note written to Dwight, who framed Dr. Carson to protect Sherry.  After initially saying he didn't do it, Dr. Carson lies and said he did in order to avoid getting his face burned.  Negan seemed to forgive him - until he grabs the doctor and throws him headfirst into the furnace.  He's not concerned with having killed the Sanctuary's only doctor, as he says there's a spare Dr. Carson.

Back at his room, the girls return for the pills and Eugene correctly deduces that the pills aren't for Amber - they're for Negan.  He refuses to give them the pills, and they call him a coward and leave.  Soon after, Negan pays him a visit and invites him to join the Saviors, but first he wants to know Eugene's name.  Before he could even say the words, Eugene responds with "I'm Negan."  Now Eugene oversees the workers at the Sanctuary fence, and Dwight visits him.  After saying their real names, Eugene says "we are Negan," and Dwight responds reluctantly, "yeah."

The episode deviates greatly from the comic, as when Eugene was taken captive he was tortured and beaten in order to obtain information, but he stood reliant and wouldn't give away anything, and Dwight helps him escape.  It's unclear whether or not Dwight will help Eugene escape, but the rest of what happened was totally different - Eugene lives in the lap of luxury, and has seemingly turned to the dark side.  But is this really the case?

I find Eugene to be a real enigma in the series.  He seems like the ultimate coward, but there's a method to his madness.  At first glance, you'd think he was on Negan's side because he didn't give the girls the pills to kill him, but then again he didn't tell Negan what they were planning.  I think he refused because he thought they were testing him - if he had given the girls the pills, they could've went to Negan and told him Eugene was planning on killing him.  By not doing that, it could've proved to Negan that Eugene could be trusting - and keep him alive.  Also, by pandering to Negan's sense of entitlement, Eugene has free reign of the Sanctuary and could learn all its inner workings in order to tell Rick later on, because Negan doesn't see Eugene as a threat, unlike Daryl.  Eugene plays to his strengths - not physical, but mental - and I can see him getting the upper hand.

As for Dwight, we see a more personal glimpse of him, but he still remains a rather boring character to me.  He's the antithesis of Daryl, someone with enough inner strength to do something, but seemingly holding back.  He suffers from memory loss, which could help explain some of his actions, but he still seems to be spinning his wheels.  I hope they take the comic book direction with Dwight and have him turn on Negan, we will see if that really happens.

The Score: B