Reviews

To be honest, I haven't been the biggest fan of Season 11 so far, other than the first two episodes. It feels like a rehashing of previous themes, characters, and settings. And I can't believe they decided to introduce the Commonwealth in the last season, a location which needs vast world-building and character establishing -- so much so that the regular characters -- the reason most fans are still watching the show -- get lost in the mix. I find myself unable to care about the Commonwealth and its conspiracies, and am critical of the characters for trusting such a place to begin with and not leaving as soon as the cracks began to show.

So the main plot of this episode -- about the characters deciding whether or not to leave the Commonwealth -- while not awful, wasn't very interesting to me.

On the other hand, I love the substory following Aaron and co. The abandoned renaissance faire is such a COOL setting, I really wish they'd utilised it more honestly. If this wasn't the last season it would have been interesting to see them spend more time there. The way this segment is shot is beautiful too, with all the vibrant fall leaves a welcome contrast to the Commonwealth -- which really just looks like a normal town. Lastly, the conversation Aaron has with Lydia while on watch was beautiful -- The Walking Dead writing at its best. I wish the whole season could have been more like that -- just focusing on the characters we love, their relationships to one another, and their survival, which all three of which have been the heart of the show since the beginning.

However, I do think the door-opening/rock-smashing walker was absolutely ludicrous.

The concept for this episode is so good, with a writer's story coming to life, complete with interactions between writer and character. However, Padgett being obsessed with Scully really detracted from the enjoyment I got out of this episode. Instead of focusing on the implications and intricacies of one's writing coming to life, most of the episode is devoted to Padgett's creepy stalking of Scully and his self-insert fanfiction of him having a relationship with her (which is so badly written it's kind of hilarious - I think that's intentional though). This episode has a big discussion around character motivations and yet completely fails at actually producing plausible motivations for the characters within its narrative: WHY does Scully go into the creepy stalker man's apartment and into his bedroom and have coffee with him???? The only way I can understand it is if she were somehow being influenced by his story but this isn't properly discussed within the episode. Lastly, and I don't know if anyone else felt this way, the final scene between Scully and Dr Naciamento gave me heavy sexual assault undertones, especially considering Padgett's behaviour towards Scully throughout the episode, which made it incredibly uncomfortable to watch.