The Walking Dead season 10 continues with six bonus episodes. In “Home, Sweet Home,” Maggie (Lauren Cohan) returns with answers about where she’s been, who she’s been living with and the troubles she ran into. In the previous episode, Daryl (Norman Reedus) led Team Family to victory over the Whisperers, bringing down the de facto leader, Beta (Ryan Hurst). Maggie returned just in time to save Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Alden (Callan McAuliffe) from the Whisperers. Now it’s time to pick up the pieces … but first, there are a few loose ends to tie up. The Walking Dead is back!

RELATED: The Walking Dead Recap: (S10E16) A Certain Doom

DUN, DUN, DUUUUNNNN

Maggie is home and she wastes no time running into Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). It was bound to happen. While chatting with Judith (Cailey Fleming), Negan was with the others packing up to head home. He didn’t flinch when he saw her, in fact he was polite and said hello. He also made it clear that he didn’t break out of his jail cell. Maggie just gives him a disgusted look and walks away. Awkward!

Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl catch up about where everyone is going. Some of the community residents are going to Oceanside, while others will return to Alexandria. Maggie introduces them to Cole (James Devoti) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari). Elijah is the one in the mask. Maggie explains that she and Hershel were living in Cole and Elijah’s village before it was attacked. They have more people waiting for them and need a new place to live. She wants to take them to Hilltop. Yeah … about that …

They take Maggie to Hilltop to assess the damage and Carol admits that Negan is free because of her. Alpha (Samantha Morton) had to die and Negan was their best chance. Carol says Negan is the reason they didn’t lose everything. So that leaves Alexandria. Daryl offers to accompany Maggie to retrieve her people. Plus it gives him time to smooth things over with Maggie regarding Negan. Kelly (Angel Theory) asks to join the group so she can look for Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Daryl says okay.

NO SWEAT
Maggie brings friends Cole and Elijah to the Family on The Walking Dead

James Devoti as Cole, Okea Eme-Akwari as Elijah – The Walking Dead _ Season 10, Episode 17 – Photo Credit: Eli Ade/AMC

They walk all day and have to find shelter for the night, despite Maggie’s protest to keep going. They find a parking lot with some storage silos. The parking lot is full of walkers, so they have to clear it first. One of the silos is full of walkers. Maggie can see that the door is breaking and rushes to stop them from getting out. She cuts her arm on the door as Daryl and Elijah rush to help her. They smash a walker head closing the door. 

Later that night, Maggie and Daryl have a heart to heart. Maggie says Hilltop was fine when she left. Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) had some good ideas and she said it felt good to help others. She was near the drop point, but just didn’t stop to retrieve or leave any letters. She doesn’t know where Georgie is now. They were with a community near Knoxville when Georgie decided to go West with the twins. 

As for the village, Maggie has a hard time talking about it. Instead she tells him about a detour that she and Hershel made. They went to her Nana’s place by the ocean. She smiles when she talks about how peaceful it was. And then says Hershel asked about how his daddy died. She told him that a bad man killed his daddy. All Hershel wanted to know was if the bad man got what he deserved? He wanted to know if the bad man was dead too.

Maggie says she left because she couldn’t let Negan take up space in her head. And she didn’t want to bring up Hershel in that environment. When they left the ocean, they found a community that needed them. Daryl asks Maggie to come home. He  says nothing is decided about Negan, but Carol did what she felt she needed to do. Maggie understands and doesn’t know what she would have done if she had been there when the Whisperers showed up.

WHAT ABOUT CONNIE?

The next morning, a walker enters the parking lot when everyone gets up. Kelly was supposed to be on watch, but she started searching the woods for signs of Connie. She found an abandoned truck with a blanket on top. She attempted to climb the truck but Maggie stopped her. Maggie doesn’t like that she left her post. Daryl tells Maggie that Kelly’s sister is missing. Elijah jumps on the truck and starts throwing things down.  Maggie says Elijah just lost his sister too. He throws down a notepad, but it’s not Connie’s. Kelly says she had to check and Maggie understands. 

Maggie asks Daryl about Connie as they walk through the woods. He says they keep looking for her, but sometimes people are just gone. Maggie says even if you find them, it doesn’t mean you get them back. Daryl says it might be better if they didn’t know but Maggie says Kelly needs to know what happened. 

Daryl spots smoke in the distance. They run to a clear spot and Cole confirms that the rendezvous point is on fire. Everyone runs and comes upon a burning building. The fire is out for the most part. Cole finds two burnt bodies in the back of the building. He says ‘they’ found them. Maggie isn’t so sure, but Cole is sure it’s the reapers. The reapers are the people who attacked their village. Maggie tells Cole to calm down. They have to find the rest of their people.

