UK TV review: The Walking Dead: Season 11, Episode 16 (Acts of God)
Review Overview
Lance
9Leah
5Maggie
7Neil Brazier | On 13, Apr 2022
Season 11, Part 3 will premiere on 3rd October, with episodes then arriving weekly. Read our other Season 11 reviews here.
It is the last ever mid-season finale in the last ever season of The Walking Dead, a series that spawned a franchise that will continue to live on even after the very last episode airs. That happens to cause one of Acts of God’s biggest problems – it’s hard not to hear the news about the series side-projects when they are being paraded and lauded by their creators, but in learning that characters will return in other series, it weakens the parent product as is evident in this episode.
If a zombie apocalypse wasn’t enough for our survivors, they now have the arrival of a plague of locusts flying over their heads and creating an eerily atmospheric buzz that underlies the creepy, yet silent, stalking around the woods as the Commonwealth continue their hunt for the loose ends they left at Riverbend. The noises of late have been one of the show’s great features – the sound work doesn’t get the praise it deserves – and credit must go to composers Bear McCreary and Sam Ewing, who again excel in underlying the episode with music. In the last episode, it was the inanimate object of a car creating tension. Here, the music emphasises the visuals, elevating them in any situation, be they sneaking through the woods, accentuating a jump scare or evoking Terminator as a figure emerges from an exploding building.
We have mentioned how Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) has become a villain almost by surprise, but it bears mentioning again that, as he looks to rid the world of anyone who dares to oppose him, he emanates such sleaze, such hatred at being made to feel anything other than how he imagines himself, it is a really unique and fresh take on the usual Walking Dead rogues’ gallery.
He does have guns and a dangerous tactical unit on his side, not to mention his merc-for-hire in Leah (Lynn Collins), but his true threat is the power he holds, at least outside the Commonwealth. His wealth and influence has been able to reignite a psychosis within a former special agent and have an army by his side carrying out his every command. He has also, unwittingly, created something everybody thought had gone, and that is the start of trust between Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) of all people. The way in which Hamilton portrays Hornsby – the blank stares and perceived calmness hiding a torrent of rage within – is so splendid at making you hate him, it almost makes you hate to watch him, due to the venom he stirs up inside you.
Unfortunately for Lance, so used to his own way, he now must compete with Daryl (Norman Reedus), Maggie and the rest of our survivors, who have a lot more experience outside the safety of walls than he does. That’s why Lance recruited Leah: she has a grudge to settle and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. But, unfortunately for everyone, she adds very little to the finale. That’s not helped by the “spoilers” of the upcoming spin-offs and some bad writing clichés, which means this episode doesn’t have the emotion or oomph that, say, the start of this second chapter did, when Maggie cold-bloodedly shot the Reapers in the back.
If we’re ranking mid-season finales, Acts of God is rather low on the list. Some loose ends are tied up to progress the main narrative of the falling of the House of Milton at the Commonwealth, but the main takeaway is the uprising of Lance’s own little empire. Strutting around flipping a coin like a Batman villain, Lance may not have succeeded in wrapping up his Riverbend mission, but he has certainly added to his portfolio – both in story-terms, with the acquisition of the three communities, and with us as viewers, having found someone worse than Negan, Alpha, The Governor et al. to despise. While the episode might not have given us much to chew on until Season 11 returns, you can be sure that the production companies will certainly be giving us plenty more of this universe when this Walking Dead book closes.