"What's Been Lost" is the twentieth episode of the eleventh season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the one-hundred and seventy-third episode of the series overall. It premiered on October 23, 2022. It was written by Erik Mountain and directed by Aisha Tyler.
Plot[]
Daryl and Carol investigate the whereabouts of their friends after Pamela disappeared them from the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, their only lead is Hornsby. Meanwhile, Pamela asks Yumiko to prosecute Eugene on behalf of the Commonwealth.
Synopsis[]
At Elodie's Treats, Carol loads up a bag with food when Ezekiel joins her, leading to some playful banter between the two. Ezekiel offers Carol some extra medical supplies to take back to Alexandria with her which she is grateful for, explaining that she was just taking some more food to meet up with the others. Carol turns around for a moment to grab some more rolls and when she turns back, Ezekiel has mysteriously disappeared. Two men enter the bakery and attack Carol, but she manages to escape out the back door.
Carol sneaks through the streets, dodging patrolling soldiers and hiding until her pursuers have passed. Once they're gone, Carol runs back the way that she came. Arriving at the Coalition's wagon, Carol finds it abandoned with supplies strewn around and a trail of blood. Hearing the sounds of a fight from a nearby building, Carol moves to investigate. Inside, Daryl is being strangled by an attacker who has already been stabbed by him in the shoulder, while a third man lies dead nearby, having been killed by Daryl in the fight. As the man shrugs off all of Daryl's desperate attacks, his partner begins to reanimate and Carol hits him over the head from behind, saving Daryl's life. Grabbing his remaining knife, Daryl prepares to fight the man again, before his zombified partner rises up and bites the man in the neck from behind. Taking advantage of the distraction, Daryl stabs both men in the head, killing them, and retrieves his other knife. Recovering, Daryl tells Carol that they took the kids, but Carol corrects him that everyone has been taken.
In her office, Pamela Milton informs a group of the Commonwealth's elite that the Coalition are enemies of the state, but that the situation is well in hand. Pamela has already suspended all migrant entry into the city until further notice. Lena Brand is glad that their contributions to the Commonwealth's future have not been in vain. Lena expresses her personal sorrow about Sebastian's death, stating that Kayla is distraught and it's unthinkable to lose a child which Pamela agrees is worse than death.
Yumiko angrily storms into the room, punching a man in the face that tries to restrain her and demanding to know where her friends are, much to the shock of the Commonwealth's elite. Yumiko calls herself the biggest threat that Pamela has at the moment and orders her to dismiss her guests and explain what the hell's going on. Amused, Pamela dismisses her guests and tells Yumiko that she's been expecting her. Pamela explains that her friends have been removed from the Commonwealth, which Yumiko realizes is just like the hundreds of other people that she's had disappeared. Not even denying the accusation, Pamela claims that their rebellion and defiance of the Commonwealth's laws had left her with no other choice. Yumiko calls Pamela out on her hypocrisy, but Pamela continues to insist that she does care about the law and seeing order restored from chaos and for justice to prevail. Pamela wants to assure her citizens that the trial of the man who killed Sebastian will remain impartial and that justice will be served no matter which side someone falls on. To this end, Pamela intends to bring this "impartial justice" by having Yumiko, Eugene's friend, be the prosecutor in his trial. However, Yumiko refuses to sign her friend's death warrant in a kangaroo court publicity stunt. Pamela threatens that Yumiko will never be reunited with her friends otherwise and that she should consider how Yumiko's actions will affect her brother as well. Pamela smugly dismisses her to prepare for a press conference announcing Yumiko's intent to prosecute Eugene.
Daryl tells Carol that he was jumped and that the attackers even took Dog. Daryl thinks that the attackers were working for Pamela and they need to find Mercer for help. However, Carol worries that Mercer would possibly turn them in, meaning that he can't be trusted. "Shit. There is one other person," realizes Carol and Daryl guesses that she's talking about Lance Hornsby. Carol points out that Lance knows all of the dark shit that's going on in the Commonwealth, so he'd probably know about this. While Carol knows where to find Lance, this isn't going to be easy.
