The TWD’s “Acheron Part 2” sees the group come face-to-face with their own mortality, because they could really die in the Washington DC subterranean subway tunnels trapped on a subway train car in the apocalypse. It’s this episode where the rareness and specialness of the now destroyed Alexandria comes to mind.
During “Acheron Part 2,” Maggie reveals they had something special in Alexandria. After telling a horrific story about how evil people can really be, in particular a story about an old man posing as someone in need of help who only really wants to lie and kill, Maggie explains the rareness and specialness of a real home, real family, and real friends, which was accomplished in Alexandria. Whereas the world outside the walls of Alexandria was filled with evil people, imposters, and zombies, Alexandria was a sanctuary and refuge from that world.
In regards to Maggie’s remark about Alexandria being very rare and special, Negan, too, knows what Maggie knows about Alexandria and makes a very astute and chilling observation after remembering some bad memories, He shares with the group that if Alexandria wasn’t rare or special then the community was only lucky in surviving and nobody has it figured out or ever will. Indeed, this is a very chilling statement to make in the midst of an apocalypse, because if Alexandria isn’t rare that means it really is the end of the world for this remaining community.
After the group’s unwillingness to let a trapped, selfish Gage back into the group for theft, Alden tries to get the whole group to feel guilty. However, Maggie refuses to feel like she lost anyone or to feel guilty since Gage stole some of the little food they had left. In the end, Alden can’t make the community feel guilty and get his power trip; and Maggie is glad to leave Gage to the zombies because it makes her goal that much clearer on what she must do in order to survive the apocalypse.
It’s this episode where Maggie and Negan sense the end is coming. Maggie hands Negan a gun. In the past, Maggie would never do such a thing because Negan was her sworn enemy. But since they both could end up dying, Maggie takes a chance on trusting Negan and hands over a handgun. The apocalypse can sure change people.
Aside, the writers of this season have some strange ideas about religion. First, we see Gabriel, the priest in Maggie’s group, killing people as well as saying things like “God is not here.” Second, The Reapers have a priest, too, who kills. On top of that, Pope, the leader of The Reapers, is a murderous fellow who seems to talk a lot about God. Finally, you got Darryl who kills zombies and people, yet he wears a biker vest with angel wings on it. I’m not too sure what TWD writers are trying to say about religion, but one of God’s commandment’s is thou shall not kill. Since when do true christians run around killing people?
However, in spite of this, it turns out, TWD writers aren’t too far off from the truth about religion. It is a fact that most religious people have a cache of guns. And if their religion were ever banned or destroyed, they would not hesitate to use those guns- and that would be the end of this world. We know this because there are always far-right Christian groups or even just militant Christians bearing arms in the news. At least the TWD writers are trying to be honest about making this point about religions and their guns.
It’s this episode where Daryl observes the class warfare mural in the Washington DC subterranean subway tunnels. Here we see Daryl examining the mural and he sees there was a class war and it appears the ruling class was destroyed along with most of the world. I guess all the Marxists were wrong about an utopia emerging out of a revolution, because most of the world died in the apocalypse. After being a bit intrigued by the mural, Daryl scopes out the rest of the tunnel for anything to scavenge and moves on.
Of course, the Commonwealth, another thriving community in the apocalypse claims to have the solution. They got their own Constitution with all the much needed articles, clauses, and legal language. However, from the looks of it, the Commonwealth has real deep rooted problems and their constitution is turning into just another parchment paper with no real structure behind it or any real rights.