The Walking Dead/Acheron (2)

Acheron (2)
Season 11, Episode 2
Airdate	August 22, 2021
Written by	Angela Kang & Jim Barnes
Directed by	Kevin Dowling
Stream
← 11x01 Acheron (1)	11x03 → Hunted
The Walking Dead — Season Eleven

Acheron (2) is the second episode of the eleventh season of The Walking Dead, and the one hundred fifty-fifth episode overall.

Starring: Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon), Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier) (credit only), Lauren Cohan (Maggie Rhee), Christian Serratos (Rosita Espinosa) (credit only), Josh McDermitt (Eugene Porter), Seth Gilliam (Gabriel Stokes), Ross Marquand (Aaron) (credit only), Khary Payton (Ezekiel), Cooper Andrews (Jerry) (credit only), Callan McAuliffe (Alden)

and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan)

Also Starring: Eleanor Matsuura (Yumiko), Nadia Hilker (Magna) (credit only), Cailey Fleming (Judith Grimes) (credit only), Cassady McClincy (Lydia) (credit only), Lauren Ridloff (Connie) (credit only), Paola Lázaro (Princess), Michael James Shaw (Mercer), C. Thomas Howell (Roy), Jackson Pace (Gage), Glenn Stanton (Frost), Laurie Fortier (Agatha), Okea Eme-Akwari (Elijah), James Devoti (Cole), Chelle Ramos (Stephanie Vega)

Co-Starring: Carrie Genzel (Clark), Marcus Lewis (Duncan), Matthew Cornwell (Evans), Mariana Novak (Female Trooper), Marcello Audino (Trooper Vazquez)

Plot Overview

While Maggie's group struggles to regroup and get out of the tunnels, Eugene's group await the decision of their future.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Gage catches up with the others, but because the train car is being flooded with walkers, they can't risk rescuing him, forcing him to kill himself before he's devoured. Roy is also found and badly wounded, but alive.

• Maggie and the others make it out of the tunnels, but she insists they take a detour to a hidden supply depot, one of many that Georgie had set up, in case of trouble when out looking for survivors. She says it has ammo, food, weapons to restock. However, on route, they come across rows of bodies hung upside down along the side of the road. They are then soon met by the Reapers who swiftly take out Roy and wound Cole including take his hand.

Characters

• Maggie survives and confronts Negan about leaving her. However, when needing to clear walkers, she gives him a gun, which he later returns.

• Eugene's group clear processing and are allowed asylum into the Commonwealth.

• Eugene finally meets Stephanie.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• The walker that Dog tackles is played by one of dog actor's trainers.

Memorable Moments

• With walkers breaking into the car and the other car also filled with walkers, the group has to begin clearing them. Daryl joins in gets an advantage by coming in from behind. This all culminates in the last walkers being cleared by a grenade Daryl shoves into one's mouth and kicking it back it in amongst the others, leaving a gory mess when it goes off.

Quotes

• Alden: You guys don't wanna look at him. Why? Why won't you look at him?

Gabriel: All that is, is the shell of a man who died a coward.

Alden: That's a hot take, Father. ​He was scared, but he didn't deserve to die like that. In the worst way imaginable.

Maggie: There are worse ways. A lot worse. Before I found Elijah and his people, Hershel and I were alone for a long time. One day, we came across this frail old man who was kneeling by a turned-over grocery cart. It was full of scavenged clothes he said were for his sons and daughters and could we help him haul the cart back home. And he said he'd give us food for our trouble. I knew that he was a liar. But I was starving and soon Hershel would be. So we followed him back to his house. I held a knife to his throat and reached in his pocket. I pulled out the chloroform rag he was gonna use on me. I stuffed it in his mouth. And then we went inside the house and I locked my little boy in a room and I went and searched the house. There were these three... deformed... I wouldn't call them men. They came after me. But I handled them. And then the house was quiet, except for this thudding sound that was coming from upstairs in the attic. And I thought maybe they had people tied up up there that were trying to get free. So I walked to a door at the end of this hallway. And I opened it and I looked up and there was a set of stairs. At the top of the stairs, there's this shadow writhing and rocking. I thought it was an animal. Then all of a sudden, it fell down the stairs and it came right at my feet. It was a walker that used to be a woman. Her arms and her legs had been cut off, stitched up. Her eyes gouged out. No tongue. And she was wheezing through an open, cauterised gash in her throat where her vocal cords had been ripped out. And her belly was round and full. And whatever was inside of there was trying to get out. And I went upstairs and there were three more just like her. But their hearts were still beating. And do you know the first thing I thought? The very first thing that crossed my mind? "If they're alive, there must be food here." So I took care of them. And then I found the food. Lots of it. And Hershel and I filled the cart with it and we left. I don't feel anything when I tell you that. Do you understand me? Because that is what's out there. And seeing it, I lost something. And I don't think it's a bad thing that I did. Because it has made things so much clearer. What we have in Alexandria, what we had in Hilltop and in Meridian... It's rare. It has to be. Compared to everything that's out there. Because if it isn't...

Negan: It means we were lucky. It means that nobody has it figured out. Nobody ever did and nobody ever will.

• Mercer: I'm going to give you two questions. You're going to give me two answers. Truthful ones. You do that? You get to go. You get to see your friends again. Everything will be okay. It's that simple. Ready? Where is your settlement? And why were you at that train station? Mm, Eugene. If you lie. I'll know.

Eugene: O-Okey-dokey. You're right. I have been holding something back. Frankly, I wanted to speak up before this, but I was afraid of what my friends would think. I haven't always been the most emotional fella, but my 10,000-plus hours of death, loss, and fear have opened me up a little bit. In the course of our travels, I found this radio. Night after night, I would speak into the void, holding onto a - a "what if," as fools are wont to do, and I'm nothing if not a fool. Then one night, a voice came back from said void. A beautiful voice. We got to talking, and she... was not repulsed by my musings. We spoke of train museums and ice cream cones. We laughed. We sang Iron Maiden. And then we wanted to meet. So I got my friends to go to that train yard under the guise of asking whoever showed up for help for us three, because I knew they wouldn't go otherwise. But all I was thinking about was Stephanie. So yes, I lied. I've been lying this whole time, because I'm afraid to lose the three friends I have in this world. And I lied to Stephanie about being from a large settlement because I was afraid that maybe, she was not who she said she was. That maybe she was a femme fatale, laying a trap for a lonely heart. My track record in the romantic realm is spotty at best. I'm not one for whom any relationships come easy, particularly those with the fairer sex. And I am, in fact, a virgin. Even though I have, uh, observed the act far more times than I care to admit. Thank you for holding back your titters. I was... I was hoping that after a suitable period of courtship, that Stephanie might be the one to change my unenviable status, because deep down, I was hoping that maybe, in fact, she was my One True Love. And now I've been forced to admit that in this room and I'm humiliated by it. And... I'm afraid that if Stephanie finds out that I wasn't honest with her, either, that she might want to have nothing to do with me anymore. So here I am... very relieved to get that off my chest. Because everything else I've said up to this point has been the goddamn truth!