At the Commonwealth Hospital, Yumiko finds Tomi who is treating a patient. Once the patient is gone, Yumiko reveals to her brother that her friends have been taken and removed from the Commonwealth. Tomi is shocked by the news, and Yumiko confirms that Magna, Connie, Kelly and all of the rest are gone on Pamela's orders, and she is now demanding that Yumiko prosecute Eugene if she wants to see them again. Tomi recognizes that Pamela had likely threatened him too, but Yumiko promises to not let anything happen to him. However, that's not what Tomi is worried about. Tomi knows that Pamela expects Yumiko to fold and that she's stacked the deck that way, and if she doesn't, who knows what will happen to Yumiko. Yumiko is sure that there has to be another way and she seeks her brother's guidance on what to do. Even though it's not what she wants to hear, Tomi suggests that the best for Yumiko to protect her friends and herself is to give Pamela what she wants even though it means sacrificing Eugene. Tomi doesn't think that Yumiko has any other choice, pointing out that Pamela is still standing despite everything that's happened. "There isn't some kind of justice just waiting around the corner," Tomi concludes. Yumiko is shocked that her brother can just accept that, but he sees it as survival, not acceptance which is what Yumiko wants for her friends and them for her.
As Yumiko makes her way out of the hospital, she is intercepted by Connie and pulled into a storage closet. Connie explains that she stabbed one of her attackers in the leg and ran when he let go of her. However, it happened so fast that Connie doesn't know if anyone else escaped. When Connie turned back to help Kelly, her sister was already gone, and Connie didn't know what else to do. Yumiko reassures her friend that she did the right thing as Connie would be in the same situation otherwise. Connie knew that the man that she stabbed would need medical attention, so she came to the hospital. Looking through a vent into the next room, Yumiko spots the injured man being treated and Connie reveals her intention to follow him once he's released as he could lead them to their friends and her sister. However, Yumiko worries that it's too dangerous as Connie could be caught. Rather than allow Connie to risk herself, Yumiko decides to do it herself as they may be looking for Connie, but they aren't looking for Yumiko. Both women know that, if Yumiko's spotted, Pamela's men will know that they spoke, and they can't risk seeing each other again. Connie reassures Yumiko that she has faith in her, and they share a hug before Yumiko leaves.
In the Commonwealth Jail, Daryl and Carol subdue two guards and take their guns and keys. Carol locates Lance's cell where they find the traumatized and blood-covered Lance muttering in the corner about how "there's always a path. Always a way out," while staring at his lucky coin, a zombified Sebastian laying amongst Roman Calhoun's dismembered remains. Although shocked by this scene, Daryl draws one of his knives and stabs Sebastian in the head, putting him down. Choking Lance up against the wall, Daryl demands to know where their friends have been taken and presses on Lance's facial wound. Seeing Lance's state, Carol stops Daryl and tells Lance that they can't leave him there alive, so his options are telling them where their friends are or dying.
Finally focusing on Carol, Lance agrees to show them, stating that he gets that they don't trust him, but Lance knows a way out of the city and the two agree. However, Daryl spots an ankle monitor on Lance and he explains that it'll set off an alarm if Lance leaves. Daryl goes to cut it off, but Lance tells him that he'll have to cut off his foot and carry him. Instead, Carol tells Lance to be ready to run, but he stops them to do something first. Alarms ring through the jail as the three make a run for an exit. Commonwealth soldiers shoot at Daryl, Carol and Lance and Daryl returns fire, ordering Carol to leave with Lance while he covers them. Daryl promises Carol that he will figure it out and he continues to exchange fire with the soldiers as Carol and Lance escape.
In Union Square, Yumiko follows Connie's assailant from a distance, but he catches on and stops, forcing Yumiko to keep moving and give up the attempt to try and maintain her cover.
