{"id":342,"date":"2022-10-16T03:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-10-16T03:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=342"},"modified":"2026-08-14T02:56:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T02:56:52","slug":"the-walking-dead-s11-ep19-incorporates-spinoffs-mythology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"The Walking Dead S11 Ep19 Incorporates Spinoff\u2019s Mythology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The title of\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19<\/em>\u00a0was \u201cVariant,\u201d a title that\u2019s likely to conjure up pandemic-related feelings. Which is fairly on brand for Angela Lamb\u2019s reign as showrunner on\u00a0The Walking Dead<\/em>. The show<\/a> hasn\u2019t beaten us over the head with what\u2019s happening in the real world, but it\u2019s felt. It helps ground the show in reality. As always, there\u2019s a lot to discuss here so if you haven\u2019t seen\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19,\u00a0<\/em>here\u2019s your spoiler warning. Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powerful Character Moments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Walking Dead S11 Ep19<\/em> might be one of the final episodes of the series, but that didn\u2019t stop the writers from doubling down on heavy moments of emotion with multiple characters. Princess, Eugene, Aaron, and more would all have significant scenes in this episode. When you\u2019re this close to the end, you can\u2019t help but wonder if these moments of power will be the last for any given character. We\u2019re on borrowed time after all\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main story arc running through the episode is that Pamela Milton wanted someone to \u201cmake an example of\u201d following her son Sebastian\u2019s death and that example was set to be Eugene. Mercer was activated to find Eugene and also his sister Max, with Pamela telling him that Max would be safe as long as she had Eugene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start, we got to see tremendous growth on display with Eugene. He spent a bulk of the episode in hiding, being protected by Daryl and Rosita. Eugene insisted that he would not leave the Commonwealth with Max, who Mercer\u2019s soldiers did eventually find. Max stood her ground, refusing to give up Eugene, despite Mercer\u2019s desire to save his sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eugene, long a character defined by a lack of bravery, finally found some of that heroic spirit that his peers tsp into. He knew that Max wasn\u2019t going to be freed, so after a heartfelt goodbye with Rosita, turned himself into one of Mercer\u2019s soldiers, confessing to all the crimes he knew they wanted him to confess to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a huge moment for Eugene. The man who lied about being able to save humanity so he could be protected way back when, the same man who joined Negan during the height of that war with the Saviors, was now putting someone\u2019s life and well-being ahead of his own. In his tearful moment with Rosita, it very well could have been goodbye. We only have a few episodes left. If that was the last time they see each other, it was a sendoff befitting of their friendship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eugene wasn\u2019t the only character with a major moment in\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19<\/em>, though. Princess, who has been mostly sidelined, save for a few scenes with Mercer, had her biggest scene to date. Getting to hear about the abuse and trauma she\u2019s been fighting for most of her life gave the character this tremendous level of depth that she\u2019s been missing. Having Mercer hear her story also has to signal that he\u2019s going to do an about-face with Pamela Milton. Mercer has been her trusted bodyguard more or less but he\u2019s on the verge of doing what he thinks is best. This should be the moment that flips him to the good side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s Aaron, who was on the verge of flipping out during their mission to take supplies to Oceanside for the whole episode. Aaron had a really tender moment with Lydia where he spoke of love lost and not depriving themselves of love at the moment. Of not letting their pain and losses cripple them emotionally. It seemed to re-energize Aaron, who has been through a lot recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deaths Are Coming<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The TV critic in me had a moment during\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19<\/em> where I went from excitement over all the character development to the realization that these moments were setting us up for heartbreak. It\u2019s hard to say if it\u2019s Aaron, Lydia, Jerry, Princess, Mercer, or even Eugene that\u2019s being set up to die, but these tender moments will have tough payoffs. We\u2019re only a few episodes away from the end after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure that the show tipped its hand too much here as to who it will be that dies before the end, but the writing is on the wall that some of these characters that we spent time with here in\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19<\/em>\u00a0are going to break our hearts soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Variant<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Tales of the Walking Dead, <\/em>the newest spinoff series, there was an episode dedicated to a scientist who studied the movements, patterns, and behaviors of zombies. The scientist noticed that one zombie, in particular, was taking care of his herd, making sure that the slower and weaker zombies had food and were evolving. It was a startling moment to see that zombies, dead humans, were starting to gain human characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19,\u00a0<\/em>we had an equally as unnerving moment. A zombie following Aaron, Jerry, and company seemed to be paying close attention to the human\u2019s whereabouts in a way the other zombies couldn\u2019t. Then, during the big fight scene at the end, this zombie climbed up a structure and actually picked up a rock, to the point where Aaron and Jerry assumed that it was a Whisperer before the realization that it actually was a zombie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we move closer to the final episode of this series and into new spin-offs, having the zombies evolve more and more is a really intriguing development. With every human in the world being affected, there\u2019s almost a never-ending supply of zombies and they\u2019re only getting smarter and more human-like. It\u2019s almost as if the human race is being replaced by the dead, who are now evolving themselves. What does that say about the fate of the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s Not Forget Hornsby<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pamela Milton, as shown in\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19,\u00a0<\/em>is in a weird place of both grieving and trying to cling to power. With Sebastian dead, she does feel a sense of vulnerability, coupled with the fact that her bloodline could be out of power after her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She doesn\u2019t trust Hornsby and wants him to be subservient, hence playing the game with him in his cell. I don\u2019t think she wants him to die but she does demand loyalty. Of course, if Hornsby is released in the next episode as expected, then all bets are off. He\u2019s out for himself and power above all and that makes him a true wild card in the final run of episodes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of\u00a0The Walking Dead S11 Ep19\u00a0was \u201cVariant,\u201d a title that\u2019s likely to conjure up pandemic-related feelings. Which is fairly on brand for Angela Lamb\u2019s reign as showrunner on\u00a0The Walking Dead. The show hasn\u2019t beaten us over the head with what\u2019s happening in the real world, but it\u2019s felt. It helps ground the show in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[283],"tags":[34,35,288],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-recaps","tag-amc","tag-horror","tag-the-walking-dead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}