The Commonwealth falls. The Commonwealth rises.

There are two ways you bring a series this size into land: quietly or loudly. ‘Rest in Peace’ does both.

The loud moments here are crowd-pleasers that see the show flex its action muscles one last time. The fight with the Herd storming the Commonwealth that closed last week opens this week and claims some victims. Jules and Luke both go down hard and the show is smart enough to steer into the loss of characters with relatively little presence for the last few episodes. Jules, dragged away and consumed, gets a truly horrible death whose consequences are processed through the loss of Dan. Bitten, with his leg amputated and dying anyway, Dan’s final moments are a combination of frantic communication and raw emotion. They serve to drive home the point that every single one of these people matters, and Eleanor Matsuura, Lauren Ridloff, Angel Theory and Nadia Hijker land the moment with enormous weight. There’s a sense, more than once this episode, of the show’s small family units being torn apart and rebuilt as something new, and the loss of Dan and Jules is just the first of these.

The loudest moment of all is also the most politically resonant. With the day saved, or at least one front of the war closed, everyone left alive works to lead the herd into the Estates. The entire area is booby trapped and the herd are drawn in by music played through every speaker the survivors can find blaring one particular song:

Cult of Personality by Living Colour

It’s a beautiful moment, as the survivors use the empty mansions of the upper classes as ammunition to build a better world, scored by a politically resonant song best known these days as being the entrance theme for ‘Voice of the voiceless’ controversial pro wrestler CM Punk. The cult of personality Pamela embodied is over but the Commonwealth hasn’t become ungovernable. It’s become something better, something larger.

That new future is built on the individual lives of the characters and it’s here that the quiet moments come to the fore. After rescuing their children, Rosita, Eugene and Gabriel are trapped in an alleyway near the hospital where everyone is sheltering. Rosita gets a full-on action heroine moment as she falls into the herd and then hacks her way clear to apparent safety. Until, later, Eugene realizes she’s been bitten.

This becomes the B plot of the episode and it chains together some moments of startling poignancy. Christian Serratos and Josh McDermitt have been mainstays of the show for years and the bond their characters share, like Luke and his group, is the hinge of emotion the scene turns on. Rosita trusts Eugene with what’s happened to her first, not because of any unresolved love but because that’s what you do with family. Her scenes with Seth Gilliam’s Gabriel are even better, and the moment she tells him is portrayed entirely on Gilliam’s face. You see Gabriel cycle through grief, horror, sadness and resolution in about two seconds and the incredible strength this trio of characters have propels this entire plot to its ending. Gabriel, not hiding inside his faith but using it to help his partner, daughter and himself on their way to what’s next was one of several moments I broke down. Gabriel taking their daughter out of the room so Eugene could say goodbye to his best friend was another. It’s kind without being overwrought, familial love as engine and shield. Moments like this are why I’ve loved this show more as it’s gone on. They’ll be lost, in many reviews, under the need to performatively snark one more time. But not here.

Negan and Maggie’s plot is made of these moments. Maggie is absolutely intent on murdering Pamela for what she’s done and Negan flat out refuses to let her. They have what amounts to a conversation throughout the episode that plays in harmony to Negan’s moments with Ezekiel in the previous episode. It all leads to Negan apologizing to Maggie for murdering Glenn all those years ago and Maggie effectively mapping out their future. She knows he’s changed, she knows he’s horrified by what he did and she’s eternally grateful for him rescuing her son. But he killed her husband in front of her and laughed while he did it. As Maggie explains this, both of them nearly in tears, she digs for and finds the grace they both need. She can, and will, work with Negan. She respects what he’s done. But she’ll never be free of what he did and neither will she. It’s a horrible, tender moment that leaves both characters in tears and, like Rosita’s death, shows how every action matters in this world. It’s bookended beautifully by a later beat where everyone is having dinner. Daryl, looking out of the window, sees Negan walk away and nods to him. Negan returns it, and smiles. One outsider understanding another. Another moment of grace between chosen family.

That brings us to Pamela and the Commonwealth, and the show’s biggest reversal in years. After the increasingly brutal brushfire war of the last few episodes, the stage is set for a horrifying bloodbath. The characters have been snuck into the gated community of The Mansions and are essentially behind Pamela’s troops, boxing them in against the gates. On the other side of the gates are the Commonwealth residents trying to get in. Behind them are the Herd, getting closer all the time. A standoff, of course, ensues. Our characters arm up one last time for war and instead… just help people. Gabriel’s single-minded determination to open the gates and let everyone in leads to the troops breaking ranks. Daryl says, practically to camera ‘We ain’t the walking dead’ and suddenly the years and years of survival, evasion and horror these characters endured on the road fall away. They’re people, there’s just one enemy. The world is a very simple place again and as one, everyone moves to rescue the folks trapped behind the gates. It’s an absolute up-ending of the show’s early philosophy and explores just how far these people have come. Pamela’s attempted suicide by Walker (Hornsby’s Walker no less!) being prevented by Maggie is the full stop on the sentence. The old world is done. Time for something better, built in its ashes.

So what is next? Well, at last, a happy ending. An earned one too.

The episode, and show, finish one year on. Ezekiel and Mercer are the governors of the rebuilt Commonwealth, Carol is their chief of staff and there’s peace between the settlements. We see the survivors happy but aware of what their lives have cost, and those they’ve left behind. Big changes, little moments, once again. Crucially, we also get a sense of the future. Negan returns her compass to Judith with thanks. Maggie has an idea about the future and Daryl, having discovered that Rick is alive and Michonne has gone to look for him, sets out to find them both. The show ends three times and all three moments are hybrids of the quiet and the loud. Daryl says goodbye to his adoptive children and gets ready to ride out. Carol hugs him and they exchange ‘I love you’s. It’s such a lovely quiet, vital beat and it’s the other spot I lost it. These two survivors have spent 11 years not quite sure what they are to each other beyond vital and seeing that relationship expressed this well is so impressive. Judith’s final line to him, ‘You deserve a happy ending too’ also hits hard. I hope he gets one. He deserves it.

Then, at last, we’re back with Rick and Michonne. They’re writing letters, to each other and to their children. They’re in different spots and clearly time has passed but their love for each other and their family is just as strong. We see everyone they’ve lost, see everyone who still lives and see them both gear up. Michonne, wearing armour, begins to charge at a colossal herd. We hear and see every character say, ‘We’re the ones who live’ and then Rick, apparently on the island where Michonne finds his belongings in a previous episode faces down a CRM helicopter and smiles. He’s not done. Neither is she. And neither are their kids who watch their uncle ride off as Judith says, one last time, ‘we’re the ones who lived.’

Verdict: This is absolutely an ending. It’s also the best sort of ending, providing catharsis but not too much closure. We’ll see Maggie and Negan in Isle of the Dead, Rick and Michonne in their mini-series and Daryl in France, along with whatever Tales of the Walking Dead’s second season brings us. But for now, this is a fitting end to a vast story. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart