Speaking of Negan, “Home Sweet Home”, the episode that starts this “Season 10C”, brings us back to the Maggie / Negan drama, without any clear resolution. When we saw these two together for the last time, it was just before star Lauren Cohan left the show to try her luck on a less severe and more traditional TV adventure series (the short Whiskey Cavalier on ABC). Back in season 9, Maggie visited Negan in his prison cell with the intention of killing him, but instead offered him mercy.
Now Maggie is back and Negan is free, or “status pending”, and she is not very happy with the situation. Since we will enter Negan’s history in the coming weeks, it looks like this, along with some upcoming Daryl and Carol drama, will be a recurring focus for these chapters on the bridge – because nothing will be resolved here in “Home Sweet Home.”
We got some new villains, which kind of came out of nowhere and are an integral part of Maggie’s saga and where she’s been in the past few years. These villains also end up being a bit of a “to continue” situation, although they provide us with some great moments of action to help spice up this slightly bitter opening. Maggie’s story, and where she has been, is not worth the long absence, other than the anger she feels towards Negan (which on paper is totally understandable) seems so far from where we are narratively today. The “All Out War” arc not only seems distant from viewers in real time, but in the program years it goes even further.
Most of this episode involves an angry Maggie being distracted by a threat far more urgent and dangerous than her outrage at Negan. She and Daryl have some frank conversations, but Daryl is a much better listener than an attractive conversationalist. The “Home Sweet Home” storyline – which is kind of tenuous and brings up an old conflict for another round – would definitely never have ended as an 11th season premiere. And as an indicator of what the rest of these limbo episodes can offer, it seems to suggest that we will have many meditative moments of disapproval and repair; which is part of the usual DNA of the series anyway, but it may not extend like a kind of postscript.
“Home Sweet Home” involves Kelly, from Angel Theory, a little more than usual, who is one of the many characters despised in the huge set of this show (honestly, most of them come from Magda’s group that arrived during season 9) . Connie is still missing (as actress Lauren Ridloff briefly left to film Marvel’s Eternals), so Kelly and Daryl are intermittently looking for clues to her. This does not mean that Kelly has suddenly become a nurtured character in the series, but it is still nice to see them having more time on screen than usual.
Usually, the anticipation of where The Walking Dead is going and how it aligns with the comic series keeps many fans (still) glued to this show. The crux of this is the pleasure of seeing new opponents, obstacles and tragedies. And we are currently heading towards the grand final scenario of comics – The Commonwealth. The new villains introduced here in “Home Sweet Home”, which must be taken care of before the official start of the 11th season, seem quite attacked. Although, to be fair, you can’t really expect the series to last six episodes purely on stoicism and / or rumination of the character, so it makes sense to have a few pursuers out there. None of them looks as cool as Maggie’s cohort, Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari), who seems to operate like The Walking Dead Snake Eyes at this point, taking down enemies with Japanese kama blades.
The fear, with these new antagonists, is that the eventual reconciliation of Maggie and Negan, or their version of it, will come through the battle against these boogeymen – which is exactly how Negan smoothed things out, or his version of it, with all others in Alexandria. It is not the most terrible troop in the world from a narrative point of view, but it is a well from which The Walking Dead drew water many times at this point.