In “The Walking Dead” recap, Lance Hornsby goes to Hilltop looking for answers from Maggie, Ezekiel puts his new time to use and Eugene turns to Max for help…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Battle lines are being drawn inside and outside The Commonwealth as the corrupt government inside the community is really starting to draw blood while sowing seeds of distrust among the newest arrivals — namely the survivors from Alexandria, Hilltop and Oceanside.
Last week on “The Walking Dead,” Maggie and Negan led a fight back against Toby Carlson — the hand-picked mercenary sent by Lance Hornsby to retrieve a cache of guns stolen from The Commonwealth — but he ends up going on a kill crazy rampage to get answers. That forces Maggie to intervene while attempting to save her friends an apartment building filled with people who never wanted a war with The Commonwealth.
Now Hornsby is even more determined to get answers and it turns out he’s a rather effective investigator but when he doesn’t get the answers he wants, how bloody is he willing to get?
Meanwhile back in The Commonwealth, Eugene and Rosita are determined to find out more about the inner workings in the community — particularly how Governor Milton’s entitled brat of a son manages to send people do their deaths in order to do his bidding. That knowledge along with a mysterious list provided to Connie with names of people that have suddenly gone missing have the entire group looking for answers to expose and hopefully stop the corruption that’s leading to a whole lot of people dying.
Those good intentions end up leaving them tangled with a conflicted Mercer, who only wants to do the right thing yet his job precipitates his loyalty to the community — and he questions how much can one man actually do when opposed by the government, or in this case a spoiled prick who happens to be the boss’ son.
The mid-season finale is next week, which will lead into the last batch of episodes for the series so let’s get to our recap of the latest installment of “The Walking Dead” titled “Trust”…
Stick to Your Story
In the wake of Toby Carlson’s demise along with his entire garrison of soldiers, Lance Hornsby has arrived at the apartment building to find some answers. The only problem is he can’t believe the story he’s being told that things went sour, a firefight broke out with the soldiers and the people living in the apartment building, Carlson was killed and yet somehow Aaron and Gabriel were left unharmed.
Hornsby may be a bureaucrat but he’s not an idiot because none of that makes much sense.
With no further answers coming from Aaron or Gabriel with the actual truth about what happened, Hornsby is able to surmise that if they survived perhaps the people responsible for the massacre knew them to begin with. Maybe that’s how these two made it when so many others didn’t.
That’s when Hornsby notifies his team along with Daryl, Aaron and Gabriel that they aren’t heading back to the Commonwealth just yet — they need to hunt down these vicious killers and put a stop to them. The first place to look for answers will be the Hilltop as Hornsby smugly suggests that they better give Maggie a warning if these killers are really on the loose in her neighborhood.
After arriving at Hilltop, Maggie has no interest in allowing Hornsby or his troops inside to search for possible suspects, which then leads to the dramatic confrontation that kicked off these most recent episodes several weeks ago. It turns out Daryl telling Maggie that it didn’t have to be this way wasn’t some sort of betrayal but rather a warning signal between friends as he convinced her to let Hornsby through the gates to conduct his search so hopefully no one else would get hurt.
While Daryl still hasn’t been told the whole story, he can figure it out for himself and he knows Maggie was involved, she likely saved Aaron and Gabriel and now she’s hiding somebody that she doesn’t want found by Hornsby or The Commonwealth soldiers.
Inside the gates, Hornsby begins his search, which brings him to the truck that Maggie was driving after Samuel — the young member of Carlson’s team — arrived at the Hilltop with a map to the apartment building while asking for her help before dying.
Hornsby informs them that there were tire tracks leading away from the apartment building and it looks like this truck would fit that description. But despite his own expertise with engines, Hornsby can’t get it up and running, which backs up Maggie’s story that the truck hasn’t started for years.
As the search continues, Hornsby eventually runs into Maggie’s son Herschel, who he decides to question by asking if he’s left Hilltop recently or if his mother has been venturing out into the world. Herschel doesn’t reveal anything but then Hornsby offers the little boy a present — it’s a hat that he found at the apartment building that looked like it belonged to a child about this size.
Hornsby puts the hat on his head and it’s a perfect fit but before he can make any accusations about Herschel being at the apartment building alongside his mother, Elijah jumps into protect the boy while putting a knife to the throat of the Commonwealth official.
Tempers flare as soldiers pull their weapons with Maggie and Daryl doing the same.
Daryl even drops what is possibly the first ‘F’ bomb in the history of “The Walking Dead” when he warns:
“You found nothing so unless you want to die for nothing, tell them to drop the guns before something really fucking bad happens.”
Hornsby all but reveals that he knows Maggie was involved in the slaughter at the apartment building but she quickly fires back with a warning that plenty of people have threatened her or her family in the past and almost all of them are dead (Negan being a rare example to the contrary).
With guns pointed at everybody in a post-apocalyptic scene from “Reservoir Dogs,” Hornsby finally orders everybody to lower their weapons before telling his troops that they are leaving. He remarks to Maggie that it’s too bad they couldn’t have been friends as he leads his group out of Hilltop but they won’t be going too far because those guns are still missing and he knows the people who killed Carlson and his men are close.
Make the Most of Your Time
After questioning how Carol managed to get him bumped up to the front of the line for surgery to remove his tumor, Ezekiel has decided to just make the most of the time he’s been granted.
First things first, he seeks out Carol to tell her thank you while learning that his ex has now earned herself a new job inside The Commonwealth while serving as Hornsby’s right hand. He wonders what exactly this new job involves but Ezekiel is more interested in showing Carol what he’s been working on but she’s a little too busy for him today.
