The Walking Dead season 11, episode 21 recap: Outpost 22

In The Walking Dead season 11 episode 21 “Outpost 22”, Maggie, Gabriel, Rosita, Daryl and Carol must find and rescue the rest of their friends. But the mission is far from easy, especially when those who have been captured get sent to the mysterious Outpost 22.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 recap – Who Escapes

Season 11 episode 21, becomes chaotic very quickly as several characters manage to escape capture, while a few others weren’t as lucky and get sent to work at a practical prison camp. Maggie manages to wake up in the back of a truck.

She notices the Commonwealth soldier on duty has fallen asleep. She quietly wakes Gabriel and Rosita, and the three attempt to escape from the moving truck unnoticed.

Rosita and Gabriel manage to escape but Maggie isn’t as lucky. In a rough struggle, she manages to cause the truck to crash, and escapes however having no idea where to go.

Gabriel and Rosita, having had an obvious falling out off screen at some point, argue over what to do next. They decide to follow the sound of a train horn.

Maggie proceeds to do the same, however struggles to function, as a walker about the same age as her son Hershel, starts following her. It has been revealed that she, like other parents, were separated from their children.

She does however come across another train track where she brutally attacks a Commonwealth soldier and decides to kill the young walker. After doing so, it does not take her long to catch up and find Daryl and Carol.

Off screen both Gabriel and Rosita seemed to have found them which means all five have been reunited.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 recap – Rescuing Connie

However, that doesn’t make the situation any better. Daryl and Carol had been spying and following the train from a distance and discover that Connie has been captured.

Worried for Connie’s safety, Daryl becomes fixated on rescuing her. Even if it means doing something stupid.

Carol, noticing Daryl’s obvious concern and care for Connie, tries to calmly speak some sense into him. Daryl does seek reason and once the two are reunited with Maggie, Gabriel and Rosita they start to think of a plan.

The soldier Maggie wounded is about to die and confesses to Gabriel that Connie will be taken to an area never to be seen again. He and Gabriel share a genuine, religious and spiritual moment as we are reminded that Commonwealth soldiers do their jobs for the sake of their families.

The group comes up with a plan to stall the train by damaging the railroad switch. One by one, soldiers are picked off until Daryl finds himself facing Connie in the grips of a soldier.

Thankfully the soldier is killed, and Daryl and Connie are reunited once again. The group takes the train driver hostage and ask him to reveal where their children and friends are.

He refuses, worried that his family will suffer back home. When Carol and Maggie believe they finally speak some sense into him, he decidedly kills himself.

Before he does, he did reveal that everyone is being taken to Outpost 22.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 recap – Outpost 22

The questions remain; where is Outpost 22 and who is being taken there? Ezekiel, Kelly, Negan and his pregnant wife Annie are amongst other Commonwealth citizens that are taken.

As they all awake on the bus, they are told they are in exile and sent to work to better The Commonwealth. They are not to address each other or the soldiers using their names.

They are all numbers now. Before the bus gets unloaded, random passengers are asked to leave the bus to go to another location.

This includes Annie. Playing it smart, she and Negan don’t exchange a kiss or even an embrace.

Negan promises he’ll find her and get her out of there. He watches with deep worry as she gets on another truck.

At this prison work camp, it looks as though everyone is cleaning up areas of train tracks from debris. Kelly immediately starts thinking of ideas of how she and Ezekiel can leave.

Ezekiel firmly shuts her down and the two witness three people escape. However, they are killed and turned into walkers soon after.

Ezekiel can tell that Kelly is already mentally breaking down being at this prison work camp. His worries only get worse when Negan attempts to speak to him.

While staying separated to not arise suspicion, Negan pleads with Ezekiel to work with him so they can escape. Ezekiel, bitter over the past and what Negan did to his community and others, wants nothing to do with him.

Negan, used to and expecting this kind of response, calmly explains that he’s worried for his pregnant wife. He’s asking, as one former leader to another, to forget the past and work together.

Ezekiel begrudgingly agrees. The episode comes to a close when Rosita uses the radio to pretend she’s a wounded Commonwealth soldier.

She calls for help needing to get to Outpost 22. The woman on the radio winds up telling her all about Outpost 22, just as Ezekiel, Kelly and Negan arrive in the same bus full of people.

Outpost 22 used to be Alexandria. Which means they, along with Maggie, Gabriel, Rosita, Daryl and Carol now have the advantage over the soldiers.

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 21 review

What an episode! The twist about Outpost 22 wasn’t too surprising, at least for me.

We knew that Lance and Pamela had other plans for the community from the get-go. Which is a real shame considering Aaron in particular wanted the community and his home to continue thriving.

However, the fact Outpost 22 is Alexandria puts Ezekiel, Kelly and Negan at a practical home field advantage. The same with Maggie and the rest of the group on the road.

Pamela and Lance must not have thought this far ahead, because, in all honesty, turning their old home into a prison wasn’t very bright. One of the things this episode highlighted beautifully was the reminder of how this show caters to truly everyone at some point or another.

Considering I’ve watched this during my single, married and now parenthood years, certain aspects of it really starts to resonate with you. Seeing Maggie dealing with the heartbreak of missing her child and not knowing if she’ll see him again was very well done.

Especially when she struggled to kill the walker who was close to her son’s age. Seeing Negan and Annie get separated really pulls at the heartstrings because you don’t know if they will see each other again and they can’t properly say goodbye to each other.

You start to realize there are more similarities than you once thought about the show and real life. It has always been a core strength of the series that others in the world of television only hope to obtain.

What did you think of The Walking Dead season 11, episode 21? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Walking Dead season 11, episode 22 airs November 6 on AMC.