Carol and Daryl break out, and break Lance out. Pamela makes a play. Yumiko makes a choice.

This is an episode that lives on the boundaries. The difference between the deceptively serene Commonwealth and the increasing frantic escape gives it a real sense of breadth and tension. It also provides an opportunity to explore the boundaries of the characters and what happens when they push past them.

The Commonwealth first, because this is where Aisha Tyler really shows her skill as a director. Eleanor Matsuura and Laila Robins are great this episode and it’s especially interesting to see Yumiko start to lean into her old world skills. The idea that she’ll prosecute Eugene in a show trial is as cruel and brutal as Negan’s old tactics; it’s just less honest. Robins is fantastic as the plausible, seething, clearly broken dictator and she and Matsuura spark off each other brilliantly. Matsuura is a performer with excellent interiority. You can always see her thinking, see her finding an angle and that’s one of the best parts of this episode. Yumiko doesn’t lawyer herself out of trouble but she does lawyer herself and Eugene into something approaching a fair fight. It’s one that builds on the roiling chaos in the Commonwealth too and the episode finishes with Pamela very much on the back foot.

Out in the wilds, her former henchman isn’t having much more fun. This is Lance’s swansong and he goes out like he came in – weaselly, plausible and prepared to do anything to survive. That’s embodied especially well by the fact he’s still alive as the episode opens. The last time we saw him, Pamela had left him in a cell with the Walker that used to be her son. This episode opens with Lance traumatized and the Walker immobilized. Even now he isn’t to be trifled with.

But this is Carol and Daryl we’re talking about here and their visceral disgust at having to rely on Lance to find their friends seethes in every frame. Josh Hamilton has been so good in this series and he gets some great material in his swansong. Crucially, he also gets to pass on a final piece of knowledge: the Commonwealth is much, much larger than anyone thought. They have a working train and every single other Alexandrian is about to be deported forever.

Verdict: The clock is ticking and after a justifiable period of setting up the finale, the show is ready for its final act. Here we go. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart