11.15: The Walking Dead - Trust

[ctg]

Hornsby marches Daryl and troops to confront Maggie at Hilltop. After a harrowing heist, Rosita gets Connie, Kelly, Eugene, and Max to investigate the Miltons. Ezekiel helps hospital patients in need.

 

[ctg]

For a professional liar Hornsby is a pretty good investigator. He knows when he's encountering one, because he does it all of the time. I really don't get why Aaron and Gabriel were even trying, when they could've escaped and formed up with the Hilltop, instead of having to deal with the invasion plot. Then again it's good to have inside people, if they can act. But for one thing I'm glad that we've reached the point, where Daryl is marching to the Hilltop.

I liked that Hornsby made Aaron and Gabriel to deal with a small horde, probably hoping for them to die in the match, while he waited at the background. In his test he saw that they all are capable fighters, before they arrived to Hilltop's gates.

Hornsby demanded answers for the paperwork, Maggie said nothing. She didn't even open the gate. Not until Daryl demanded to see the place. I hated Maggie almost losing the car to Hornsby's investigation, but I loved her giving them marching orders and Daryl showing his colours.

What I don't get is why Leah was so sloppy on not applying camouflage to her camp?

I have to say I'm feeling pretty biased when I see Princess in Mercer's bed. The series has provoked us to see him in the different light, but the thing is he's still a Commonwealth General and not a proven defender of the RickNation. Then again Princess made a pretty good job on making Mercer a human and not a "robot," as she suggested after the sex.

Still, even then, she failed on making him to talk. So is it that we should think her as honeypot, a willing to commit to intimate relations in order to acquire information and influence?

When Mercer came to see her later, he felt genuinely falling in love with her. Not just for the sex, but for the person she presents. He even confessed to his sins and to the fact, that his thoughts about the rebellion is keeping him up in the night. And he seems himself as part of the problem.

So, at least, we now know that he's on our side.

Dr Evil called Connie, "a truth person," instead of saying that she's a proper journalist. Thing is, investigating the truth is a colony, where there are so many secrets is super dangerous. And honestly they should have done it in the first hand, instead of asking help for the Alexandria. It would have been a hard life, but they could have got over it as they've in the Hilltop.

Strangest thing is that Carol, who knows the most of the shady dealings is the quietest one. Not that Eugene would've known about it, but should have guessed before he to demand Max to spill the secrets. I really mean it as it's not like she doesn't know anything in her position under the Governor Milton.

When Max went to seeks answers from Mercer, all he could say was the old tale of struggle. That nothing comes free instead of letting out the dirt that is eating his soul. He claimed that he was protecting all fifty thousand souls, and therefore Milton's dirt had to be passed, because he "could disappear."

I loved that Max threw at his face the posturing argument. The women really know how to push buttons and twist the knife in the wound. And in her anger she went and started telling Dr Evil that things are not looking good for the Commonwealth and the only way out of the darkness is to throw in another rebellion.

What I don't get is why Eugene didn't ask marry Max at the end? She would've said yes.

 

[Jeffbert]

I found myself trying to remember why Maggie's boy was at that other site. Hornsby just happened to have brought the cap with him, and it fit just right.

Oh, when Daryl turned his weapon toward Hornsby, that should have ended his association with the Commonwealth. Apparently not, though.

Things are happening, as the series finale approaches. Good show!

 

[Dave]

Hornsby just happened to have brought the cap with him, and it fit just right.

That plot felt ridiculous to me. A glass slipper; except that it could have been any child's cap and fitted any child or small adult. There were other children in the house. There are other children in Alexandria. The cap could have being lying in the house for the last 15 years.

It was also a rather lame way to get him to spill the beans. At one point it did seem he might do that, but I guess he doesn't trust Hornsby any more than he does Negan.

 

[ctg]

After the cliffhanger teasing two enemies gunning for Maggie in the mid-season finale, showrunner Angela Kang explained the lethal Leah and Lance alliance on Sunday's Talking Dead:

"Hornsby is kind of like a fixer type, so he's used to negotiating with people. It's like, 'Well, I'm not happy that you took my guns and killed my people, but if this is where we're at, I might as well use your to help clean up my situation,'" Kang said. "Anything he can do to make his own life a little simpler, I think he's gonna go for. And so if she's already out after some of our folks and she hates them and wants to see them dead because of the history, then he's definitely going to make use of that."

Maggie rejected a power-grabbing Hornsby's rebuild offer and sided with Riverbend in the firefight that killed Toby Carlson (Jason Butler Harner) and his battallion of Commonwealth commandos, but for Leah, it's extra personal: Maggie tried to kill Leah six months earlier when avenging the slain Wardens at Meridian.

"Revenge is what's driving Leah at this point. She's going to keep going until her last breath," Collins said. "She wants to take everybody down, that's what she's gonna do. You see her transformation, even physically, from Reaper Leah to feral on-her-own Leah. It's such a huge change."