In her office, Pamela dictates to her new assistant Kathleen about how the upcoming press conference is important to regaining the public's trust and it needs to have a takeaway that they are moving forward in a transparent, open way. Pamela makes the mistake of calling Kathleen Max, forgetting for a second that Kathleen is not her old, long-term assistant. Pamela plans to have the Commonwealth Army there, but only in the background, so as to present a peaceful return to law and order. Pamela knows that if it feels like a police state, that will only stir up any lingering resentment. Pamela receives a phone call that leaves her visibly shocked.
Pamela is led to Lance's cell where she finds Lance gone and Sebastian dead, his head bashed open, and Lance's lucky coin left behind in his spilled brains as a message to her. Pamela begins to cry, but she quickly becomes consumed by rage after spotting the coin and realizing who's responsible for the state of her son.
Outside of the Commonwealth, Carol asks Lance how much farther they have to go, and he tells her that it's just a couple of miles further up. Looking back at the city, Lance comments that he's never realized before just how much the Commonwealth looks like a prison from the outside. Lance calls Carol right to have left Daryl behind as Daryl was only slowing her down just like everyone does. Carol asks what Lance means and he explains that Carol isn't like most people and she's always thinking 10 steps ahead which is what makes her special, bringing up the impossible jailbreak that Carol had pulled with obvious respect for her talents. Lance claims that he hopes that Daryl's okay, and Carol turns her gun on him, aware that Lance is just trying to manipulate her. Lance insists that he's being honest, and that he can take her to her friends, but Carol is doubtful that Lance really cares what happens to Daryl. Lance points out that he was just locked in a cell and forced to feed his colleague piece by piece to Sebastian, so he might not be moving at full speed currently. Their standoff is interrupted by the approach of two Commonwealth motorcycles and a jeep that stop nearby and let out four soldiers that begin searching the tree line for the escapees. Lance suggests to Carol a way for losing the patrol and he leads her away.
In the jail, Yumiko informs Eugene of the disappearance of their friends, Pamela's demands that she prosecutes him, and her failure to follow Connie's attacker which she feels guilty about. Yumiko now thinks that she doesn't have a choice but to do what Pamela's asking of her, which Eugene tearfully assures her is a fate that he's freely accepted if it comes down to that. Eugene knows that she doesn't want to do it, but Eugene has made his choices and is willing to face the consequences for them if he has to. However, the central dilemma of their kidnapped friends remains in either case. Eugene wonders what if the worst happens while the trial plays out and what if Pamela reneges on her promise to set them free. They need to do something, but Eugene doesn't have any more idea than Yumiko about what that could be as it appears that Pamela has all of the leverage here. However, Eugene has to believe that there's still something that they can do because, if their friends are truly gone, then Eugene can't live with it for whatever little time he likely has left. Yumiko reassures Eugene that this isn't his fault, and he reassures her in turn that Yumiko being made by Connie's attacker isn't hers either. "One thing we can do... is return the unwavering faith our absconded friends have always shown for us and trust that no matter how bleak things look in this moment, that this is not the end. Now that may not mean much... coming from a soon-to-be convicted felon... but maybe it's something," encourages Eugene. Yumiko silently takes her friend's hand through the bars of his cell window.
At night, Lance leads Carol to a tunnel, explaining that it was an infrastructure repair project dating back from the early days of the Commonwealth. However, it was considered to be too unstable after a series of cave-ins. Lance insists that he meant what he had said about hoping that Daryl's alright as it's hard to find someone like that that you'd do anything for. Lance bitterly tells Carol that he had felt that way about Pamela once and thought that he could make her feel the same way about him by helping her to build and run the Commonwealth, letting Pamela take all of the credit, even by bringing in the Coalition which Lance admits he mishandled. However, it was never enough for Pamela and Lance knew that there was nothing that he could do that would change how she saw him. To Pamela, Lance will always be just her chauffer's son. Lance asks Carol what will come after the unrest in the Commonwealth, pointing out that, if Pamela doesn't survive it, a power vacuum will be opened up. In history, when that happens, the people who suffer the most in revolutions are the civilians. Carol asks for Lance's point, and he tells her that Carol and her people will hold 50,000 lives in their hands, but for Carol there isn't an after until she finds her people. Lance knows Carol and that she'll find them, but she'll then have a choice on whether or not to let the Commonwealth burn afterwards. Carol calls it not her problem, and Lance states that he gets that Carol wants to leave all of this behind her, claiming that he wants that too, but he asks if she's really going to deny the kids the kind of life that they took for granted and doesn't the next generation deserve better than the one before.
Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by a terrible smell and Carol and Lance spotting skin on a nearby oil drum. A partially skinned walker grabs Lance and pulls him to the ground and, while helping to free Lance, Carol's flashlight is knocked away in the struggle. Another walker attacks Carol from behind and she manages to put it down as Lance finally gets himself free. Hearing a number of walker growls, Carol quickly realizes that she's surrounded by a whole herd and opens fire with her stolen rifle, putting them all down after a struggle with a single walker whose skin is ripped off as they fight. Throughout the fight, Lance holds the flashlight on Carol, and he claims that when the lights went out, he thought that Carol was right behind him.
Hearing the approach of more walkers, Carol and Lance quickly flee from the tunnel, only to encounter a Commonwealth patrol outside. The lead trooper issues orders that they will tell command that they had found the pair, but they put up a fight, so the soldiers had to put them down. However, Daryl drops down from where he was hiding under the patrol's jeep and shoots the soldiers from behind with Carol rushing in to finish off one that was only just wounded with her knife to the head. Watching this, Lance just shakes his head at Carol in amazement.
At the press conference, Yumiko looks over her prepared speech and Pamela tells her that she's glad that Yumiko had decided to attend, but Yumiko states that she didn't really have a choice. Pamela asks how Yumiko's stroll through the square today was, and informs Yumiko that Connie was captured earlier and that she has been placed with the others. Pamela admits that she admires the loyalty that Yumiko has for her people, and she hopes that someday Yumiko will understand why Pamela had to do this for her own people. However, Yumiko already understands, and she knows that this is for Pamela and her power, not for her people. Pamela states that Yumiko's words tonight will carry across the Commonwealth and help restore the people's faith and keep the peace, but Yumiko points out that they're not her words, just bullshit theater, but Pamela is undeterred, ordering Yumiko to make sure that she knows her lines. As the press conference starts, Pamela asks Colonel Vickers for any updates on the escapees and Vickers promises her that she has their best people on it and teams are sweeping every quadrant, which is overheard by Yumiko. As Yumiko walks past her on the way to the podium, a report comes in over Vickers' radio that Alpha Squad has just been found dead in quadrant three and Daryl, Carol and Lance have all escaped.
Taking her place at the podium, Yumiko begins to read her prepared statement, but Yumiko begins to pause and have visible second thoughts while talking about how she was given a second chance to uphold the sacred ideals of the old world of justice, and how regardless of the personal cost, we must always seek justice if who we are as a people is to be preserved. Suddenly stopping, Yumiko publicly thanks Tomi and reminds the entire Commonwealth of his invaluable and irreplaceable importance to them as their thoracic surgeon, thus protecting Tomi from Pamela being able to retaliate against her by making Tomi disappear. although Tomi is visibly confused, and a bit displeased by his sister's actions. Turning the tables on Pamela, instead of finishing her prepared speech, Yumiko announces that "I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my people for always having faith in me. And now I'd like to show my faith in them, and also honor the pursuit of justice by announcing my intent to defend Eugene Porter who has been wrongly and unjustly accused by Pamela Milton and the Commonwealth. We look forward to our day in court. Thank you very much." Amidst the uproar of the crowd, Yumiko drops her prepared speech at Pamela's feet and sarcastically quips to the shocked and furious governor that "there's your speech," and walks away.
