One of probably the most entertaining components of The Walking Dead has all the time been its unhealthy guys. Once the preliminary thrills of zombies had been gone, the present has pitted its heroes towards jerks, thugs, the Governor, the cannibals of Terminus, the Wolves, Negan and the Saviors, and the Whisperers. Although Negan’s group was an anomaly, the villains have gotten steadily extra unstable over time, and I’m delighted to say the Reapers have adopted in that proud(?) custom.

Really, I’m delighted! While it first appeared that the Reapers had been nothing greater than alpha male killers pretending they’re in their very own real-life Call of Duty recreation, they’ve acquired much more occurring. Episode 4 of season 11, titled “Rendition,” additionally works properly as a result of it’s a Daryl (Norman Reedus) solo episode, which suggests the story is extra centered than common and stars a personality we unequivocally take care of. It begins with the Reaper assault we noticed on the finish of the season’s second episode. Daryl scatters like Maggie, Negan, and the others, and will get chased by a lone Reaper. Eventually the 2 combat, Dog will get injured, and Daryl will get separated from him. The subsequent day, he tracks them each down, and is shocked to see Dog sitting subsequent to the Reaper with no care on the planet—and he received’t come, even when Daryl calls him. Then the Reaper takes off their masks and we understand why: It’s Leah (Lynn Collins), the particular person he lived with for practically a 12 months, the lady he practically gave up Alexandria for, and Dog’s first proprietor, as seen within the season 10 Daryl and Carol flashback episode, “Find Me.”

Yep, Leah’s a Reaper, and she or he’s not alone. They seize Daryl, and it seems Leah’s miffed sufficient at him—who initially selected Alexandria over Leah regardless of their relationship, solely to shortly change his thoughts, return to their cabin, and discover her gone—to permit him to be repeatedly waterboarded for details about the folks he had been seen with. He sticks to his story that he had solely been with the group per week, and he didn’t know or care something about them. Leah nonetheless has sufficient affection for him to purchase it, finally.

Unfortunately, one of many Reapers who was wounded of their assault on Maggie’s group dies and the villains are genuinely upset that one in every of their comrade-in-arms has been killed. That’s our first new clue that they’ve just a few screws free as a result of in the event that they don’t need their folks killed possibly they shouldn’t search out folks and begin capturing weapons at them unprovoked. The second clue is the Reapers have a priest who’s talking in tongues over the corpse. The third is Pope (Ritchie Coster), the mustachioed commander of the group, who reacts to the loss of life by saying this: “God is here. He’s angry. I’m angry. Go make them feel our wrath.” Yep, the Reapers are an elite navy unit-cum-religious cult (though it stays to be seen how most of the squad are true believers), however we’ll get to that in a second.

Leah tries to persuade Pope that Daryl is an ideal match to affix the Reapers (so far as she is aware of) however he responds that Daryl is merely “trying to get in her pants” which is hilarious if 1) you understand Daryl and a couple of) keep in mind that romantic reunion started with torture. Eventually, Leah convinces Pope to let him be part of, which is in fact why the Reapers lock each Daryl and Leah in a shed and set it on hearth. When Daryl saves them from a very blazing inferno by prying the slats off a window, Pope welcomes him with open arms—not solely has Daryl confirmed he received’t go away a sister-in-arms behind, now he’s been “baptized by fire.” And that’s once we study the savage, dopey origin of the Reapers.

