The true endgame begins as The Walking Dead enters a brave new world

The Commonwealth isn’t kidding when it talks about returning the world to the way it was before. There’s electricity, neighborhoods, holidays, a political structure, an organized police force, and local bakeries. There’s also currency, capitalism, exploitation, and a rigidly enforced class system that immediately reminds you of everything that sucks about contemporary society. It’s sometimes tough to realize the degree to which you live in a world based on intense class divisions, and profoundly unfair socio-political structures, until after the apocalypse has rendered them moot.

Still, rich business types always think they know best, don’t they? Forget the actual real-world experience, and skills honed through years of practice and talent, that our hard-working group of protagonists bring to the table—stop the presses, because someone with an expensive outfit and inherited wealth (or just wealth borne of crass, lowest-common-denominator exploitation) has an idea! The Walking Dead is taking aim at the world as it is now, not the world as it will be, and a top priority of that noble goal is pointing out the many ways that people running the show have an unfortunate—and egomaniacal—tendency to run it into the ground.

The previous episode, “No Other Way,” ended with a six-month time jump, showing Maggie and a few others at Hilltop, where they were greeted by a group of Commonwealth stormtroopers led by none other than Daryl Dixon. And while it looks like we’re now going to get the story of how we arrived at that place, those specifics may not include some fairly crucial information. It’s understandable why Daryl is committed to the Commonwealth at this point—Judith wants to stay, and he wants the best for Judith—but it’s still pretty weird to consider how he agreed to live there in the first place. This is Daryl, the guy who abandoned everyone for years rather than be tied to a single place he was unsure about. Hopefully, the justification for everyone relocating is forthcoming.

What this episode does well is bring the audience up to speed on what it’s like adjusting to life inside the relative safety of the Commonwealth. The first third of the season didn’t paint a very rosy picture of the place—hell, Eugene only gave up the location of Alexandria because otherwise he would’ve doomed himself and his friends to jail for life—so it’s a little confusing that everyone is so all-in on making it work. Or, at least, on the surface they are; we pick up 30 days after our people apparently arrived in the Commonwealth, and a lot has changed. Let’s run down the list, quick:

• Carol works at a bakery. A nice return to her “I’m such a clumsy homebody, pay me no mind!” persona she put on years ago to go undercover.
• Connie’s a reporter now, with Kelly at her side as translator. And apparently already stirring up some hornets’ nests, as implied by Carol.
• Daryl and Rosita are training to be stormtroopers. (Yes, there’s technically another name for them. They will never not be stormtroopers.)
• Ezekiel: Animal handler? Kind of nebulous, honestly. But desperately needs surgery; too bad he’s way down the priority list.
• Yumiko, in her new job as lawyer, is part of the upper crust—and has seemingly dragged her brother, against his will, back into that world.
• Princess runs a record store. Good for you, Princess!
• Magna is…catering staff? Ok.

Honestly, that last job description is part of what’s making this abrupt storytelling transition all the more abrupt. Yes, we get it, the Commonwealth is repeating some of the worst mistakes of capitalist culture, albeit in a tightly packed community surrounded by the undead. Still, catering? By any sane assessment, half of our people should’ve gotten, like, day-labor duties, no? Construction, farming, guard duty, foraging—these are the building blocks of post-apocalyptic society. So while I appreciate the Animal Farm-esque “some are more equal than others” oppression that’s taking place, it feels a bit off at times.

Look, if the current narratives underway were a bit more viscerally engaging, I probably wouldn’t be quibbling as much with some of the practical considerations of the world building. But when we’re somewhat adrift as to how everyone slotted into place here, it’s hard not to speculate about these things. Carol’s storyline is the most intriguing, because, well, Melissa McBride is fun to watch skulk around and cut mysterious deals. After breaking into the medical records office and learning of Ezekiel’s need for surgery, she hatches a plan: Sneak past the walls and procure some much-needed wine for Josh Hamilton’s dapper and servile middle manager, Lance, to supply to the mayor, and he’ll bump her beau up the list. I was pleased to see this is a long game, too—after the end of the Halloween party for the rich folks, she sidles up to Lance and says, “What’s next?”

Rosita and Daryl’s military training is similarly a bit unusual, though at least in that case the “all or nothing” mindset of the Commonwealth makes a bit more sense. But even then, it immediately gets a wrench thrown into the proceedings. Mercer (who I guess we like now, since he invited Princess to the fancy gala and all, no?) orders Daryl to stop trying to be Mr. Do It Alone and makes him come supply weapons to the Mayor Milton’s asshole son—yes, the same one who almost got Eugene jailed for life. But mere seconds after Mercer delivers some “shut up and do what I say” to Daryl, Rosita’s all “Oh, I’m coming too!” and suddenly Mercer throws up his hands and accepts it? Baffling.

But hey, we’re almost 900 words in, and I haven’t even gotten to the main event! (See: above, re: a lot going on.) After the big public Halloween street festival, there’s an exclusive gala for all the richy-rich types, complete with common folks ogling them on the red carpet entry. (Post-apocalyptic dystopias! They’re Just Like Us!) This is where the episode’s big drama goes down: The soldier who got his ass handed to him by Princess in the first part of the season has been demoted to waitstaff, and apparently lost his job, his home, his salary, everything. So he briefly takes a hostage and denounces the Commonwealth in front of everyone, during Mayor Pamela Milton’s big speech.

Sure, Daryl captures him (and scores some points by permitting Sebastian, the Mayor’s dipshit son, to pretend he captured the guy), but was any of this a surprise? It’s a lingering problem from before: As I said when we first entered the Commonwealth, the show never tried very hard to introduce any real ambiguity about whether or not it’s a good place. We know it sucks; they know it sucks. So when the episode ends with Rosita uncovering evidence of an entire underground resistance, complete with a silk-screening poster operation, there’s not much tension, because the series didn’t give us much reason to assume things weren’t secretly bad, Miko’s brother aside.

Now that’s it’s all out in the open, hopefully the narrative drama can pivot from “Is there something sinister going on?” to “Which of our people are joining the resistance first?” It’s only a matter of time before battle lines are drawn, and it’ll (hopefully) be interesting to watch the dominoes fall. Plus, I wouldn’t mind a little more justification of how we got from there to here. None of our people were terribly thrilled about the Commonwealth, so let’s learn why everyone’s suddenly playing house.

Stray observations

• Magna’s line was actually a really well-written (and well-delivered, by Nadia Hilker) observation that spoke volumes without having to actually say anything: “This place is like a city from before.”
• Sebastian is like a cartoon of a sneering, privileged asshole, but sadly, that’s not actually dissimilar from what real-life offspring of wealth and power tend to be like.
• Rosita also gets a nice line about the cognitive dissonance of life in the Commonwealth: “Worrying about money again is so weird.”
• Judith is getting her own education in class privilege—specifically, how it’s nice to have a rich friend who can buy you things.
• Mercer’s going to end up on the side of the good guys, isn’t he?
• It was also a nice touch to show the party guests being bribed and forced to sign NDAs about what happened with the guy from the resistance. Vive la propaganda.
• Kill of the week: Rosita, during the training in the Kill House, ripping off a walker’s leg and stabbing him to death with his own leg bone.
• “Eat The Rich” by Motörhead is about as on-the-nose of a needle drop as you can get, Walking Dead, but I’ll allow it because that song kicks ass.