On a hill overlooking a train depot, Daryl reports on the two guards walking the perimeter in shifts and Lance figures that it shouldn't be a problem to take them out for Daryl and Carol and they will then head for their friends. While the tracks fork a few times along the way, Lance knows the route that the supply train takes to get there. Daryl and Carol are surprised to learn that the Commonwealth has a working train and Lance explains that it was part of a plan to expand the Commonwealth's reach, connecting communities across the continent to the sea, although Carol figures that the Commonwealth's intentions were to conquer the communities, not connect them. Daryl reveals to Lance that they intend to leave him behind as they no longer need Lance's help. Daryl and Carol can now simply wait for the train to come and then see where it goes. Lance insists that they still need his help, reminding Carol that they had talked about this: not burning the Commonwealth down and building a better future for the children and everyone else. While Carol admits that she did hear Lance, it was only because he didn't leave her with another choice with his refusal to shut up. Lance expands upon his ideas for how they can work together to build the Commonwealth into a better place, but Daryl and Carol are uninterested in Lance's manipulations.
Daryl and Carol offer Lance the chance to leave and go into exile which Daryl points out is more than Lance deserves after everything that he's done. Lance acknowledges that he's made mistakes, but Lance insists that that's not who he is anymore and that the guy who did those terrible things died back in his cell while this Lance won't survive out here, but Daryl doesn't care after everything that Lance has put them through while Carol suggests that Lance is smart enough to possibly survive. Daryl and Carol refuse to hear anything more and Lance moves as if to leave. However, Lance suddenly grabs a rifle from the back of their stolen jeep and takes aim at Daryl and Carol, prompting Carol to shoot Lance in the neck with an arrow, mortally wounding him. With barely a glance at their fallen enemy, Daryl and Carol drive off, leaving Lance to choke to death on his own blood.
Elsewhere, a Commonwealth convoy travels along a road with the captured Coalition prisoners. On the prisoner transport bus, the soldiers inject all of the prisoners, amongst them Ezekiel, with sedatives.
Other Cast[]
Co-Stars[]
- Monique Grant as Colonel Vickers
- Joann Willette as Lena Brand
- Shravan Amin as Press Official
- Justin W. Walker as Man
- Katie Causey as Kathleen
Uncredited[]
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Deaths[]
- Sebastian Milton (Zombified)
- Lance Hornsby (Alive)
- 2 unnamed Commonwealth residents (1 Alive and Zombified)
- 4 unnamed Commonwealth soldiers
Trivia[]
- Only appearance of Lena Brand.
- Only appearance of Kathleen.
- Last appearance of Mary. (Flashback)
- Last appearance of Sebastian Milton. (Zombified)
- Last appearance of Roman Calhoun. (Corpse)
- Last appearance of Lance Hornsby. (Alive)
- Last appearance of the Greene Family Farm. (Flashback)
- Last appearance of Terminus. (Flashback)
- The title of the episode, "What's Been Lost", refers to the ones captured by the Commonwealth on Pamela's orders.
- This episode was made available for streaming to subscribers of AMC Premiere on October 16, 2022.
- On Talking Dead, Josh Hamilton reveals that his fly was down while shooting Lance's death scene and he didn't even realize it until afterwards. Josh states that he thinks that this is the perfect ending for Lance "this person who is so fastidious about the way he looks and dresses to die covered in blood and dirt with his fly wide open, it was just the ultimate insult."
- This is the only episode of Season 11’s third part to not feature an f-bomb.
Comic Parallels[]
- The Commonwealth's initiative to connect communities across the continent, including the use of a train, is similar to a project that Eugene was working on in Issue 193 after the 25 year time skip.
Episode Highlights[]
- On Pamela's orders, every Alexandria, Hilltop and Riverbend resident living at the Commonwealth, including Dog and the children, was abducted, put on buses and injected with something that made them pass out, except for Eugene, who's locked up in the Commonwealth jail, Yumiko, who Pamela needs for the trial against Eugene, and Daryl & Carol, who successfully fought off their attackers and escaped the community with Hornsby's help.