The Walking Dead Showrunner Explains Leah and Lance Alliance

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Trust” episode of The Walking Dead. “My name is Lance Hornsby, and I’m here to offer you a job.” When Commonwealth Deputy Governor Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) hires a feral Leah (Lynn Collins) as an assassin, it’s with a common goal: kill...

comicbook.com

Revenge is definitely a motif for Leah, but trusting men like Hornsby should be the last thing in Leah's mind even if the enemy of my enemy is a thing. They didn't show her saying yes, or questioning Horsnby's plan, when they cut off for the credits. I still would accept her taking the offer and becoming a mercenary for Hornsby, because it has certain benefits that she cannot get, while living in the forest all on her own. What she really needs is manpower.

That however is questionable, will she be leading Hornsby's death squad, while knowing that as soon as she's finished, Hornsby sends her to another suicide mission? I wouldn't do that in her shoes.

"Tomi's backstory, prior to the world falling, he was absolutely miserable as a surgeon. It was a profession that he never wanted to be a part of, but was sort of forced into due to the unrelenting pressure of his overbearing parents," Dale said live on Talking Dead. "The job of a thoracic surgeon is a high-pressure, high-stakes type of profession where it's life-and-death every day, multiple times a day. And as much as Tomi wished he could save every patient, that just is impossible. The losses sort of weigh heavily on him, and he also just never felt comfortable with the bureaucracy of the health care system that prioritizes one socioeconomic group over another."

The pressures and discontentment of the job took their toll and "culminated in him abusing drugs and alcohol and burning it at both ends," Dale explained. "That life, working as a surgeon, was extremely self-destructive."

In "Out of the Ashes," Tomi told Yumiko he was stranded about 20 miles north of Charleston, West Virginia when he encountered a good group of people after the outbreak. When they ended up at Ohio's Commonwealth community, Tomi covered up his history as a thoracic surgeon to avoid assigned work at the hospital.

"When he finds himself at the doorstep of the Commonwealth, he's so desperate to start anew and start fresh and say goodbye to that life that he risks being turned away or incarcerated — or even worse — and lies about what he used to do in the world before," Dale said. "He was so happy. He loved it until his sister comes along and blows up his spot [laughs]."

Ian Anthony Dale Details Tomi's Tragic Backstory on The Walking Dead

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Trust” episode of The Walking Dead. The doctor is in, and the backstory is out. Before the Commonwealth reunited Okumura siblings Tomi (Ian Anthony Dale) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), life was a piece of cake for Tomi. Yumiko’s long-lost baker...

comicbook.com

What are the odds that Tomi will survive to the end of this season? I'd say it's pretty much close to zero for knowing the history.

 

[REBerg]

I have to say I'm feeling pretty biased when I see Princess in Mercer's bed.

I had an immediate "odd couple" reaction to that pairing.
As the ultimate Commonwealth alpha male, Mercer should have a host of women vying to become his significant other. He feels the burden of protecting 50,000 citizens, yet he selects a flaky newcomer who should be at the bottom of his match.com list -- if she made the list at all.
Go figure.

 

[Jeffbert]

Good point!

 

[nixie]

Princess and Mercer? They do say opposites attract.
Doesn't seem right to see Judith without Rick's hat.
Hershel is another smart kid.
Hornsby needs a slow horrible death, he's a creep. There maybe 50 thousand in Commonwealth but I don't really fancy their chances if they take on Maggie.
The Commonwealth is poison, still think governor Milton is just a figurehead who has no idea what is really going on.
Daryl needs to get Judith and RJ out of there, they all need to get out before the house of cards fall.
Will be interesting to see if Leah takes up Hornsby's job offer.

Tomi is a doctor, odds are he's dead very shortly. Medics don't survive long in TWD.

Anyone know where Gracie is ?

 

[AE35Unit]

How many episodes are in this series? We caught up with the episodes but then after 15 there was no more

 

[ctg]

One before the last midseason break. The last eight comes out later this year.

 

[AE35Unit]

Oh. I was hoping it would all be finished soon

 

[AE35Unit]

Weird, we've already had the midseason break here in the UK. And the guide is showing a few episodes after ep.15 ready to watch now

 

[ctg]

It's not weird. I officially try my best to post on Monday, while the episode itself has been out for a week already.

 

[nixie]

Think we're having two mid-season breaks.

 

[AE35Unit]

Weird, we've already had the midseason break here in the UK. And the guide is showing a few episodes after ep.15 ready to watch now

Well it is weird having a midseason break yet the episodes are listed on NowTV!

 

[Dave]

The last few episodes have all been subtitled as "second of three." I was puzzled as how they could all be 2 of 3, even more so since we are up to 15, and I also wondered just how many more there would be, so thank you for clearing that up.