Is The Walking Dead about to abandon Alexandria? The Alexandria Safe-Zone has offered mercy for the lost and vengeance for plunderers ever since Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) led his people to the walled-off community in Season 5, withstanding a walker invasion, an explosive assault by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors, and infiltration by Whisperers Dante (Juan Javier Cardenas) and Beta (Ryan Hurst). But in the aftermath of the Whisperer War, which left Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Hershel Rhee’s (Kien Michael Spiller) home at the Hilltop colony burned to the ground, Alexandria could be the next community to collapse following the destruction the Whisperers left in their wake.
In 1017, “Home Sweet Home,” the first of six new bonus episodes extending Season 10, Daryl (Norman Reeds) brings Maggie and her people home to Alexandria as they’re hounded and hunted by the Reapers. When Maggie sees the gaping hole in Alexandria’s wall and the tatters of her home from years before, Carol (Melissa McBride) explains what happened: “Whisperers left a parting gift.”
The survivors leave Alexandria in-between the events of Episodes 1014 (“Look at the Flowers”) and 1015 (“The Tower”), hunkering down inside a hospital while preparing for the final battle of the Whisperer War in 1016 (“A Certain Doom”). In “The Tower,” Beta unleashes his walker horde inside Alexandria, only to find the community abandoned.
In Sunday’s “Find Me,” Alexandria’s rebuild continues as Daryl and Carol set off together to hunt for food and use scraps from a fallen tree to patch out the wall. After Dog discovers a chewed-out deer carcass, Carol points out other deer are probably long gone.
“Losing Hilltop was so hard for everyone to take. But at least we were there to fight for it. We tried to save it,” she says. “But this, losing Alexandria?”
“We didn’t lose Alexandria,” Daryl counters. Says Carol, “Not yet. It feels different. Like everything that’s good in the world is not on our side anymore.” When Daryl tells Carol the survivors will rebuild and start over, she asks: “Until it happens again?”
Alexandria’s degradation drives next week’s 1019, “One More,” which pairs Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) on a desperate search for supplies that turns dangerous.
“We get to see Aaron and Gabriel on just an old-fashioned Walking Dead survival story that tells us a lot about the state of Alexandria, which is going to be really, really important for the story going forward,” showrunner Angela Kang teased during The Walking Dead Extended Season 10 Preview Special.
Losing Alexandria could be what takes the group back on the road as Walking Dead writer-producer Jim Barnes has revealed the eleventh and final season starts out as a scary road show. Season 11 of The Walking Dead premieres this summer on AMC and will culminate later in 2022.
Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. New episodes of The Walking Dead extended Season 10 premiere Sundays at 9 pm ET/8c on AMC.