The premise of episode 11.22 titled "Faith": Ezekiel and Negan plan a work camp revolt; Eugene stands trial with Yumiko as his defense attorney. Nicole Mirante-Matthews & Magali Lozano penned the script for 11.22 and they brought the writing back to how it should be, the dialogue felt natural and overall well written. The episode uses the big budget wisely, making it brilliant both technically and the acting and so on, the camera work are brilliant and visually a great episode, an overall impressive production. There's so many shots in this episode that are brilliantly shot, such a stunning looking episode, but that doesn't make a great episode.
Rose Troche directed "Faith" and being a guest director, she phenomenal job. Troche's vision and direction were truly great, bringing her skills and experience to a show that currently needs it. Her work on the episode are surely one of the highlights. The cinematography and the other departments, especially the makeup and special effects departments, were as always top notch. The attention to detail and all the shots in the nature, they nailed it on the camera side of things. The cinematography is once again breathtaking and incredible, just right for the show, the way it was shot and so on, simply brilliant. The sets were detailed and perfect, and so are the art and production design. I also found the effects to be fantastic in this episode, practical effects always makes it so more real, and The Walking Dead is known for their practical effects and they didn't let us down for this episode. Superb sound design and a musical score both gripping and dramatic. It's one of many things on the technical side of things that the show succeeds perfectly with.
The Commonwealth arc have had its ups and downs but I'll have to admit, I really liked this episode. I thought it was great. It's the final arc of the series like the source material it's based upon, though very different but most of the changes I can be behind. The plot moves forward nicely and the two separate storylines (Aaron and the others) are now one thanks to everyone is in Alexandria/Outpost 22. The trial in the Commonwealth happens simultaneously and it's suspenseful and full of tension, like the other storyline, the episode is full of suspension and tension. I even sat on the edge of my seat during the most suspenseful sequence in the episode, first time since Sebastian's death I didn't know what was going to happen. But I still think Angela Kang is playing things too safe, the unpredictability hasn't been there in the entire season. We see more of how fascist and how Commonwealth have evolved into a military-state, fully fleshed out. It's brilliant really, believable too. There were so many brilliant performances, my favorites being: Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene, Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Eleanor Matsuura as Yumiko and Christian Serratos as Rosita Espinosa are some of my favorite performances. But I think Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Josh McDermitt has the best performances in the episode, as Negan and Eugene.
This episode kept the story going much more, in a great way. Luke is finally back. Episode 11.22 has most if not the whole cast in it, it feels like an old episode of The Walking Dead. I think this was one of the better episodes of Part C, but I'm tired of how safe they're playing it, all those spin offs which were announced hurt the show a lot, still hurting. Yet, the episode was full of suspension and tension, but almost no action which I liked. You see, The Walking Dead have never been about those big action sequences, it was mostly in season 8 that happened, TWD for me have always been a character driven drama and this episode succeeds with that idea. There's some superb drama in this episode, character interactions that keeps you engaged, you don't need action sequences in every episode (like the previous which had some of the worst) just write a solid episode like this one and you'll be good. It was so nice watching some quality drama. I won't get into details but how this episode ends, I can finally say that I'm actually interested in seeing how the final two episodes will turn out, it's looking bright for The Walking Dead.
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