Daryl tracks a set of footprints that happen to be Hershel’s. The people scattered into the woods and headed north. They decide to split up to have a better chance of finding everyone. Maggie leaves with Daryl as Kelly leaves with Cole and Elijah. Cole leads his group and they hear branches breaking. Elijah and Kelly hide as Cole looks around. He signals for them to move, but Elijah freezes. Kelly asks him to remove his mask so she can look at his face. She tells him that he’s not alone and Maggie is counting on them. They hear someone move. Cole tells them to move again, Kelly tells Elijah to follow her. 

INTO THE WOODS

Daryl and Maggie hear someone moving. Maggie hangs behind as Daryl moves forward. He finds a woman with a spear and two more people come out to confront him. Maggie tells everyone to stand down. The trio is her people, so Daryl lets the woman go. They tell Maggie that they didn’t see who started the fire. Everyone ran. They are certain that someone is hunting them in the woods and it’s probably the reapers. Maggie asks about Hershel. He left with a woman, but no one has seen them for a couple of hours. One of Maggie’s people is shot in the throat and dies. Whoever is hunting them just found them. 

Maggie and Daryl run through the woods trying to lead her people to safety as the shooter keeps shooting. They all get separated, so Daryl and Maggie turn around to look for the shooter. He shoots another one of Maggie’s people. They find the injured woman but hang back. Daryl says it’s a trap to draw them out of hiding. A third member of Maggie’s group shows up and is immediately shot. She signals something to Maggie before dying. Maggie thinks she saw Hershel.

Daryl moves and a shot hits the tree in front of him. He moves again and another shot goes by. They figure out that the shooter is shooting three times before he has to reload. Maggie wants to move around the flank of the shooter, but Daryl says no. She tells Daryl to keep the shooter’s attention on him, while she searches for the shooter. 

FACE TO FACE WITH A MONSTER
Daryl helps to protect Maggie on The Walking Dead

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon – The Walking Dead _ Season 10, Episode 17 – Photo Credit: Eli Ade/AMC

Maggie moves around and finds the gun, but no shooter. She keeps moving around and the shooter (Mike Whinnet) is hiding in the woods in camouflage, watching her. He jumps out at her and she stabs him with a knife. He pulls the knife out and keeps going after her. Maggie steps into a trap and a rope pulls her backwards away from the guy.

Daryl catches up and shoots him with an arrow while Maggie tries to cut the rope from her foot. He rushes the shooter, but the shooter is a big guy. The shooter throws Daryl against a tree. Daryl almost passes out, but comes to. He sees the shooter take off his gear and pick up a knife. The shooter tries to go after Maggie again. She cuts the rope as Daryl stands up. Another arrow hits the shooter and the other three arrive to surround the man.

Maggie demands to know who he is and why he killed her friends. She tells him to answer her questions or die. The man drops his knife and says “Pope marked you.” He pulls out a grenade pin and shows it to Maggie. Maggie yells for everyone to get down as the man explodes all around them. 

HOME SWEET HOME

Maggie and Daryl keep walking and hear someone whistling. Maggie recognizes the whistle and whistles back. Something hits her shoulder and she looks up at a boy who looks just like Glenn Rhee. Herschel (Kien Michael Spiller) is even wearing Glenn’s ball cap. He says hi to his mom as she smiles up at him. 

Later that night, the group stops at the same parking lot with the storage silos for shelter. Elijah gives Kelly some food as his way of saying thanks. Maggie thanks her too for helping Elijah. Kelly tells Maggie about Connie and how her sister always kept an eye on her. Kelly can tell Maggie had a younger sister too. She says Maggie seems like she’s been in charge of people her whole life and protects them…like Connie. Maggie hopes to meet Connie someday.  Kelly says she will. 

Daryl looks in on them and Maggie expresses her concern about more reapers following them. Daryl says he will sweep the woods, take the long way home to Alexandria and cover their tracks. He asks if this means she’s coming home. Maggie says her people and Hershel deserve a home. She can deal with Negan if she has to.

They arrive at Alexandria and find Carol and others rebuilding the wall. Carol says the Whisperers left a parting gift. Negan is helping with the effort as well and sees Maggie with Hershel. Cole asks if this is home sweet home now and Maggie says it is. She leads her people into Alexandria, hand in hand with Hershel, walking past Negan without a glance.

RELATED: Catch Up On All Things The Walking Dead Here!

THOUGHTS
  • It’s so good to see Lauren Cohan’s name on The Walking Dead title credits again! 
  • Hershel is so cute! Definitely takes after Glenn. Let’s hope this Hershel turns out different than his The Walking Dead comic book counterpart.
  • I’ve never seen Daryl so excited to see someone return home.
  • I wonder what it would take for everyone to be okay with Negan? I doubt Maggie ever will be, unless he save Hershel from certain death. 
  • We only saw about four people with Maggie arrive at Alexandria. Who are they? What are their names? And what happened to their village?
  • We just got of dead-mask wearing Whisperers, now we have to deal with Reapers! Ugh! And who’s Pope?

 

 

 

Follow me