In the recap for the first bonus episode of “The Walking Dead” season 10, Maggie returns home but she brought problems with her as a new group threatens the survivors…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Maggie is back but her return is also met with a whole new set of problems.
In “The Walking Dead” season 10 finale, Maggie came back just in the nick of time to pitch in a helping hand as the survivors finally defeated the Whisperers with Beta being killed before he could exact his revenge against the group for killing his Alpha.
But as much as Maggie’s return is treated as celebration by so many, the fact that Negan is now entrenched as a member of the community only complicates things that much further. Years may have passed since Negan was the maniacal leader of the Saviors but Maggie will never forget the vision of him killing Glenn by bashing his head into a million pieces with a barbed-wire wrapped baseball bat.
While she refused to exact revenge on him before leaving Alexandria, Maggie coming back doesn’t mean she’s suddenly decided to forgive Negan for his past transgressions.
Add to that, Maggie reveals that she didn’t come back alone because she’s brought some of her people as well as a mysterious new enemy that apparently kills at will without any rhyme or reason for their actions — or at least nothing that Maggie is ready to inform the survivors about just yet.
With that said, let’s get to our recap for the first bonus episode in “The Walking Dead” season 10 titled “Home Sweet Home”…
You Can’t Go Back Again
Following the fight at the hospital and the eventual defeat of the Whisperers, Maggie is walking through the woods with Judith as she learns about Michonne’s journey that forced her to leave her family. Of course, Michonne is actually out searching for Rick after learning that he was alive but Judith and her little brother R.J. are just hoping that they are staring up the same night sky as their mother to feel some sort of connection together.
Maggie told her son Hershel the same thing when she left him to come help her friends survive the final attack from Beta and the Whisperers.
When they finally come out on the other side of the woods, Maggie sees a wagon being loaded up and the person helping them to get started on the road is none other than Negan.
Negan quickly explains that he didn’t escape but Maggie has no interest whatsoever in hearing whatever he’s saying as she walks away from him as quickly as possible.
After meeting up with Daryl and Carol in the woods, Maggie is finally told about the plan to defeat Alpha and the Whisperers and how Negan was a crucial part of that strategy. Carol tries to explain how Negan was the only one who could get close enough to Alpha to do what needed to be done and he proved his loyalty and trustworthiness by helping them to defeat the Whisperers once and for all.
As much as Maggie might try to understand that, she’ll never fathom how Negan could be left to walk around on his own accord, especially after the atrocious and vile things he did as the leader of the Saviors.
But for now Negan is the least of Maggie’s problems because her primary reason for returning is actually looking for a new home for her and her people after their most recent village crumbled. She’s anxious to show her people a home like Hilltop but that dream is soon crushed when Maggie returns to find the entire place in ruins after the battle with the Whisperers.
Maggie learns that Negan played a part in that fiery fight that left Hilltop burned to the ground but it was all for the greater good to stop Alpha. Carol knows no matter what Negan has done to redeem himself, Maggie will never trust him much less want to spend much time around him.
That said, with Hilltop gone, Maggie knows Alexandria is the only place they can call home now so she asks for help getting back to her people so they can all return together. The two friends traveling alongside her — Elijah, the mask wearing, kama wielding warrior and Cole — are ready to move into this new place but everything is more complicated now, especially knowing that Negan will be living in the same exact community as Maggie.
For now, Maggie is just concerned about retrieving the rest of her people, which includes her son Herschel, and then returning to Alexandria together.
What Happened Out There?
Daryl decides to accompany Maggie, Cole and Elijah back to their rendezvous point and Kelly insists on joining them as she continues to hold out hope that her sister Connie will be found.
After realizing that it will take more than the rest of the day to make it back, Cole convinces Maggie to find a place for the entire group to sleep for the night and start fresh again the next morning.
The group ends up clearing out a series of shipping containers so they can have a place to sleep for the night. There, Maggie finally comes clean to Daryl about what she’s been doing the past couple of years after her letters back to Alexandria stopped.
It seems she worked with Georgie — the woman who was determined to pass along technology and plans to help rebuild society — while setting up windmills and waterways for several different communities. Sadly it seems each time a new community was established, something bad happened and everything fell apart again and again.
Most recently, Maggie and her group were set up near Knoxville in Tennessee when Georgie got word of a larger community out west and she decided to travel out there instead to lend a helping hand. When Maggie’s latest community fell like all the others, she was left without a home and a group of people looking to her for leadership.
That’s when she decided to finally come home again.
As far as what happened that her village crumbled and Maggie’s people were forced to scatter to the wind, she’s not quite ready to talk about that just yet.
When it comes to her son, Maggie tells Daryl that Hershel has asked her about the “bad man” who killed his daddy and that’s what makes it difficult returning to the community where Negan resides. As much as she hates him, Maggie knows Carol teamed up with Negan for the greater good in order to save all of the communities from the Whisperers.
In a similar situation, Maggie can’t say she would have done anything different.
Fear the Reapers
The next morning as Maggie is preparing to lead the group to the rendezvous with her son and the rest of her people, they find that Kelly is nowhere to be found after she was supposed to serve as the lookout for the night.
A quick search finds Kelly at a nearby abandoned truck where she’s been looking for clues, hoping to discover some trace of her sister Connie. While Maggie is upset that Kelly abandoned her post, she understands the need to find her sister, especially considering the bond that they shared together. It seems Elijah suffered a similar fate with the death of his sister as well — and of course Maggie is all too familiar with that pain after her sister Beth was killed several seasons ago.
Back on the path to meet up with Maggie’s people, Daryl spots plumes of smoke rising to the sky and that can only spell trouble.
Maggie, Cole and Elijah rush back to find the rendezvous spot in ruins, burned to the ground and two of their people smoldering in the ashes. Obviously, Maggie is horrified because she left Hershel with them and now everybody has disappeared but perhaps more importantly is the fact that she and her friends Cole and Elijah seem to know the culprits behind whatever happened.
Daryl can wait for answers as he promises to track the rest of the group after he spots footprints leading away from the campsite. The trail eventually splits deep into the woods so Daryl and Maggie go one direction while sending Cole, Elijah and Kelly towards the other way.
Eventually, Daryl gets the drop on a group of people hiding in the brush but Maggie soon reveals that these are some of her people who have managed to escaped. They explain that the entire campsite was just suddenly set on fire and as many of them as possible escaped — including Hershel — but a couple of people didn’t make it out alive.
Since then, they’ve been scattered into the woods just trying to seek help while knowing that something out there is stalking them.
One of Maggie’s friends knows without a doubt that it’s the “goddamn Reapers” but before he can lament any further a sniper’s bullet cuts through his throat and he falls dead to the ground. Before long the shots come in succession, cutting down the other two people from Maggie’s group who survived.
Daryl and Maggie make a plan to flank the sniper before he can take another shot at them. Maggie eventually finds his position but all she discovers is gun post without anyone manning the weapon.
She circles back around and runs into the sniper, who is dressed in head to toe camo and she manages to stab him with her knife but he more or less just walks through the damage. He even takes the knife out of his own shoulder and throws it back at Maggie.
Before she can do anything else, Maggie gets caught in a snare that pulls her towards a tree, trapping her there with little chance of escape. Daryl manages to shoot the sniper with an arrow but again he just snaps it off and keeps on trucking.
The sniper eventually tosses Daryl into a tree so he can finish pursuing Maggie — but before he gets there another arrow comes flying into his midsection and this one slows him down for good. Kelly, Cole and Elijah made it back in time to stop the sniper from killing anyone else — but now they have questions and need some answers about these mysterious Reapers.
The sniper finally removes his garb and just smirks at Maggie as she demands to know why they are hunting her and her people.
“Pope marked you”
The sniper says that to Maggie just before pulling a pin out of a grenade and blowing himself to smithereens.
Who is Pope exactly? We’ll have to wait until another episode to find out about that but for now Maggie is only concerned with one thing and that’s finding Hershel.
It doesn’t take long before she looks up into a tree and there’s her son staring back at her, safe and sound as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. Maggie embraces her child and they begin the journey back to Alexandria where they hope to find a home again.
Daryl promises to scout the area to ensure none of the other Reapers are lurking in the woods while Maggie anxiously awaits the chance to give her son a real home again. She knows she’ll eventually have to deal with Negan but that’s the least of her concerns right now.
The entire group — Maggie, Hershel, Daryl, Kelly, Cole and Elijah — finally make it back to Alexandria where the entire community is putting things back together thanks to a parting gift from the Whisperers that largely left the town in shambles. Everyone is pitching in together to build it back — including Negan — as they try to make Alexandria a home again.
Now that Maggie’s home again, we are left to wonder who are these Reapers and why are they coming after her? With five more bonus episodes to go before reaching the final season of “The Walking Dead,” we have plenty of time to find out.
“The Walking Dead” returns with a new episode next Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
