Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
Lance Hornsby of the Commonwealth is a man with a plan. A very cunning plan. A plan that is likely to prove fatal to others. But first of all, this is a very, very stupid plan, and I’m here for it.
While The Walking Dead spent the last few episodes showing many, many, ever-widening cracks in the façade of the Commonwealth’s paradise, it was only the end of last week’s Rogue Element that Lieutenant Governor Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) hinted at. will be the main antagonist of the final season. And that’s only because he broke poor Eugene (Josh McDermitt)’s heart by pairing him with the fake Stephanie to get information about Alexandria – but as he pointed out, it’s information that Hornsby used to send aid and resources to rebuild Alexandria, which objectively is more than fair trade.
Still, it’s a pretty cheeky move on Hornsby’s part, especially when he hurts someone who is (usually) one of The Walking Dead’s most lovable characters. In today’s Lucky Ones episode, we’ll find out what Hornsby’s diabolical goal is… and he doesn’t care how many people he has to help achieve it.
The episode begins with Gov. Pamela Milton (Lyla Robins) touring Alexandria, Oceanside, and even to the very start of Hilltop 2.0, accompanied by Hornsby, General Mercer (Michael James Shaw), Daryl (Norman Reedus), and a group of Ordinary Soldiers. First stop is Alexandria, which looks great – virtually all the destruction from the Whisperer War, storms and zombies has been removed, the windmill is back up and running, and the settlement is filled with neat rows of crops. Again, it looks like Eugene’s pain was worth the benefit it brought to the colony.
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Aaron (Ross Marquand), knowing how important Commonwealth assistance has been and will be in rebuilding Alexandria, has teamed up with Hornsby to impress Pam, in the hope that the colony can join the Commonwealth’s uncomfortably vague “Mutual Defense Pact”. Unfortunately for both him and Hornsby, Pam is not particularly interested in acquiring the colony, especially after she finds out how often it has been rebuilt over the years, as it also indicates how many times it has fallen.
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
Next stop is Oceanside (who we haven’t seen since Season 10), where Rachel (Avanna Minhier, same) tells Pam she wants to join her, but since they’ve always partnered with the Hilltop, Oceanside will abide by whatever Maggie (Lauren Cohan) decides. Hornsby is not very pleased with the rejection, while Aaron worries that it could affect Alexandria’s growing alliance with the Commonwealth.
The essence of “The Lucky Ones” comes down to Pam and Maggie meeting, who are more alike at first than Maggie would like to admit. After Pamela’s convoy runs into Maggie fighting zombies on their way to the Hilltop, the two couples go hunting and team up in their leadership roles, and then the Governor gives her an offer to partner with the Commonwealth. The future Pamela wants is a network of safe communities where people can travel and trade freely, where pre-apocalyptic society, technology and unity return – a life where Maggie can give her son Hershel a ride on his first day of college. This is a powerful argument, and Maggie is visibly tempted, especially when the Governor proves that she is not just a bureaucratic politician, but is just as capable of killing zombies as Maggie is.
When they return to the Hilltop, the colony’s needs against Commonwealth aid are so obvious it’s almost ridiculous. The Hilltop is still largely destroyed in the aftermath of the Whisperer attack, and only a few former residents seem interested in trying to save it – definitely less than the platoon of Conventional Stormtroopers doing the bulk of the reconstruction. This is a showcase of all that the Commonwealth has to offer, not only to Maggie and her people, but also to the audience. Hornsby, even deadpan, asks Maggie, “Do you mind if we distribute supplies?” The Commonwealth couldn’t look more gracious and generous even if it tried (because it’s already trying very hard). It’s honestly no surprise that Maggie’s right-hand man, Dianna (Kerry Cahill), decides to leave. “It’s harder than ever and it shouldn’t be,” she tells Maggie. She’s right.
If you’ve survived the Wolves, the Saviors, the Whisperers, and a million or so zombies, you might think moving to the safety of the Commonwealth shouldn’t be a solution at all. But Maggie still resists for two reasons. First, she’s not thrilled that the Commonwealth is an autocracy ruled by Pamela, which also gives her the most luxurious life that the post-apocalypse has to offer. When Pam retorts that Maggie has equal power over her people, Maggie retorts that she would rather have those people recognize her authority by her deeds rather than by her ostentatious display of wealth.
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
The second reason is more important, although obvious. Maggie doesn’t trust the Commonwealth, especially their offer of free help. Maggie has been a very distrustful person ever since Meridian was attacked by the Reapers, but you don’t have to be so jaded to wonder what the Commonwealth is getting from helping the Hilltop and Alexandria. After all, this is the world of The Walking Dead, and they are clearly not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.
