The Walking Dead (10×20) Splinter Review

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

Synopsis: Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko, and Princess are captured and separated. Princess struggles with memories of her traumatic past and tries to escape one way or another with the help of Ezekiel. (IMDb)

What happened to Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko, and Princess after what was supposed to be the end of Season 10? Instead, here’s an episode focusing on Princess, a character who we just met. That being said, it was still a somewhat compelling episode that attempted to traverse her fragile state of mind. Paola Lázaro was great but does it really matter at the end of the day?

Splinter started off where that storyline left off with the stormtrooper-looking soldiers rounding them up with Princess being placed in a train car seemingly for having put up a fight. The others seemed to have been placed in adjacent train cars. Princess took things especially hard and wanted to make up for what she may had done. Yumiko wasn’t doing too well therefore Princess continued to converse with her to keep her awake though eventually got taken away. Suffice it to say that she had a troubled past.

The following morning, Princess found her way to Eugene who had a much different interpretation of the current events of course therefore was against going after Yumiko. She was then taken away to be examined and interrogated which went nowhere (Yumiko was allegedly fine but was nowhere to be seen). Eugene was the next to go but Ezekiel happened to show up to assist though Princess was in a different state of mind. Nevertheless, the two got the upper hand on a soldier who implied things may not be as bad as they seemed though whether or not it was true remained to be seen. Their captors had a system and were allegedly there to help and had a system to go about doing that. However as far as Ezekiel was concerned, he had enough with the rookie soldier.

Ultimately, it was all in Princess’ mind as Ezekiel was never in the train car with her and she was the one beating up the unfortunate soldier (perhaps Ezekiel was an extension of her true thoughts). The answer to her situation was to figure out her own past issues with her abusive family. The fantasy world she created was her way to cope. In the end, Princess was open to making up for what she did and to mend whatever differences she had with her captors. Thus, she answered all their questions. Everything that happened was just a test as the others were waiting for her outside Princess’ train car.

As far as this extended Season 10 is concerned, this was a promising episode that actually tried to do something different which should be commended even though it was still a mixed bag. What will happen to the others and will this affect the arc of these additional episodes? That remains to be seen. And nobody died in this episode.

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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.