“Will you let The Commonwealth burn?”. That’s the decisive question that Pamela Milton acolyte Hornsby poses to Carol at a critical point in What’s Been Lost. Hornsby is no ally in the survivors’ struggle for freedom and justice. But the dilemma he alludes to in his confrontation with Carol is coming into ever sharper focus.
Now that she, Daryl and the others are engaged in a hand-to-hand fight to the death with Milton’s murderous minions, the human body count is rising. Is it possible that Milton’s twisted regime can be toppled without destroying the safety, security and the accoutrements of civilisation made possible by The Commonwealth? Not to mention the lives of the thousands who have found sanctuary within its fortified walls. Or will the removal of the Milton dynasty see the settlement reduced to smoke and ashes?
The episode tracks Pamela’s ruthless response to the rise of internal opposition and the death of her beloved Sebastian. What becomes clear in the process is that Pamela is a narcissistic autocrat, ruling by diktat and decree rather than through any kind of power-sharing authority. It also confirms that her secret police are a larger and more highly-trained group of enforcers than has been previously revealed. These sadistic sidekicks have been deployed on a special mission: rounding up and detaining all of the newest arrivals from Hilltop, Alexandria, and elsewhere – the refugees whom Milton blames as the troublemakers fermenting the rebellion (and not without good reason).
In addition to deporting the detainees to a clandestine labour camp, Milton is determined to make Eugene suffer her wrath, by prosecuting him for his supposed culpability for Sebastian’s death. To reassert her authority, and maximise the public humiliation of the newcomers, Milton insists that Yukimo act as prosecutor in the case, threatening her with the dire consequences of refusal. These twin storylines make for a packed and fast-paced episode, which accelerates the tempo and the sense of peril as the show’s final reckoning nears.
Director Aisha Tyler invests the episode’s multiple action sequences with visceral tension, and there are some great one-on-one fights and larger set-pieces to enjoy. Carol gets to enjoy showing her bad-ass warrior side once more: rescuing Daryl from a near-death experience; laying down a clutch of the undead by automatic firepower, and making a precision bow shot. There’s a coldness to Carol’s and Daryl’s treatment of Hornsby, who tries to save himself with his signature gift-of-the-gab until that proves to be insufficient. This is a story that once again foregrounds the pair’s relationship and the intimacy that connects them in ways that are not necessarily romantic in nature.
Fantastic visuals permeate the episode – from the shocking, gory scenes inside Hornsby’s cell, to some excellent fire-fights (Carol’s in the dark of an abandoned building is the best of these); through a disturbing crane shot of a body lying prone in the woods; to an alarming image of Ezekiel being administered a jab in the neck whilst wearing a prisoner’s hood.
The script by Erik Mountain is not without its weak spots. There is one logic-stretching coincidence (Daryl hones in on a hard-to-guess location with exemplary timing); and the switcharound that Yukimo engineers to put one over on Pamela, while well-delivered on screen by all concerned, is close to being one of the perennials of courtroom drama. But those are minor grumbles about what’s a powerful and confident plot.
There are many different echoes of the episode’s title in Mountain’s dialogue and characterisation. The idea of ‘loss’ has, of course, been one of the show’s recurring themes across eleven seasons. Perhaps the most telling part of reflecting on ‘what’s been lost’ is the realisation that there may be so many more devastating losses still to come.
New episodes of THE WALKING DEAD – SEASON 11 premiere Mondays in the UK on DISNEY+/STAR
Read our previous reviews of THE WALKING DEAD below:
Season 11, Episode 17, LOCKDOWN
