On the Inside (The Walking Dead)

"On the Inside"
The Walking Dead episode
Connie attempts to hide from the feral humans in the house.
Episode no.	Season 11 Episode 6
Directed by	Greg Nicotero
Written by	Kevin Deiboldt
Original air date	September 26, 2021 (2021-09-26)
Running time	44 minutes
Episode chronology
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The Walking Dead (season 11)
List of episodes

"On the Inside" is the sixth episode of the eleventh season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead. The 159th episode of the series overall, the episode was directed by executive producer Greg Nicotero and written by Kevin Deiboldt. "On the Inside" was released on the streaming platform AMC+ on September 19, 2021, before airing on AMC on September 26, 2021.^[1]

In the episode, Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Virgil (Kevin Carroll) take shelter in a cabin in the woods inhabited by feral humans; Pope (Ritchie Coster) again tests the loyalty of Daryl (Norman Reedus); Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) hide at the satellite outpost while the Reapers search through it; and Kelly (Angel Theory) looks for her sister, Connie. The episode received critical acclaim from critics. Acclaim was given for the episode’s horror factor.

Plot[]

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Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Virgil (Kevin Carroll) shelter in a house they find in the woods while on the run from walkers. Once inside, they board up the windows and try to wait out the herd, but Connie gets the feeling that they aren't alone in the house. Virgil insists that she's paranoid because of her sleep deprivation, but Connie doesn't agree. While checking if the house is clear, Connie spots eyes looking back at her through the bathroom mirror. She runs to tell Virgil, who struggles to understand her because he doesn't speak sign language well. Connie takes him to the bathroom, but when he looks through the same crevice, the eyes are gone. As they walk back to the main room, a moving wall closes between them, trapping them in different rooms.

The Reapers interrogate Frost for what he knows about where his group is. Initially refusing to talk even when tortured, Pope (Ritchie Coster) tasks Daryl (Norman Reedus) with taking over to see what he can get out of him. Daryl, despite knowing Frost, ruthlessly continues the interrogation to convince Pope that he's loyal to the Reapers, having previously lied that he had only been with Frost's group for a week. Frost continues to stay silent about where his group is meeting up until Daryl cuts off the tip of one of his fingers. Frost reveals that they're meeting up at a yellow house, and Leah (Lynn Collins) agrees to lead a team to investigate the house to see if Frost is lying. Leah asks Daryl to come with them, which upsets Carver, another Reaper, who questions where Daryl's true loyalties lie. When the search party arrives at the yellow house, Daryl covertly signals Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) of the Reapers' approach, giving the group time to hide in a secret compartment in the floor under the carpet in the actual house they're hiding in. The Reapers search until they come upon Maggie's house, where Daryl notices the group hiding, but keeps quiet for their safety. When they find the house empty, Daryl suggests they could have escaped out the back, but Carver is suspicious, and thinks that they're missing something. Carver questions if Daryl is truly loyal to the Reapers, but Leah suggests they check the remaining houses in the town. Carver finds the hidden door but upon lifting up the carpet, it is empty, as Maggie's group has fled the house using a tunnel. They then leave to search the other houses.

After learning that Connie was spotted leaving the cave by a Whisperer, Kelly (Angel Theory) searches the area and comes across a camp in the woods that Connie stayed at with Virgil, finding a small journal Connie was keeping. In the journal, Connie writes about how she feels as though they're being watched and followed. She is eventually joined by Carol (Melissa McBride), Rosita (Christian Serratos), and Magna (Nadia Hilker) who are annoyed that Kelly didn't tell anyone where she was going before she left, but agree to help her look for Connie.

While trying to find another way to Virgil, Connie is suddenly chased by a feral person, and runs into a room, forcing the door shut with her body until the feral person goes away. As she finds a ventilation system she can crawl through, she is chased by another feral person, and quickly crawls through the vent until she spots Virgil in a room. A feral person is about to sneak up on him, so Connie tries to knock on the wall to warn him, but the feral person attacks him, forcing him to the ground. Virgil manages to stab the feral, causing the feral to crawl away. Virgil, thinking Connie is another feral, stabs his knife through the wall. Connie rips through the wall so he can see it's her, and upon realizing it's her, they embrace. In the room, Virgil tells Connie to leave him, and that no matter what happens to keep going so she can find her family. He tells her how when Michonne pointed him the road where the communities were, they were all evacuated, so when Virgil found Connie, he wanted to make sure she got out alive and found her family so he could do some good after what he did to Michonne. Connie insists that she's not leaving him, and he eventually agrees to go with her. They run out of the room with Virgil's weapons, and are ambushed by the feral people. While fighting, Virgil is stabbed twice in the back. Connie hides Virgil behind her as they become surrounded, and Connie covers herself in guts from a dead feral, before letting the walkers in to devour the feral people. Connie and Virgil escape the house, but Virgil falls to the ground from his injuries. Suddenly, two surviving ferals find Connie, but before they can do anything, they are killed with Kelly's slingshot. Kelly, Carol, Rosita, and Magna run over to Connie, as the two sisters, crying in happiness, embrace.

After checking all the buildings, Daryl, Leah, and Carver arrive back at Meridian and tell Pope that they didn't find Maggie's group. They see Frost's dead body tied to a pole, and Pope says that he got everything he needed out of Frost, before bringing Carver inside Meridian.

Reception[]

Critical reception[]

The episode received critical acclaim and is the best-reviewed episode of season 11 so far. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, "On the Inside" has a score of 100% with an average score of 8.9 across 13 reviews. The critical consensus reads: "While the Reapers have yet to coalesce into a memorable threat, 'On the Inside' enthralls with a horror house set piece that will terrify even the most hardened Walking Dead fans."^[2]

Writing for Forbes, Erik Kain praised the episode's tone and story, writing that it was "the scariest Walking Dead episode in a very long time, calling to mind classic horror films like The People Under The Stairs."^[3] Kain later reflected that the episode "was completely implausible and ridiculous, but had such a fun horror movie vibe".^[4] Ron Hogan for Den of Geek also compared the episode positively to The People Under The Stairs, giving the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars.^[5] Hogan praised Nicotero's direction, the writing, and the themes of horror, calling it "the most jaw-clenching, teeth grinding episodes of straight-out horror that The Walking Dead has done."^[5] Alex McLevy for The A.V. Club rated the episode a B+, calling it "one of the scariest installments of the AMC series in years."^[6]

Rob Bricken from Gizmodo referred to it as "unintentionally funny", noting its use of horror tropes as being effective at creating tension prior to the reveal of "the Pack", but that the tension falls flat after the reveal.^[7]

Ratings[]

The episode was seen by 1.78 million viewers in the United States on its original air date.^[8] It marked a decrease in ratings from the previous episode, which had 1.91 million viewers.^[9]

References[]

External links[]

• "On the Inside" at AMC
• "On the Inside" at IMDb