Acheron: Part II
"Acheron: Part II" is the second episode of the eleventh season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series "The Walking Dead". The second of a two-part season premiere, the episode was written by showrunner Angela Kang and Jim Barnes, and directed by Kevin Dowling. "Acheron: Part II" was released on the streaming platform AMC+ on August 22, 2021, before airing on AMC on August 29, 2021. The aired on AMC one week earlier. In the episode, continuing where the left off, the group led by Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is trapped inside an underground subway car surrounded  by lurking walkers. With very little ammo and energy remaining, the group must ready themselves as the undead have found a way inside the subway train. Elsewhere, Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) challenges the process at the Commonwealth outpost, which threatens her future and that of Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Ezekiel (Khary Payton), and Princess (Paola Lázaro). The episode received generally positive reviews from critics, though many felt that splitting the episode into two parts was unnecessary. Plot. Underneath the subway car, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) fends off a walker and shoots it in the head. She tries to escape by climbing up the  subway car ladder, but is dragged down, swarmed, and buried beneath a pile of walkers. Inside the subway car, an overhead hatch opens; the remaining members of the group drop down as outside walkers claw at the windows, surrounding the already claustrophobic subway car. Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) asks about Maggie's whereabouts and is informed by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) that she was right behind him, omitting the fact he left her behind to die; the group then listens to Gabriel's plan on how to escape. Concurrently, Daryl (Norman Reedus) breaks his way through a tunnel wall with Dog ; his flashlight illuminates what used to be a makeshift shelter for the homeless. Suddenly, a man's scream echoes through the tunnels, prompting Dog to run off; Daryl follows Dog's barks in the distance and crawls through a muddy sewer. Back inside the subway car, the group moves on and hears thumping from below. A floor hatch is opened and Maggie climbs up, revealing she is still alive. Maggie then stares down Negan and whips him across the face with her gun. She then reveals what Negan did to her, but Negan asserts that he didn't leave Maggie  to die, rebuffing her accusation and explains why he did what he did; Duncan (Marcus Lewis) violently pins Negan to the wall. Before Maggie can make a decision about Negan, they're interrupted: it's Gage (Jackson Pace), who had previously abandoned the group, taking off with Roy (C. Thomas Howell) and their supplies after Negan accused Maggie of leading the group on a death march. Pounding on the door and begging for help, Gage explains that he and Roy got separated in the walker-filled tunnels, but was able to get a door open on the far end of  the train; however, walkers filter in behind Gage, who had not closed the door behind him. Negan and Duncan try to pry the door free, but Maggie warns everybody that if they open it, all of the walkers will get in and they don't have the ammo to clear them out. Gage then desperately apologizes and begs Maggie for another chance, but she refuses, insistent on her previous claim. His fear then gives way to anger and calls Maggie a "liar", and withdraws a pair of knives and stabs himself twice through the heart. Gage is then devoured by  the pack of walkers; the group can only watch. When a zombified Gage later thumps against the glass of the subway car, Gabriel comments that Gage was a "coward". Alden (Callan McAuliffe) then argues that Gage was scared and didn't deserve to die like that. Maggie then says that there are worse ways to go and tells a story from her time alone with Hershel of a worse way to die than Gage did. Meanwhile, Daryl continues his long, claustrophobic crawl through the sewer, taking out walkers in the process. He soon finds a bloody trail and discovers Roy  alive but looking half dead, asking Daryl for help. Inside, Duncan and Frost (Glenn Stanton) force open the door hinge, but the door to the next car is blocked by a seat with no way out. Eventually, the press of Gage and other walkers causes the door separating the two train cars to start coming down. The door soon breaks down and the zombified Gage leads the herd through the doorway. Gabriel quickly shoots Gage in the head with a shotgun, putting him and the two walkers behind him down; Daryl hears gunshots and goes running. The crew takes turns  gunning walkers down and also striking them with arrows to the head. Even more walkers lurch forward as dozens flood in from both sides. During this, Maggie hands Negan a gun; he takes it without a word. Daryl soon enters the end of