'The Walking Dead' Season 11, Episode 4: "Rendition" Recap and Review
NORMAN REEDUS AND LYNN COLLINS REUNITE TO ELECTRIFY THE SCREEN IN A MORE INTIMATE, CHARACTER-DRIVEN HOUR OF 'THE WALKING DEAD’ THAT PIVOTS TO REVEAL A VILLAIN OF LITERAL BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS.
I have to begin tonight’s review of this week’s “The Walking Dead” in a bit of a different way: by acknowledging a mistake. When I spoke about “Hunted” last week, I referred to a particular member of the Reapers - one who shows up throughout the episode and who ends up in a losing fight against Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) - as Pope, the big bad leading this band of psychotic murderers. Because of this particular guy’s prominence, as well as the way he seems to somehow escape the episode alive, it seemed to me like the show was introducing him in a similar way to Beta (Ryan Hurst) from last season, an unstoppable force who walks away from wounds that would be fatal towards just about any other character on the show. This time, however, instead of it being a fall down an elevator shaft, the Reaper we saw got stabbed in the head with a broken bottle and then smashed in the head with a crowbar. Chaos followed, and then that Reaper was gone with a trail of blood in his wake. I got the whole thing wrong - that wasn’t Pope at all - but I wonder if I wasn’t supposed to. Tonight’s episode, “Rendition,” makes a pretty big deal out of what happened on the other side of that fight, smack dab in the middle of a not-so-friendly reunion between Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Leah (Lynn Collins).
Right from the opening sequence - a replay of Daryl and Dog’s escape at the beginning of “Hunted” - the show makes it pretty clear that we’re in for yet another Daryl-centric hour, which at first seemed dull given that, out of the six “bonus” episodes that led into this final season, Daryl was given three of them, and the character has generally felt oversaturated in the wake of the departures of Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira. And, yes: Daryl is more or less the fan favorite and mascot of the show, and AMC doubtlessly want to capitalize on his popularity as much as they can, but if I were to make one broad criticism of Angela Kang’s generally terrific run as showrunner for “The Walking Dead,” it would be that a lot of other characters have been sidelined as a consequence. Despite this, unlike some of his most recent episodes - for example, “Diverged,” which feels cruel to constantly dogpile on, but features an absolutely aimless story for Daryl - “Rendition” doesn’t just rest on Reedus’ abilities as an actor, or give Daryl screen time for the sake of it, it actually sends him on a journey as a character and lets the story around him be as engaging as Reedus is.
After escaping from the chaos and death surrounding him and the group of Alexandria survivors, Daryl and Dog attempt to get away from the Reapers using stealth. Unfortunately, a scuffle with a Reaper results in Dog getting thrown off an embankment, and Daryl being separated from his canine companion. It isn’t until the next morning that Daryl reunites with a thankfully unharmed Dog, who has wound up at the side of a Reaper: Leah, Dog’s former owner, who Daryl had a did-they-didn’t-they affair with in “Find Me,” which was set years earlier in the timeline of the show. Later scenes in "Rendition" dive deeper into Leah's backstory, but the gist of it lines up - technically, at least - with what we learned about the character in that earlier episode: Leah was a soldier before the apocalypse, was with her platoon when it began, got separated from them for a few years, and then found them again after her time with Daryl.
We don't really know who people are in the dark, and Leah is a character we've only spent about half an hour with previously, so it's not like she outright couldn't be a Reaper. It just seems like there's a disconnect between someone who adopted the son of a platoon mate when the latter died, someone who could build a life on their own and have interests unique to themselves, and a band of homicidal, tribal maniacs. In any case, Daryl finds himself a captive of these maniacs, as they take him to what is presumably Meridian. The Reapers interrogate Daryl, waterboarding him in order to learn more about Alexandria and its people. From his first encounter with Leah through to his torture, Daryl holds firm to one story: he's not part of Alexandria or any group, and he was only accompanying them because they had recently traded and were headed in the same direction. Even when Daryl finds himself in a cell across from Frost (Glenn Stanton), Daryl puts on a show of not caring about the latter's capture.
