The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2 recap: Acheron: Part 2

Episode 2 of The Walking Dead Season 11, titled “Acheron Part 2,” begins with Maggie escaping the walkers by moving under the train car. Something Negan didn’t expect because after he is the last person to enter the train car, he tells everyone that Maggie was right behind him.

But sure enough, as the group is ready to continue with the mission, they hear loud banging from below. Maggie emerges, reveals what Negan did to which he has no regrets due to her previous threats.

Negan spends the next several minutes reminding everyone how he saved them by killing Alpha. Before the situation could get worse, they hear Gage calling for help from another train car.

He is trapped with walkers right on his tail. However, Maggie refuses to save him, worried they wouldn’t have enough time nor ammo (really?).

Alden’s pleas to save him don’t work, and the group watches him kill himself in an attempt to spare himself from suffering his incoming fate. The walkers gruesomely eat him regardless.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2 – Maggie’s story

As the group tries to continue through the train cars, they find the next one blocked. While they wait, Negan’s anxiousness is obvious enough for Father Gabriel to pick up on.

Negan confesses the situation gives him bad memories but won’t elaborate further (perhaps referencing Season 8 Episode 5?). Alden calls out the group for not looking at walker Gage, angered that he suffered such a demise.

Maggie interjects that she’s seen worse and tells a story about how she and Hershel were approached by a man who needed help. She knew he was lying but agreed to help him anyway in the hopes of getting supplies.

She kept Hershel in a separate room and went about searching the place, finding a pregnant walker with a walker unborn child still inside of her. She noticed how the woman was tortured and found several others.

She took care of all of them and left with the supplies, obviously traumatized by what she had seen (I feel traumatized just from hearing about it). Even though the event was horrific, she felt it changed her but for the better.

The group doesn’t have long to dwell because the walkers are breaking in. If you think that’s bad, walkers are making their way to the train car from the other side as well.

Having no other option, Maggie hands Negan a gun as they split up to take care of the walkers coming in from both sides.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2 – Welcome to The Commonwealth

Yumiko, Eugene, and The Princess are back in the cage together, unsure of Ezekiel’s whereabouts. Panicked, Eugene thinks they know about their attempted escape and believes they should tell them the truth.

Yumiko and The Princess strongly disagree, and in fact, Yumiko is ready to take matters into her own hands. She believes her brother may be there, according to the note she saw in the previous episode.

She can speak to the auditors and peg them both with ease. At the same time, The Princess leaves to use the bathroom, leaving Eugene alone.

When he realizes that everyone has been gone a while, he asks about their whereabouts but receives no answers. Before long, it’s his turn to speak to the auditors one more time as well as the stone-faced soldier.

He is given one last chance, to tell the truth. While Eugene reverts to his old, scaredy-cat ways, he sticks to the plan.

He recalls speaking to Stephanie on the radio and how he and his friends got to the trainyard. He’s brought to another train car, completely refurbished on the inside, finding his friends safe and sound.

It turns out they have passed the assessment and are welcomed to The Commonwealth. The soldier informs Ezekiel that he went to West Point, obviously angered by Ezekiel’s incorrect assumption from the previous episode.

The group’s warm reunion is made even sweeter when Stephanie arrives to meet Eugene face to face for the first time.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2 – Daryl and Dog

While Maggie’s group is trying to make their way from train car to train car, Daryl chased Dog throughout the tunnels. He comes across what looked to be an entire camp of survivors who have long since died on his travels.

Artwork covered the walls depicting Washington D.C and groups of people fighting with one another. Perhaps the artwork was depicting some real struggles where Daryl now stood as well.

He takes an interest in a note left behind written on money before chasing Dog again. They come across a wounded Roy and several walkers.

Daryl and Dog take out the walkers and come to the other end of the train cars. In a visually stunning scene, Daryl kills the walkers one by one, clearing them out so that Maggie and the group can escape.

Once they reach the surface, Maggie wants to stop at Arbor Hills quickly, and Negan agrees to lead the way. However, the path is littered with hanging dead bodies (is this a calling card for The Reapers?).

A second later, the group is getting attacked, losing Roy in the process. The episode ends with The Reapers marching their way up the street looking for blood!

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2 creates a buildup to the series’s next and possibly last villains.

“Archeron Part 2” fills in some gaps here and there as the two stories lead to their final destination.

Maggie’s story reveals some of the horrors she had seen, which may explain her more hardened disposition. It may explain why as much as she still hates Negan, she understands why they need him.

Their battle to get through the subway was just a warm-up for now. The Reapers have arrived, which isn’t a surprise considering Maggie said herself that they attack at night. She and Negan are still far from buddies, but this experience may be what she needs to accept Negan as an asset instead of an enemy finally.

For Eugene’s story, the group needed to pass several tests that didn’t end after leaving the assessment. The Commonwealth is real, and from the amount of work they do just for processing, it’s safe to assume it will be the safest place our characters have lived in thus far.

All of the hard work and mental mind games were worth it, and now Eugene can finally meet Stephanie in person! But how will Maggie and the group survive The Reapers and still get the supplies they need?

What does The Commonwealth actually look like, and will it become the next Alexandria for our heroes?

What did you think of The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 3 airs on September 5, 2021.