the other train and sneaks up on the back of the pack. He moves through the train and executes the walkers with a gun, slashing his way through the rest and pries the door open, freeing the trapped survivors. Daryl then force-feeds a grenade to a walker, kicks it down, shoves the door, and takes cover ; the walkers explode in the preceding car. Afterwards, the team regroups at the exit of the subway tunnels; Negan hands over the gun back to Maggie. Before they continue on, Maggie decides to make a detour to Arbor Hills. She explains that Georgie left a hidden supply depot there containing ammo, food, and weapons, which Maggie believes will be a safe place for the group to rest before continuing on to Meridian. Hundreds of miles away, Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) holds a hushed meeting with Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Princess (Paola Lázaro) at the Commonwealth detainment center; however, Ezekiel (Khary Payton ) is gone. Yumiko is convinced the Commonwealth is real after finding a message from her long-lost brother, Tomi, on the notice board of photos with missing people called the "Wall of the Lost". Later, in lawyer-mode, Yumiko assesses the Commonwealth auditors. She explains that she was a criminal defense lawyer before the apocalypse, and has reason to believe her brother is living at the Commonwealth and looking for her; she requests expedited processing for her group. Eugene is later taken to a room for further questioning by General Mercer (Michael James Shaw) and an auditor. Trembling and a  sweaty mess of nerves, Eugene is intimidated by Mercer, who demands the truth to two questions: "Where is your settlement?" and "Why were you at that train station?" Eugene proceeds to tell the truth, breaking down in the process. Afterwards, in the daylight, a wagon transports a hooded Eugene to a boxcar. He is soon unhooded and greeted by his friends, including Ezekiel. Mercer enters and a secretary hands him a piece of paper. He then tells the group that they have successfully completed initial processing and will be escorted to orientation by a beat cop, and welcomes them to  the Commonwealth. A woman (Chelle Ramos) then enters and asks for Eugene; he raises his hand. The woman introduces herself as Stephanie. Back on the road, the road-weary travelers are stopped in their tracks by a horrific sight: dozens of bodies strung up by their ankles and hanging from roadside trees. A bolt suddenly strikes Roy in the face, instantly killing him. A bladed weapon is then flung from the darkness, striking Cole (James Devoti) in the thigh. The group immediately flees for cover and scatter into the woods as more bolts and other projectiles come flying out of  the darkness; a group of Reapers reveal themselves. Production. The episode features the deaths of Gage and Roy, played by Jackson Pace and C. Thomas Howell, respectively. Both had been on the series since the ninth season, first appearing together in the episode "Stradivarius". The episode's title, "Acheron", refers to one of the rivers in Greek mythology that is said to flow through the underworld. The "Acheron" is also sometimes called the river of pain or woe. It is also a real river in Greece. Reception. Critical reception. The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes , the episode has an approval rating of 91% with an average score of 7.9 out of 10, based on 11 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Maggie veers into the dark side in a tense episode that features a show-stopping set piece on a train and intriguing shades of moral gray." Ron Hogan of "Den of Geek" gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, writing: "The second part of Jim Dowling's episode works well because it's so competently set up by the first half." He also praised Dowling's direction, Josh McDermitt's performance, and  the character development of Negan. Writing for "Forbes", Erik Kain wrote that he "enjoyed the episode a lot", but again criticized the decision to split the episode into two parts. He continued by writing: "I think we viewers would appreciate just a tiny bit more quality control in the script department is all I'm saying." Writing for "The A.V. Club", Alex McLevy gave the episode a grade of "B−" and also praised Negan's character development, and wrote that Negan's decision to leave Maggie for dead felt true to his character, though felt that some scenes with the  Commonwealth were tiresome, and that Eugene's speech and breakdown "felt awfully over the top". Writing for "Filmspeak", Zach Marsh gave the episode a B+, writing: "It's a relief to see that 'Part II' stuck the landing, and it leaves me feeling as excited for what comes next in 'The Walking Dead' as I have ever been." Ratings. The episode was seen by 1.99 million viewers in the United States on its original air date. This was a decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which had 2.22 million viewers.