This is a remarkable showcase not only for Reedus, who gets to give a performance-within-a-performance as he lies his way into earning the Reapers' trust, but for the writing behind Daryl, who we get to see a different side of this week. It's not that the character hasn't shown himself to be resourceful or intelligent - on the contrary, he's one of the most competent survivors out of the entire cast - and he's even shown that he can think fast and develop lies on the spot when it’s to his advantage. Daryl’s never used this ability in a villainous way - the two most prominent examples are when he wormed his way into the Claimers in the back half of season four, and how he deflected Rick when Maggie set out to kill Negan during the ninth season - and he’s never dug so deep into it that he created an alternate personality and history for himself. It’s probably a safe bet that Daryl’s goal is to bring down the Reapers from within, although Leah will surely complicate that plan. Leah has to confront her place within the group as well, when Bossie (Michael Shenefelt), the Reaper who got a knife in the back last week courtesy of Maggie, returns with the dead body of the Reaper Maggie and Negan killed; the Reaper who is most definitely not Pope.
As it turns out, Bossie carried this Reaper's body all the way back to Meridian, which of course explains their disappearance, but kind of brushes aside the amount of screen time and relevance they gave to the dead guy in “Hunted.” Except, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. A dramatic irony has been created here where, as an audience, we've gotten an intimate look inside the Reapers' organization and know far more about their power structure than the Alexandria survivors do, even counting Maggie who has had multiple run-ins with them. As a result, this Reaper who was given a lot of prominence last week might have seemed like a leader or big threat to the characters, but in reality is just another pawn to Pope's king. Or - and this will make sense in a moment - you could look at the dead Reaper instead as an Apostle to Pope’s God, the former shedding his blood in the name and goal of the latter, while being viewed with an elevated level of importance as a result. And, best of all, when we finally do get to see Pope (Ritchie Coster) the misdirection and buildup pays off, as the villain makes an entrance that is almost like the mirrored, terrifying inverse of when we first saw President Jed Bartlet in "The West Wing," triumphantly quoting the First Commandment in a perfectly-timed response to uninformed members of the religious right, who didn't even know what order the Commandments are read in. Here, the Reapers are all the zealots, and Pope is no exception: "God is here," he growls, "and he is angry. I'm angry. Do you feel that?"
Just as when Negan was first introduced to "The Walking Dead," with Jeffrey Dean Morgan stealing the series from the main cast for about six minutes, Coster instantly makes the Reapers more interesting. Before "Rendition," they felt like the series' customary threat, shoehorned in to give the main characters grief, pare down the cast, and fill each episode's runtime while remaining one-dimensional, their violence and horror-cliché brutality being what defines them. We don't learn a lot yet about the group as a whole, beyond their military past and their cult-like adoption of Christianity, but Coster's performance mixes brooding intensity with stony determination, and if the motivations of the Reapers remain unclear, with a committed and charismatic performance serving as the group’s “face,” that might be easier to overlook as an audience member. Pope takes Leah aside to confront her about her time with Daryl, asserting that her attachment to him has weakened her, and that her weakness might compromise the Reapers. Leah counters him with an insistence that Daryl can be useful. "I just see a guy who wants to get in your pants," Pope retorts, prodding at intimate details of the events of "Find Me," which imply that Leah told him everything. "At one point he meant something to me," Leah concedes, "but it ended the day I chose this family. I have never once regretted that decision, and I don't want you to either."
Seemingly satisfied with this exchange, Pope decides it's time to meet Daryl. However, when Leah heads to the cabin Daryl is waiting in so as to prepare him for the meeting, the other Reapers suddenly lock the two of them in, and set the building on fire. Daryl and Leah break their way out - the latter nearly succumbing to smoke inhalation - to find Pope and the Reapers standing in wait: this was a test. Leah walks over to stand with her family, although she seems shaken by the experience, leaving it up in the air whether or not Leah was in on it. "Forged by fire, ordained by God," Pope declares, ordering the Reapers to "welcome" Daryl. "Fortitudo salutis," they bark in unison, combining the "oorah"-like chants of the military with the words of the Bible: "fortitudo salutis," from Psalms, strength in salvation or, more forebodingly, support in times of war.
