‘The Walking Dead’: “Morning Star” Was The Season’s Sweetest Episode, Until It Wasn’t

“Sweet” and The Walking Dead aren’t usually two things that are associated together. Devastating, sure. Violent, bloody, grim, all words you might find popping up in a word cloud for AMC’s long running zombie drama. But part of the reason the hardcore fans have stuck with the show for 10 seasons is that between those moments of gruesome undead action are scenes of pure humanity, when the post-apocalyptic survivors are able to connect for a brief moment, stop stumbling from one disaster to the next, and just live their lives.

Happily, that’s what this week’s episode, “Morning Star,” brought for the first two thirds… Until it twisted into the epic, horrifying action the show is known for in the final third, officially kicking off the Whisperer War in earnest.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 10, Episode 11, “Morning Star,” past this point.

Written by Vivian Tse and Julia Ruchman, and directed by Michael Satrazemis, “Morning Star” is one of those classic “calm before the storm” episodes of TWD, with the exception that, for the first time in a long time, everyone seems to be having… Fun? It’s a weird shift in tone from the first two episodes back since midseason, which found Daryl Dixon’s (Norman Reedus) group scrambling out of a collapsing, zombie infested cave, and then Merle’s bro going mano a womano with Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton), while her second in command Beta (Ryan Hurst) tore his way through Alexandria like a slasher movie monster. You’d think the group would be licking its wounds and quaking in fear, but instead things very much go in the other direction. For a few hours at least, the heroes of The Walking Dead decide to live.

This plays out a number of ways, with different results. Eugene (Josh McDermitt) continues to chat with a mystery woman over a radio, realizing that not only does he enjoy talking to her, but may be falling in love with her. That leads to Rosita (Christian Serratos) challenging Eugene to kiss her, a moment fans have been screaming about for a while — and instead, he finds that he can’t kiss the woman he’s been aggressively crushing on for so long, because he likes the lady on the radio too much. That lady — Stephanie (Margot Bingham) — seems to like him too, and though their trust gets broken when Rosita discovers the radio, he wins it back by awkwardly warbling Iron Maiden’s “When The Wild Wind Blows” to her over a montage of the group preparing for battle.

Now, granted, almost every radio conversation with a strange group like this ends up poorly on The Walking Dead, so you have to ignore a bit of a feeling of dread during these scenes. Comics fans know that Stephanie’s eventual introduction — and potential spoilers here — brings a bit of a mixed bag… She’s a representative for The Commonwealth, an advanced civilization that is making things work in the post-apocalypse much more smoothly than over in Hilltop and Alexandria. Though, as usual, they’ve got some quirks that eventually bring the whole thing crashing down. Oops.

Beyond Eugene, there’s also Ezekiel (Khary Payton), who has been dealing with quickly progressing thyroid cancer, and has decided not to hide it anymore. That leads to a nice scene with Daryl where the two settle their differences, and an even better scene where Ezekiel tells Carol (Melissa McBride) and the two tumble into bed. In the funniest line of the episode — yes, “funny” and TWD don’t usually go hand in hand, either — Ezekiel asks whether Carol would have slept with him if they weren’t going to die in the Whisperer attack, to which Carol replies, “Wait, we’re gonna die tonight?” McBride has always been stealthily hilarious, and it’s nice to see her show it off here between the pathos. Gallows humor is, arguably, The Walking Dead‘s sweet spot.

And in fact, Carol got the second of the night’s stand-out emotional high points… After Daryl gets his iconic angel wing vest back, repaired by Judith (Cailey Fleming), Carol approaches him outside the house… Back in the midseason premiere, an incensed Carol had blown up the cave in order to destroy Alpha’s herd of walkers, leaving two of the group, including the woman Daryl has sort of a thing with, trapped and maybe dead. There’s a pause, and Carol blurts out, “Please don’t hate me,” to which Daryl sighs, and says, “I’m never going to hate you.” Carol sobs in relief, and if you didn’t feel that, in that moment, you’re as dead as any walker inside.

It’s surprising, then, that this episode isn’t the pure calm-before-storm episode, but in fact reserves it’s remaining few minutes for an insanely epic battle between Alpha’s forces and Daryl’s camp. Initially, the heroes try to escape before encountering — with mounting dread — an old favorite: Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who is now working with Alpha, has created choke points a la the classic Season 6 episode “Last Day on Earth.” Daryl instantly knows what’s happening, so they head back to Hilltop and batten down the hatches. What follows is an all out attack on Hilltop… First, Alpha’s herd gets electrified (and some zombies bisected) by wires set up by Eugene. That barely holds them back before they break through, besetting the heroes.

And then Beta pulls out their trump card, through sacks of tree sap raining down on the Hilltop survivors. Very quickly, they realize the sap is there to set them on fire (and yes, pine sap is actually flammable IRL), forcing them to run back to Hilltop. Only it’s too late, because straight out of Lord of the Rings, the Whisperers shoot Hilltop’s walls with flaming arrows, trapping the group between an inferno on one end, and a zombie herd unlike they’ve ever seen on the other.

Last episode, I lamented that the plot armor seems to be back on, as minor characters fall but major speaking characters seem to be impervious to harm. This situation, leading into the next episode, is really going to test that theory… Trapped between a flaming rock and a zombie place, there’s no clear path for all of the survivors to get out, barring an act of god; or perhaps, an act of Negan’s shifting loyalties.

Big question though is, between the resolution of The Whisperer War, Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) upcoming exit — and other than a brief mention from Judith, we haven’t seen or heard from her in a while — and all the other dangling plots on the show, will we have time for more human, funny, and just plain sweet moments from The Walking Dead? History has proven that the answer is usually “no,” but given how enjoyable this week’s episode was to watch, hopefully there’s a balancing of tones even as we enter the endgame. Seasons 9 and 10 have been the strongest the show has been in a while; finding new modes other than “grim darkness” will help keep that positive track going.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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