The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 8 recap: For Blood

Episode 8 of The Walking Dead Season 11, titled “For Blood,” delivered a suspenseful and surprising midseason finale. While Maggie, Negan, Elijah and Father Gabriel attempt to finish The Reapers once and for all, Alexandria winds up in some unexpected trouble of their own.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 8 – The Attack on Meridian

The episode opens with Pope noticing the large walker horde and sending one of his men to start moving the walkers away from Meridian. Walker-mask-wearing Negan and Maggie manage to get the man killed easily, however, this is something Pope was somehow expecting.

He wasn’t the slightest bit surprised that Maggie had managed to lead the dead. Throughout this season, Pope led several of his people, his family, to the slaughter for reasons Leah has not agreed to.

As the walkers get closer, they are blown up by hidden land mines buried around the property. As Maggie and Father Gabriel move quickly and undetected, Negan and Elijah, unfortunately, wind up taking some hits but keep moving.

Daryl is able to sneak Maggie and Father Gabriel in after killing a Reaper who he conveniently forgot had the keys to the supplies in the last episode. After Maggie gives Father Gabriel instructions, she manages to hotwire a truck and drive it through a wall inside Meridian.

Once that happens, the walkers are now able to do their work and invade. Completely outnumbered, Pope remains calm as ever as they have a backup plan Daryl was unaware of, the hwacha.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 8 – The Storm at Alexandria

Alexandria is falling apart at the seams as a violent storm tears through that same evening! Lightning has struck the windmill, and now a large piece of the wall has been knocked down.

This means walkers should be arriving any minute. Our main characters are huddled in the same home and split into teams to deal with the problem.

Dianne (from The Kingdom), Lydia, Rosita and Virgil stay behind to protect the children. Aaron, Carol, Connie, Kelly and Magna decide to deal with the fire and damaged wall.

Judith, brave as ever, wants to join Carol and help but is told to stay and keep the children calm. Judith reluctantly agrees and talks to Virgil about her mom, Michonne.

Resting doesn’t last long as walkers try breaking in through boarded-up windows. With the front door barely able to stay closed, Rosita takes it upon herself to go out there and kill the walkers.

She does so in a very intense and amazing way! The problem can only be contained for so long, and everyone is told to rush upstairs.

However, Judith cannot find Gracie. It turns out Gracie ran to the basement to find a weapon.

As if things can’t get any worse, the basement is beginning to flood due to the heavy rain. As they run back upstairs, Lydia is the last to brace the door before walkers burst in.

Judith and Gracie retreat to the basement, now trapped between rising water and walkers.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 8 – The Plot Twist

The hwacha, sitting on a rooftop, is assembled to fire dozen upon dozens of arrows in a sizeable explosive group once lit. While this is a practical weapon to kill a great number of walkers, it doesn’t sit right with Leah when Pope wants it fired where her people cannot escape.

As one Reaper begins to prepare the weapon to fire, Daryl finally comes clean to Leah. Still hoping there is a trace of the woman he knew and treasured left, he begs her not to let them kill his family.

Pope emerges on cue as Leah and Daryl exchange silent glances. Daryl waits for his moment, drawing out his knives…

Pope turns to Daryl as if expecting his attack. That is until Leah makes the deadly blow surprising everyone!

Daryl, in turn kills the other Reaper and stops the hwacha from firing. He asks Leah to come back with him; however she makes the cold decision to radio the group that Daryl killed Pope.

On the verge of tears Daryl asks her why she’s doing this. She explains that her family means everything to her and Pope had forgotten that.

Daryl escapes before the other Reapers arrive. The episode ends on a cliffhanger as The Reapers are ordered to retreat as Leah lights the hwacha aimed at Maggie, Negan, and Daryl.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 8 ends the midseason finale with suspense and a cliffhanger.

Ah yes, the almighty The Walking Dead cliffhanger has returned but at least it’s a far less wait to find out what happens. However, since the promo for when the show returns aired before Sunday’s episode, we all know that somehow Daryl, Maggie, Negan, hopefully, Elijah and Father Gabriel escape.

I wasn’t expecting Pope to be killed this soon, nor did I expect it to be Leah who killed him. I figured at most, Pope was going to try to kill Leah because of her constant disagreements with him.

But now that Pope is dead and Leah refuses to abandon her family, does that make her the new leader? Since there are still some Reapers left, what will be Maggie’s plan now?

For that matter, how will they all escape when walkers are all around them? All season long, there have been major hints that whether we like it or not, Alexandria will have to be abandoned.

If literal front doors to fairly large homes are already rotting, then what does that say about the actual walls surrounding the community? I am so pleased to see Aaron take more of a leadership role throughout these past episodes!

He has truly walked in Michonne’s footsteps and would make her proud if she could see how well he has done. However, even he will have to accept that they need to search for new housing options and fast.

What did you think of The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 8? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Walking Dead Season 11 returns on February 20, 2022.