Pope takes Daryl aside after the "trial by fire." Pope asks Daryl if he believes in God. "Not anymore," Daryl responds, "I just believe in me now." Pope challenges Daryl: "That's a mistake, you're not Him." Daryl deflects, testing Pope's trust in him. "Passed your little test," Daryl asserts, but Pope's response gives Daryl information: "That's not the end of it." Pope sits Daryl down and goes into a monologue about the Reapers' history, how they began as a unit stationed in Afghanistan during the war, and how the politicians who sent them there, despite evoking God, did not know God. The Reapers, on the other hand, knew God from the violence and death they witnessed in the Middle East, becoming mercenaries after their tours had ended but they couldn't escape the toll of the war. "Oh, the things we did," Pope rambles out, his face locked in a thousand yard stare. "I was just like you, wondering where God was," Pope says, before revealing that the same politicians who sent the Reapers to war, now intended to exterminate them as mercenaries, and how they had to run through the fire of bombs to bring those trapped to safety, a safety which came in the form of a church on the edge of the town where they were fighting. "Everything burned around us, and when I looked at my people, not a trace of blood, no burn marks, not even a scratch. And that's when I knew we were the chosen ones." Coster gives yet another A-game supporting performance for "The Walking Dead," joining the group of actors who will likely remain snubbed by the Television Academy by the time the cast's final chance at Emmys have come and gone.
Finally, Pope offers Daryl a meal, bringing him to a campfire where the Reapers have gathered. Pope introduces Daryl properly to the group, before shifting his attention to Bossie. "He walked ten miles with his dead brother on his back," Pope says, as begins a triumphant speech which Bossie unwisely cuts off: "just did what any one of us would've done." Pope inquires about the knife wounds on Bossie's back, and raises an objection to the fact that Bossie wasn't facing his enemy. Leah attempts to defuse the confrontation before it starts, but Pope presses Bossie. Bossie insists that he was facing the enemy, without clarifying that he had enemies in front of (Alden) and behind him (Maggie and Negan). Pope once again praises Daryl for rescuing Leah and then saving himself. "Baptized by fire," Pope says, "God doesn't only use fire as his baptism, it's also his wrath." With that, he throws Bossie face first into the fire, literally charring him to death. It's not the most unique kill in the series - Negan did this in the seventh season to the Saviors' physician after a betrayal - but the visual effects are excellent in the most grotesque way. I'd wonder if this means Bossie is the "JUDAS"-labeled, charred walker we saw in "Hunted" - the religious symbolism and death by fire line up - but I don't think the timeline matches up. Here, it's been about 24 hours since the Reapers attacked the Alexandrians at the end of "Acheron: Part II," whereas the scene in "Hunted" occurred while the sun was still up the day after the attack. Pope declares that "we run into the battle, into the fire, always," and with the horror of what has just happened, "Rendition" comes to an end.
Where "Hunted" last week excelled because it was an hour of "The Walking Dead" that played to the show’s strengths, understanding what the show does well and just doing it, “Rendition” plays to the other half of great episodes of the show, focusing on a core cast member, throwing them into an unfamiliar place, and allowing us to see how they turn the tables. Daryl doesn’t destroy the Reapers during this episode, he doesn’t kill any of them, he doesn’t destroy their infrastructure. Instead, he ingratiates himself to them, falsely denying - another biblical parallel - his association with Alexandria, passing a trial by fire, and impressing Pope. In turn, he gets himself out from under the magnifying glass, enabling him to both learn more about these people while potentially setting the wheels in motion for their destruction. Norman Reedus and Lynn Collins are once again excellent opposite one another, beautifully continuing the character dynamic introduced in “Find Me,” but at the end of the day, for an episode centered so heavily on character and performance, Ritchie Coster truly comes in and steals the hour. Pope is an atrocious human being, twisting the words of the Bible in order to commit unspeakable atrocities, and yet I hope he lasts beyond these first eight episodes to reappear during the second and even third block of episodes for this final season. If he gets killed off prematurely, short of just flat out making Negan a bad guy again - which would be a terrible misstep - I’m not sure that anyone, even the great Angela Kang, could find a more imposing villain to close out “The Walking Dead.”