This Walking Dead season 11 episode “Acheron Part 1” deals with black ops, zombies, and more battles for the survivors of the apocalypse. We see The Reapers, Maggie’s community scavenging for food, and Maggie and Neegan as allies in this season opener. By the looks of the trailer, season 11 will be real good.
Essentially, “Acheron Part 1” deals with The Reapers. Before the apocalypse, they were a private military group composed of soldiers and mercenaries. Typically these guys worked at legal black-holes like Quantanamo Bay, Cuba, or Bagram Airforce base, Afghanistan; that being said, they guarded enemy combatants or water torture them. In the end of the world, The Reapers kill zombies, protect their own community, and battle Maggie’s community.
It’s this season where Maggie really shines. During this segment, Maggie must learn to get along with her sworn enemy, Neegan, the murderer of Glen. As well, Maggie must be a real leader and find food for her community. Finally, Maggie must lead her community to fight The Reapers. Shine bright, Maggie, shine bright.
A very much humbled Neegan appears in this season. He does not have the power of a leader anymore, but he certainly has the skills of a warrior. Plus, we see Neegan call out Maggie on trying to get vengeance on him at the cost of her community; as well, he calls into questions the soundness of some of her past decisions in front of community members. Despite Neegan’s antics, Maggie’s community allows him to remain; Nevertheless, Neegan is hated for the most part, because he was a leader in the past who was ruthless.
Darryl returns in this broadcast. It seems he’s infiltrated The Reapers to gather intel. Plus, he must deal with his former girlfriend, Leah Shaw, who is now second in command of The Reapers. In one intense scene, Darryl must prove his loyalty to The Reapers by torturing his fellow community member. It looks like Darryl has his work cut out for him.
It turns out the leader of The Reapers, Pope, is a jealous guy. He does not like Darryl moving in on his main squeeze, Leah. Not only that, Pope is a cold blooded killer. You can just see his jealousy in this episode:
Interestingly, during this episode, Maggie’s group comes across a mural in the Washington subterranean subway tunnels while searching for food. The mural depicts a royal couple wearing crowns at the top of the political, business, and commercial systems. However, at the bottom of the mural, the same couple are in Washington tunnels as the walking dead after the fall of the political, business, and commercial systems; plus, they are homeless and feeding on each other as the dead as well as being ripped up by the dead. There is even a dead walker with a briefcase full of money in the subways under the mural and another rich one sleeps in the subway tunnels in a sleeping bag as one of the dead walkers. This mural says a lot about the current state of affairs in the apocalypse where the political, business, and commercial systems have fallen and the royals/rich are reduced to living in the Washington subterranean tunnels as the homeless or as more zombies.
All in all, I really enjoyed “Acheron Part 1.” It really was interesting to see what happens to black ops and mercenaries after the apocalypse. As you would guess, they are a great last enemy for Maggie’s community to battle in the finale of the Walking Dead series. “Acheron Part 1” was a good start to the last of The Walking Dead.