Maggie directly asks Hornsby the same question, and he immediately dodges it, pointing out how bad things are at the Hilltop. When she urges him to do so, he replies something vague about making a better world for everyone (which leads to the aforementioned “Herschel goes to college” pitch)…which isn’t really an answer either, but the conversation is interrupted by a zombie attack. . Hilltoppers use their melee weapons to fight normally, but then regular stormtroopers march in with their assault rifles and mow down the zombies in an instant. It’s just another obvious sign of all the benefits that joining the Commonwealth will bring.
But Maggie remains unwilling to give up the Hilltop’s potential freedom for an unknown price, no matter what help it might bring. “Everything is worth something,” she says, echoing a line Pam said earlier in the episode. The Governor basically shrugs and prepares to head home, but Hornsby runs after her, claiming he can convince Maggie eventually. Pam wryly but thoroughly accuses him of trying to unite the Hilltop and the other two colonies so he can be put in charge of them. Yes, Hornby wants power.
This is absolutely fun for me. It’s just…nonsense. Let’s say he gains control of the Hilltop, Alexandria and Oceanside. What “strength” does that give him? What could he do with all the “mighty” resources of these three ruined settlements, which currently have virtually no resources other than what the Commonwealth currently gives them? What does this level of power even mean in a zombie apocalypse, other than the ability to throw lavish, decadent dinner parties? Because that’s about all Pam has for her.
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
And Hornsby works so hard for it! He has a secret special forces team in the Commonwealth whose only known accomplishment is the seduction of Eugene. As Mercer tells Daryl, Daryl didn’t wear a normal stormtrooper’s armor to visit the colonies because of the optics. Hornsby is trying to find a way out of a seemingly noncommittal situation. He tries to play three-dimensional chess when no one even has a full set of checkers. I’m pretty sure he’s directly or indirectly behind sparking a revolution in the Commonwealth when any other villain in The Walking Dead would just shoot Pam and take over the governor’s office. Dude, you have the ability to fix Alexandria’s windmill; no less important is what Daryl is wearing.
To be honest, Hornby’s scheming is so sophisticated that he may have a deeper purpose in mind, because he also gets a delightfully unnerving scene at the end of the episode. After meeting with the Governor, who tells him that she will only accept the three colonies as a package deal (for whatever reason), Hornsby marches straight into the woods, fires his pistol into the air to attract the zombies, and then methodically shoots them off. with headshots. It’s not the weirdest way to let off steam in a zombie apocalypse – to be honest, several characters tried to exorcise their demons by slaughtering the undead – but Hornsby managed to make it very creepy. When Aaron comes to check, Hornsby lies, says that Pamela still wants to partner with Alexandria and they will bring even more people, all the while zombies shuffling towards him. “We’re going to remake the world,” he says with a manic gleam in his eye, right before turning around and shooting a zombie point-blank in the face, so that in the last frame of the episode, Hornsby is pointing a gun straight at the camera.
It’s a real supervillain moment, and after 10-3 seasons of various lunatics as the bad guys, I’m thrilled that The Walking Dead is ending the series with a very different conflict led by a very unique character. kind of crazy. I’m sure Hornsby will eventually do something so reprehensible that the series won’t be fun again, but until then, my vote is for him.
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC
Assorted thoughts:
- I don’t have much to say about the situation with Eugene and Max (Margot Bingham) other than that 1) Josh McDermitt killed her in this episode and 2) it’s very weird. Max accidentally sees Eugene in the Commonwealth with another woman calling herself Stephanie and doesn’t say anything? And after Eugene got quite rightly upset that the “real” Stephanie wasn’t real either, she wants him to apologize for being rude to her? Give him some slack! I would be pleased if Hornsby was also behind this.
- Ezekiel (Chary Payton) learns that he has been moved to the top of the waiting list for surgery. Eugene disagrees with being moved to the top of the waiting list for surgery. Yevgeny still had the operation. End.
- The zombie that managed to infiltrate Alexandria and the zombie that attacked the Hilltop seem a little convenient, don’t they?
- I love that Pam knew Dinah (the always lovely Tova Feldshuh), the former congresswoman who took over Alexandria before she was murdered in season six. This is a good callback.
- Hornsby tells Maggie how his father gave him a gold coin, which Hornsby later discovered was just gold plated and virtually worthless. Slim, TWD. Real thin.
- Weren’t Rick, Ezekiel, and even Maggie herself the autocrats of their colonies? They were (mostly) benign, but in the end they made almost all the decisions. Discuss. Show your work.
- Max asks Eugene a difficult question about his book: “Was the tomb involved? Eugene: “Of course I did.”
- Well, at least Pam knows her son sucks.
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