The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 11: Bounty Review

For our review of last episode of The Walking Dead, click here.

Synopsis: The Whisperers, led by Alpha, confronts the Hilltop in a harrowing attempt to retrieve her daughter; A supply run for the Kingdom turns into a dangerous quest. (IMDB)

Writer: Matthew Negrete

Director: Meera Menon

Rating: TV-MA

Running Time: 44mins

Airs: Sundays at 9pm on AMC (Canada/United States)

This episode offered a flashback to a period during the infamous and mostly unexplained time jump at the most inopportune time of course.

This episode started with Ezekiel, Jerry, and Carol where Jerry shared news of his girlfriend’s pregnancy. It’s a flashback where they traded medicine with Jesus and Tara, further explaining the rift between the communities. Ezekiel was given a charter to be signed by each community. Everyone was getting ready for the fair. Ezekiel just needed one more thing that was supposed to be a side mission (that he tried to keep from Carol) in a movie theatre, a projector bulb. He thought it was worth it. A well-placed tune would lead most of the walkers out but once inside, they would have trouble finding a bulb.

They would eventually find one though removing it (and also protecting it) would be easier said than done. Ezekiel was hopeful that everything could work out but Carol wanted him to consider the possibility of things not working out. Meanwhile, Jerry would drop the bulb inside of the theatre with tens of walkers. Ezekiel was considering leaving until Carol turned around and believed that they should stay and fight for it. The same cool tune played while they disposed of the walkers inside. They were successful.

Back to the present, Alpha was still outside of the Hilltop. She just wanted her daughter but the Hilltop wasn’t willing to give her up. When forced to leave, Alpha would just call in reinforcements. It was getting tense as Daryl was being protective of Lydia. He went out to talk to Alpha to tell her that he wasn’t going to give Lydia up and that they would fight. A baby and Alden and Jacob as well as a herd of oncoming walkers would change things. Unfortunately, Henry seemed to have release Lydia prematurely. Meanwhile, the baby outside was getting the attention of the walkers. Henry and Lydia snuck out so Daryl went out to find them. Connie (who is deaf), who was stranded outside the gate, came out from the tall grass and tried to save the baby. Fortunately, she was saved by Daryl and a few others.

Lydia was thinking about her mother and the fact that she broke her own rules while trying to get her back. Enid found Henry but he wasn’t willing to let her go. She would share some of her past experience to help put things in perspective, bringing up Carl. Lydia decided that she had to go back. Daryl would hand her over to her mother who would greet her with a slap for not calling her Alpha. Henry would come to terms with what just happened but he still wondered how everyone else could live with it.

Daryl was given a note that was found in Henry’s room (probably from Lydia) which made him want to leave for whatever reason. Connie wanted to go with him and followed him out.

Overall, Bounty was another meh episode of The Walking Dead that failed to continue the momentum from the last episode while offering us a flashback of Carol and Ezekiel that would help to partially explain the fracture between the communities which of course would come at the most inopportune time in terms of being part of this episode instead of happening much earlier when it should have but also it’s just hard to care at this point. The jumping back and forth did the episode a disservice by hurting the momentum of both subplots. In the past, some walkers were killed to a cool tune and that was about it. In the present, Daryl did somewhat emerge more as a leader while Henry got a life lesson that he’ll probably not learn from. What part of the note made Daryl leave? What’s happening in Alexandria? Will we ever care?

Score: 7/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.