The next stop for Ezekiel is the hospital where he pays Tomi a visit as the doctor drinks down a glass of bourbon after losing a patient on his table earlier in the day. It seems Ezekiel needs Tomi’s help to save a friend of his who needs an appendectomy but much like himself, she was too far down the list to get life saving surgery before she’s already too far gone.
Tomi is hesitant to help, especially considering he lost a patient under the best of possible circumstances in the hospital but he eventually agrees to help. Sadly, Ezekiel and Tomi get busted stealing supplies from the hospital, which puts them both under arrest.
Thankfully, Carol is the one who shows up to deal with them because with Hornsby gone, she got the call that there was trouble at the hospital.
She releases them both but wonders why Ezekiel was taking such risks after he just had his own life saved from the surgery that removed his cancer. Ezekiel then suggests they all take a trip to his special project to understand why he’s doing all this.
When they arrive, it turns out that Ezekiel has converted the back of his veterinary clinic into a makeshift hospital for people who can’t afford to wait on The Commonwealth to save them.
Inside, Tomi performs the surgery to save the woman’s life who needed her appendix out and he feels justified in the choice to help someone versus just following the rules set forth by The Commonwealth. As for Ezekiel, he’s doing exactly as Carol instructed by making the most of his time after having his life saved.
Now he’s found a purpose giving back to those who need it the most.
Inside Woman
Learning that Sebastian Milton is sending people to their death so he can steal some money to continue living like a rich kid is more than Eugene can handle, especially after he had his own run in with the entitled brat after first arriving at The Commonwealth. Armed with that knowledge from Rosita, Eugene calls on Connie to see if she can expose the truth through her work as a journalist for The Commonwealth newspaper.
In order to truly pull back the curtain, Connie will need more information but she’s also curious about this mysterious list that got slipped under her door that contained names of people who seemingly got disappeared inside the community. One of those names is April — the woman who nearly survived Sebastian’s heist until she was eaten alive by zombies, which left her children as orphans.
But the list is much longer than the people Sebastian sent to their certain deaths, which means there’s a whole lot more to this story than just what happened to Rosita and Daryl during that heist.
To find out more information, Eugene conveniently runs into Max to ask for her help after they agreed not to be seen together because that might lead The Commonwealth government to discover she was the one speaking to him on the radio for all those months. Eugene apologizes for ambushing her but he knows this situation is big enough to call on her help because she works in Governor Milton’s office, which means she has access to files that could prove what’s really going on behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Max’s big brother Mercer is enjoying his own time with Princess because it turns out the two of them have been hooking up for weeks. Of course, Mercer isn’t all that interested in pillow talk despite his restless nights where he spends more time tossing and turning rather than actually sleeping.
He declines her offer to reveal what’s wrong before heading off to workout, which leads him to an interaction with his sister as Max wonders why he’s not doing more to expose the corruption in The Commonwealth.
Mercer says he’s already done his part after killing two of his men during that heist but with Sebastian Milton involved, there’s only so much he can do. Max refuses to believe he couldn’t do more, especially with the way the entire community looks up to him — Mercer is featured on posters across The Commonwealth after all.
Later that day, Mercer returns to Princess so they can finally have a heart-to-heart while apologizing for refusing to open up to her earlier. Maybe it’s time for Mercer to finally use his influence to make The Commonwealth a better place for everybody, not just the chosen few.
As for Max, she meets up with Eugene later that night and confesses that she can’t just close her eyes to what’s happening in The Commonwealth even if revealing the truth could bring harm to her and her family. Shen then asks Eugene what files she’ll need to steal to start exposing what’s really happening in the government.
Eugene is happy to have Max on his side but he’s even happier that he’s finally found a connection with the woman he spent months connecting with over the radio. After moving heaven and Earth to find each other, Eugene has to believe that it’s fate that they’re together — and then they finally kiss.
Job Offer
After getting shut down at Hilltop while knowing that Maggie was somehow involved in his people being killed, Hornsby is still desperate for answers, which puts everybody around him in danger.
Daryl tells Aaron and Gabriel that they aren’t heading back to The Commonwealth because Hornsby has ordered the entire group to stay out until the killers are found and the guns stolen are recovered. While they all know Maggie is hiding Negan and his group inside Hilltop, they hope that perhaps finding the weapons will at least back off Hornsby enough to give them some breathing room.
Later that night, Hornsby gets alerted that his men have found a trail that may lead them to the person responsible for killing their soldiers and stealing the weapons.
The search leads them to a tent where Leah has camped out for the night but the soldiers don’t find her until she puts a bullet into two of them before Hornsby emerges from the shadows. He shouts that he’s not there to punish Leah for stealing his weapons but rather he has a proposition for her.
Leah walks out from the woods with a gun pointed directly at him — and Hornsby responds by introducing himself and offering her a job to come and work for him.
Given Leah’s particular set of skills, Hornsby obviously plans on using her to go after Maggie, who has now declined his offer to join The Commonwealth as well as spit in his face while attempting to find the people responsible for killing his men. Of course, Leah has her own motivation to go after Maggie considering her arrival brought an end to The Reapers not to mention the death of the only family she had left in this world.
Now it appears that Leah will get her chance at revenge while Hornsby attempts to eliminate a growing resistance led by Maggie and her people.
“The Walking Dead” mid-season finale happens next Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on AMC prior to the final set of episodes debuting later this year.
