Of the early episodes here for season 11, I have to say this episode bored me the most by a wide margin. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m over Daryl is captured episodes, or because I don’t care to know the Reapers that much knowing this is the last season but I felt this episode to be a drag, and with that I apologize in advance my recap will reflect that.
The episode starts at a pivot, and by that I mean after the Reapers attacked the group and everyone scattered, In this episode, we pivot to Daryl’s side story on the run when we first followed Maggie. Daryl and Dog were hunting down a Reaper at the pivot, a little bit later they end up in a fight with this Reaper in a field. Dog bites the Reaper and the Reaper picks up and chucks the dog down a hill. Two other Reapers arrive and Daryl runs off, the Reapers go to track down Daryl and it becomes daytime. One of the Reapers finds the dog before Daryl does and causes the dog to whimper. It turns out this Reaper is Leah! Leah is the one that Daryl had a history with during the extended episodes of last season. Leah tries to find out if he is running with Maggie’s group or not, Daryl reads the situation and says he doesn’t know them he just traded with them and hauled some gear, he tried to get Dog and leave but the other two Reapers show up and capture him.
The Reapers are torturing Daryl, they waterboard him for answers, he keeps saying he is alone. Daryl isn’t breaking, the torture stops when one of the Reapers “Bossy” returns with Turner who died in the attack with Maggie, Aldon, and Negan. The leader of the group, Pope is pissed and wants everyone to feel their wrath. Daryl can read the situation and decides to give up some information to Leah, saying that the group is led by a woman (Maggie), a tall skinny loud mouth guy who never shuts up (Negan), and a priest with a shotgun (Gabriel). Daryl says that a soldier slipped up and said they are going to go meet up with three dozen soldiers which means they have the numbers over the fifteen Reapers here.
Pope decides that after the constant support from Leah that he will test Daryl. He does this by locking Leah and Daryl in a wooden building together and lights it on fire. Daryl ends up breaking some wood to get a board to pry off the boards covering a window, breaks the glass, and gets Leah out before himself. When they escape all the Reapers are there to watch. Pope screams forged by fire! He then tells everyone to embrace Daryl since he is now one of them.
In a separate meeting between Pope and Daryl, he asks Daryl if he believes in God, Daryl says no he just believes in himself. Pope says this group was Mercs in Afghanistan, he says that shortly after the fall they were all holed up in a church after the cities were bombed. Buildings were on fire and the fire ended up jumping the church and Pope says that proves the point that his group is the chosen ones. He is a loony toon, he follows up and asks if Daryl is hungry. They go outside to the fire pit with the others. Bossy gives Daryl some food at Pope’s request, Pope tells Daryl that Bossy hauled his dead brother back 10 miles. He wants to know though why he has injuries on his back, eluding that he was running away from the fight and not right there fighting, which he was when Maggie threw a projectile in his back. He continues that you never turn your back on your brother, God uses fire as a Baptism but fire is also his wrath, he grabs Bossy, throws him in the fire, and stomps his face into the fire. He yells that they are the chosen ones and they run to the fight always!