Thanks to “Find Me,” we knew Leah had served within the navy, and met up along with her squad after the lifeless rose. They finally acquired separated, throughout which era Leah and Daryl spent their 12 months collectively. But after he left, she was in a position to reunite along with her comrades and get again to sporting cranium masks and killing folks. Post-fire baptism, the commander shares a drink with the most recent member of the Reapers and explains their historical past in additional element, and the quotes right here come instantly from Pope:

• Prior to the apocalypse, they served as troopers in Afghanistan the place they did horrible issues. “We saw God everywhere. He was in the blood, and the horror, and death.”
• Then they fashioned a mercenary firm and did extra horrible issues in Afghanistan, however had been paid higher for it. “We did all the ugly, dirty work no one else wanted to do.”
• When the zombie apocalypse began, they had been employed to combat again within the States—presumably towards zombies and the numerous dwelling individuals who had been shedding their shit over it. “The real dirty work started after the Fall.”
• One day, “God came.” Apparently, the more and more panicked authorities simply began dropping a ton of bombs on locations, and Pope implies that at one level they had been deliberately dropped on the squad.
• That included someplace the mercs had been. They holed up in a church, and regardless of all of the destruction raging throughout them, all of them emerged with no scratch. “And that’s when I knew we were the Chosen Ones.”

Every group of nogoodniks the collection’ protagonists have confronted has been a cult of 1 kind or one other, as a result of they’ve all drawn folks into believing their absurd practices (or made them too scared to disobey), whether or not it’s cannibalism or sporting masks fabricated from rotting human flesh and strolling round with zombies. Negan and Alpha definitely led cults of persona. But Pope and the Reapers are the primary spiritual cult we’ve seen in The Walking Dead, which is form of shocking given the… apocalyptic-ness of the zombie apocalypse.

Of course, what makes the Reapers so Walking Dead-appropriate is that their chief appears to consider they’re on a divine mission from God to put on douchy Halloween-bro masks and homicide everybody they see—due to course they do. What makes them even extra Walking Dead is that the Reapers care a lot about their comrades that their initially tenet is to all the time have one another’s backs, and by no means abandon one another. This is why on the finish of the episode, Pope celebrates one of many Reapers for carrying his fallen compatriot 10 miles again to their encampment. Then he throws that very same Reaper right into a blazing bonfire as a result of all of his battle wounds are on his again, which Pope decides means he deserted his fellow squadmate first and lugged his corpse round later.

That’s a wild leap, particularly on condition that the Reapers attacked Maggie’s group from all instructions and all of them had their backs uncovered to 1 enemy or one other, and it’s even wilder as a result of, once more, the Reapers went out of their technique to begin the combat within the first place. But I suppose folks don’t get to steer holy crusades of homicide by having an overabundance of frequent sense—which is why it’s so humorous that these purportedly sane folks have chosen to comply with somebody who may set them on hearth for God’s glory or some such nonsense at any given second.

I doubt The Walking Dead will outline the Reapers’ spiritual affiliations past them being on a mission from “God.” I’m way more anxious about how unhealthy the idea of the Reapers may break if the present isn’t cautious with it, as a result of harmful spiritual zealots are a really actual factor in our world, and the present completely doesn’t have the capability to deal with any of that with any quantity of tact, grace, or subtlety. But for now, they’re merely The Walking Dead’s latest group of murderous idiots, and I’m going to attempt to get pleasure from them so long as I can… Amen.

Assorted Musings:

• Another member of Maggie’s group will get captured by the Reapers and put in a cell subsequent to Daryl’s. Daryl has to inform the man to close up, then outlines the complete story he’s advised the Reapers so this dude doesn’t contradict it. It’s hilariously heavy-handed.
• When Daryl lastly has to fess one thing in regards to the group he was with to assist Leah persuade Pope of his worthiness, he says their chief was a lady and a “tall, skinny guy who never shuts up.” I assumed Jeffrey Dean Morgan had been wanting extra-thin this season. He’s no much less good-looking, in fact.
• I remorse that Pope and Samantha Morton’s Alpha received’t be capable of share a display collectively, simply to listen to their extremely nation drawls battle to the loss of life.
• Daryl’s flat stare at Leah on the episode’s finish completely sums all of it up. The corpse is within the hearth, Pope’s yelling about God, and Daryl’s expression to her is, “Really? This is the dipshit you’ve decided to follow?”

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