The Walking Dead season 11, episode 10 recap: New Haunts

Episode 10 of The Walking Dead, titled “New Haunts,” time skips a bit as the group has been living at The Commonwealth for thirty days. However not everyone left Alexandria and what’s, even more, is that not everyone is positive they want to stay at The Commonwealth.

Let’s take a closer look at what happens!

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 10 recap – The Commonwealth

It’s Halloween at The Commonwealth with adults and kids dressed in costumes and several events are taking place! Including a Fun House filled with walker actors.

Our heroes have started new lives, taking on their new roles quite well, at least that’s how it looks from the outside. While Ezekiel runs the petting zoo consisting of several animals like rabbits and chickens, Daryl and Rosita are training to become Commonwealth soldiers.

As The Princess works at the record store, Carol is working at the bakery, Connie is a reporter (who grabs Daryl’s attention every time he sees her) and Magna is a server. While this might all seem wonderful, several characters like Maggie, Lydia, and Aaron are not present.

Assumably they are still residing at Alexandria. What’s more, is that while everyone at least seems content there is a greater issue at play.

It seems as though your wages and where you live depends on your job. Since Daryl and Rosita are not full-fledged soldiers yet, they do not live in the greatest of places.

It’s made clear when Daryl returns home to Judith, R.J, and Dog having to practically yell over each other because of noisy neighbors. That and the fact that when Judith asked for an allowance so she can spend money, as her new friend was able to, Daryl said he couldn’t until he got the job.

The episode might have also hinted that Rosita and Father Gabriel might not be together anymore as they do not live together and share custody of Coco. While Daryl and Rosita want to team up during a team exercise, Mercer refuses and so they are paired with people who seem to have very little experience dealing with walkers.

Rosita’s team manages fine but Daryl likes to work independently and thus his team fails. Mercer asks Daryl to come with him so that Sebastian Milton, Governor Pamela Milton’s son can kill walkers. Oh, I absolutely dread the day he kills someone we actually care about on this show…

Rosita joins them and after Sebastian makes fun of the weapons at his disposal which includes Daryl’s treasured crossbow, he struggles to kill a walker. Daryl does it for him which displeases Sebastian just as his mother passes.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 10 recap – Carol and Ezekiel

At one point Carol and Ezekiel were happily married. But all of that seemed to fall apart when their adopted son Henry was brutally murdered by Whisperer leader Alpha.

However, it’s clear that Carol still has feelings for the man as he’s seen suffering from thyroid cancer. She’s so concerned that she breaks into the records room at the hospital to find his file.Tomi, Yumiko’s brother who has been removed from his position as a baker and is now a surgeon at the hospital, catches her in the act. He explains the sad reality of the situation, specifically where Ezekiel is listed pretty far down on the surgery waitlist.

This causes her to take action by spying on Lance Hornsby. She notices he very loudly complains at the wine selection for the masquerade that evening and Carol takes it upon herself to find some he’ll like.

After nearly dying in the process and killing several walkers, she presents it to him asking for Ezekiel to be moved further up the list. Lance’s decision to help her will be determined after the masquerade.

After the masquerade, Carol finds Lance and asks if the wine was a hit. It obviously was but requires more on her part before he helps her. Of course, he does… That same evening Carol and Ezekiel enjoy the wine and bond again.

It’s clear the feelings they have for each other never truly went away. Ezekiel presents her with Henry’s box of personal items for her to keep. The moment brings her to tears, both at the memory of their son and how dire Ezekiel’s situation is.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 10 recap – The Beginnings of an Uprising

It’s the evening of the masquerade and only the elite are allowed entrance. This includes Mercer, whom everyone adores, especially The Princess.

In a very adorable scene, he sees her waiting on the sidelines and invites her to come with him as his guest. Inside, Magna is one of the servers, presenting the wine to the guests including her ex Yumiko.

Connie and Kelly approach Governor Pamela Milton to talk to her about some rather touchy subjects that she quite easily avoids. She also avoids the constant approach of a male server.

When the time has come for her to make a grand speech and present a beautiful painting of her father, he makes a scene and takes her assistant hostage. Turns out it is the same soldier The Princess beat to a pulp when she, Eugene, Ezekiel, and Yumiko first arrived.

Because he failed as a soldier he was demoted and has been struggling to get by. He escapes without harming Milton’s assistant as Daryl chases after him.

He catches him and what do you know, Sebastian shows up. While Sebastian preventing the attacker is meant to make him look good before the crowd and his mother, she knows better.

She is worried however that there are more citizens unhappy with The Commonwealth. By the end of the episode, Daryl has become a soldier and can provide Judith with an allowance.

Their living situation is noticeably better. Rosita, a soldier as well, raids a home and finds a hidden room filled with resistance messages and images that deeply troubles her.

The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 10 review

This episode did what many others before failed to do. It was able to keep audiences interested, without the need for constant walker fights or serious drama, and established what The Commonwealth is really like to near perfection.

Every job we see assigned to our characters is very believable, for better and worse. As I feared previously, it looks like some characters are going to be split between siding with The Commonwealth and the growing resistance.

This inner turmoil at The Commonwealth isn’t at all surprising and it is something we as a society still face today. I do worry about the reckless and spoiled behavior of Sebastian Milton as I dread he will kill a beloved character as he does in the comics.

While we lost Alden, I’m sure we’ll lose more characters as the final season of The Walking Dead wraps up. I am curious about what will happen to communities like Alexandria and The Hilltop as they probably won’t be able to survive on their own much longer.

Just as I wonder why Maggie will be at The Hilltop, hesitant on staying at The Commonwealth. I suppose it is good to have a backup plan in case The Commonwealth falls but in the long run, the smaller communities, as much as we love them, can’t survive forever.

What did you think of The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 10? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 11 airs on March 6, 2022.