The Walking Dead season 11 episode 6 recap: inside

The spider web in the opening scene serves as an apt metaphor for an episode about captivity – Connie trapped in a house of horrors and Daryl all tangled up in the Reapers’ ploys. Pope’s former psychopathic crew are great, but as the villainous gangs disappear, they don’t rank among the Saviors or Whisperers in terms of muscle, chaos, or charismatic leader; So far, most of the drama in this story is carried by Daryl and Leah, as we wonder if she’s gone too far to be redeemed. But here it’s long-lost Connie and Virgil delivering one of the series’ most poignant and spooky tales for a long, long time.

Let’s take a quick look at what’s going on with The Reapers and Daryl’s fledgling acting careers. Still playing the role of a wanderer with no allegiance to Maggie’s group, he hastens to help Pope interrogate Frost to find out where she is. But when the nail torture quickly escalates into severed fingers, Daryl struggles not to break character. His efforts to overthrow Frost are almost laughable: “So just to say a site so we can all go happy!“Why doesn’t Frost come up with something? Sure, he could be a dead man later, but at least it might save him and Daryl some time. Instead, Frost reveals the actual location of the Safe House. His reward for honesty: Pope ends up killing him and ties his zombified body to a tree.

The constant feuds between Daryl and Carver, Leah’s straight hitman, are almost as tense as the search of Maggie’s hideout. The two Reapers have a close bond, having pledged to always support each other, as they say. Carter seems to have feelings deeper than Bonds on the Battlefield, but again, as Leah notes, he also let her into a cabin that was about to be set on fire. To be fair to Carter, his instincts are pretty relevant: he is suspicious of Daryl’s motives (as he should be) and thinks that something is wrong inside the house (as the trapdoor proves it to be). he uncovers under a carpet). Carter’s antagonism forces Daryl to step up his acting game: he promises Leah that he’s only there for her and admits that even though Pope scares him, Daryl will trust him if Leah says so. This speech gives Maggie’s crew enough time to get away, but Daryl and Leah’s future does not look rosy. As Frost writhes against this tree, Daryl seems just as concerned about his cruelty as he is about his friend’s disappearance.

Hiding from a Reaper Search party feels like an Ibiza moss party compared to what Connie and Virgil find when they take refuge in a creepy abandoned house (which is pretty much every house these days, really. , but not like this). You might remember that after Michonne left Virgil on Bloodsworth Island, he finally showed up in Oceanside, found a horse, and then found Connie. Now he’s trying to get her home, which is especially difficult since he doesn’t know sign language. Connie’s Horde Cave PTSD and lack of sleep makes matters worse – a perfect recipe for hallucinations (something Virgil is familiar with if you remember his trippy time with Michonne).

It seems Connie is paranoid when she looks in a medicine cabinet and sees a yellowed eyeball staring at her through the wall. After all, she returned to the Zombie Cave thanks to a sleep deprived stupor. There was a certain Night of the Living Dead ambiance about their nocturnal arrival home, with Hitchcockian tension in this string music playing in the background. Even more effective is the use of silence, which throws the viewer into Connie’s point of view as she cautiously inspects the house. Portraits with gutted eyes, however, seem more rustic than terrifying. If only Virgil could convince her to rest …

This is when the shit gets real. Connie’s concern is justified as a secret panel is revealed, separating her from Virgil. The sound stops again and we watch her in silence as she scratches the wall. Something passes in front of the camera, but only a muffled noise is heard whoos as Connie fumbles. Then we see and hear a monstrous, human-like creature leaping towards her on all fours. The sound is back. We hear her growl, then pound furiously on a door she is desperately trying to keep shut.

Connie finds herself in a room full of cleansed human bones and is almost stabbed by Virgil, who mistakes her for a creature hidden behind a wall. Meanwhile, there’s another creepy robot sneaking up behind Virgil: “Hungry!” he screams before Virgil stabs him in the chest. Even the way he hides in the dark after sustaining a critical knife injury is shuddering.

Virgil is shocked at the idea that these monsters have herded them “like prey”. Considering the odds they face, he wants Connie to go it alone – it’s his way of paying for the second chance Michonne has given him, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself to give Connie a chance to reunite with her family. . Connie – being an angel walking among us – refuses to leave him alone, signing “Together” in response to her call to leave him behind. Virgil takes out two of the creatures, but one of them comes in from the top of a cabinet as if it was the top tensioner of a WWE ring. With Virgil in bad shape, Connie thinks quickly. His stroke of genius: to cover himself with guts, open the door and let the walkers pass in front of them to feast on the monsters. Connie looks on in disgust moments later, everyone eats everyone.

Outside, two creatures manage to escape the zombie rush, and it’s Kelly and the rest of A-town’s search team, to the rescue. The sisters have a tearful reunion just yards from a house full of hungry undead, while Virgil may be about to breathe his last. It’s a heartbreaking comeback for Connie, and the whole house footage is arguably one of TWDbest moments of authentic horror and suspense since the cannibals of season five.