The Walking Dead 1017 – Home Sweet Home
The Walking Dead is back with a slate of new episodes to wind down Season 10 while ramping things up for the series’ conclusion next season. Even though the Whisperers storyline has come to a close there are still a lot of moving parts to the show. Home Sweet Home welcomes a hardened Maggie back into the mix, full of secrets, a new crew and poised for a showdown with Negan.
The tone of Home Sweet Home is established before the opening credits when Maggie unexpectedly runs into Negan while walking in the woods with Judith. Negan’s past transgressions haven’t been forgotten and the lasers shooting from Maggie’s eyes promise to cut him in half. It will be interesting to track the dynamic between the two as the season moves along. Negan’s done his fair share to try to atone for killing Glenn, but Maggie has been absent for a good deal of that and hasn’t forgiven him at all.
Seeing things through Maggie’s eyes is like a refresher course on what’s been going on since she left with Georgie to build other communities at the end of Season 9. The devastation at Hilltop and Carol’s confession that she’s the reason Negan is a free man doesn’t sit well with Maggie and comes across as a betrayal. As tough as it is for Maggie, Carol continues to struggle with her part in all of it.
The very reason Maggie left home in the first place remains and will be a source of conflict and soul searching. Loss of a loved one drives most of the narrative with Glenn, Kelly’s sister Connie and Elijah’s as of yet unnamed sister getting varying amounts of attention. The threat of further loss is brought into the spotlight when a mysterious group connected to Maggie and her new crew threatens Herschel’s safety.
The new threat that has everyone on edge are the Reapers. Fans of the comic book won’t have a leg up on viewers unfamiliar with the show’s source material as the Reapers never appeared in the comics. Without having any past stories to use as a reference point and combined with the fear Maggie, Elijah and Cole display when they’re mentioned it’s safe to say that the new big bads will be formidable.
The last half of Home Sweet Home is tense, has a few surprises and a twist or two for good measure. Maggie’s homecoming, the introduction of a dangerous new foe and reminders of times past make for a satisfying return.
