The Ending Of The Walking Dead Season 11 Part 3 Explained

Though the comic series and the TV show significantly diverge from one another even in the early days of each respective series, they're known for borrowing characters, scenarios, and themes from one another throughout their runs. The Commonwealth story plays out not wholly dissimilarly in comics and TV, offering commentary on humanity's recurring desire to separate and subjugate one other based on class hierarchies. In the comics, the Commonwealth arc is the last stand of Rick Grimes, who is unceremoniously shot by nepotism baby Sebastian Milton — only to ultimately be martyrized for his kindness and leadership abilities. Sebastian lives out his days in prison, with an adult Carl visiting him only to fully dismiss his claim to have changed and learned over his years in captivity.

Meanwhile, the final episodes of the 11th season of "The Walking Dead" allow the ensemble cast to take center stage. Character development goes in all directions, with Eugene and Max exposing Sebastian and his mother Pamela's disdain for the people of the Commonwealth, Yumiko declining respectability to stand by her friend, and Daryl stepping into a father figure position for Judith. While all of that occurs, Father Gabriel rediscovers his faith after taking an almost sadistic turn earlier in the season, while Connie and Kelly speak truth to power at every turn. 

The Commonwealth was always going to be a deconstruction of class politics rearing their ugly head even as the zombie apocalypse raged. However, the series found a way to create a message of solidarity, resistance, and power to the people in its final episode.

There is no avoiding that the invasion of the Commonwealth by a zombie horde means losing some long-time fan favorites, and that includes Luke, who we meet in the 9th season as part of Magna's crew. Though the comics see Luke dying during the war with the Whisperers, he avoids that fate in the TV series by a hair's width, departing for Oceanside with his girlfriend Jules in the 10th season. When he and Jules run into Aaron, Lydia, Jerry, and Elijah, they advise them to turn around and avoid Oceanside at all costs, noting that it is "gone" after being invaded by Commonwealth soldiers. Luke is very briefly reunited with his long-time traveling companions, but the reunion is tragically brief.

When the walls of the Commonwealth are breached, Luke has to be torn away from Jules as she is devoured before his eyes. Sadly, he sustains major injuries and also perishes in the struggle. However, he dies surrounded by friends that have his back in thick and thin as Connie, Kelly, Magna, and Yumiko attempt to stabilize him. After realizing that there is nothing they can do, they stay to say goodbye, with Yumiko pulling Luke's harmonica out and pressing it into his hand, telling him that he always brought music to their lives. This is a major callback to their early appearances on the show, and even under this level of sorrow, it's clear how much each of them has been through and how they have grown to depend on each other, even when far apart.

Rosita is one of the major players of "The Walking Dead," starting very much as a supporting character and evolving into someone easily able to hold her own with series stalwarts like Michonne or Daryl. When we meet her in the 4th season, she's involved in a deteriorating relationship with Abraham, which then turns to jealousy as he moves on with Sasha. Later, she has a brief affair with Siddiq and then a surprisingly healthy relationship with Father Gabriel, with whom she raises a daughter, Socorro. It's her commitment to being a good mother that defines much of her adventures in the last season as she casually becomes a full-fledged action hero, starring in some top-notch zombie melees along the way.

The nature of "The Walking Dead" means that a lot of characters are gone too soon, whether they die by zombies, humans, or otherwise. Rosita's ending is devastating, with her heroic ability to put everyone ahead of herself ultimately seeing her bitten and slowly transforming throughout the final episode. Yet, this season was a boon to Rosita fans. Her sense of community at the forefront, this season saw her stepping up with Daryl to defend the Commonwealth but never mincing words about where her true loyalties lie. When we meet Rosita, Eugene has an unrequited crush that takes seasons to resolve, but in the end, he's the one who stays with her to be the last face she sees, cementing their status as one of the most endearing and genuine friendships this side of Carol and Daryl.

No character in "The Walking Dead" has had it particularly easy, with tragedies and disruptions often seeming insurmountable. However, Aaron and Lydia have truly gone through the wringer. With Aaron having lost both his husband Erik and his lover Jesus as well as seeing his wishes for a better future for Alexandria dashed through Lance Hornsby's lies, Season 11 sees him brushing against his own dark side only to turn things around through his valuable mentorship of Lydia. Likewise traumatized through her years as a pawn in Alpha's game, surrounded by death and hate, Lydia is in desperate need of support and family when she comes to the Commonwealth, and Aaron is one of the primary people to offer it.

A major element of removing power from larger institutions to restore power to self-sustaining communities is taking a leap of faith by putting trust in the basic good of humanity — even if it entails steeling yourself for a potential betrayal or attack. Perhaps more than anyone, Aaron has always been able to put hope and the desire to serve his friends and family at the forefront of his life, and that selflessness has played a major role in his mentorship of Lydia. That ranges from encouraging her to take every moment of joy she can find with Elijah to staying with her and coaxing her through the loss of her arm while reflecting on his own loss. Seeing both his hope and his pain in Lydia, he assures her, "You are so loved."

The final episode of the 10th season, "Here's Negan," presents a full-focus flashback of Negan's life before he became the terrifying leader of the Saviors. Though this was meant to flesh out Negan's backstory and give some context for atrocities he would later commit, the episode occurs in the context of Maggie's return to Alexandria, as she clearly presents an immediate threat to his life. One of Negan's greatest crimes is the murder of Abraham and Glen in front of their friends, which ultimately causes Rick to shatter when he is nearly forced to mutilate his son Carl. As Glen's wife and the mother of his child, Maggie has not had an easy time with Negan, and their arcs in the 11th season have been intertwined as the series attempts to set them up for their pending spin-off in a zombie-infested Manhattan, "Dead City."

Though Negan's actions are unforgivable, Maggie is clearly in a place where she's going to have to depend on him regularly going forward, which forces her to accept his attempts at making amends. Perhaps most importantly, after we've seen Negan mock Glen, threaten Maggie, and overall act like an absolute heel, this episode saw him finally apologizing after years of wrongdoing. Noting that he never fully understood quite what he had taken from her when he killed Glen, his relationship with Annie has changed his outlook profoundly. Even in his best moments, Negan was rarely sincerely apologetic, so this marks a major shift in his character.

In the 1st episode of "The Walking Dead," before anyone knew it was going to become a cultural milestone, we meet a lonely, scared man named Rick Grimes, waking up from a coma and horrified to see what has become of the world around him. Through the many changes of the following seasons, one major shift was in the overall vibe. Rick is saved not by himself but by his ability to find community with others, which he repeatedly nearly loses due to either personal hardship, his own ego, or outside attacks. This causes him at one time to declare, "We are the walking dead," — making it clear that his ability to find hope for the future is at an all-time low.

Though Rick himself changed in many ways through the show's run, his ability to find mercy is what ultimately defines him in the hearts of those that knew him. However, with him gone, many major cast members of the final seasons have never actually met the man, allowing for major tonal shifts in the message of the show. With the concluding "One Year Later" segment in "Unfinished Business," one of the most shocking turns that "The Walking Dead" has ever made is the promise of a future filled with trials and tribulations, but also an underlying sense of hope. It's wild to watch a series once mired in its own bleak outlook change into something surprisingly optimistic, but that's exactly what the conclusion of the series brings to fans.

"The Walking Dead" is an 11-season phenomenon based on an equally influential comic book series that has introduced some of the most recognizable characters in fiction of the last 20 years and now sprawls outward into its own universe with multiple spin-offs. Fans have supported this show through thick and thin, from losing favorite characters and changing scenery to seeing monumental growth from some while others were lost to their own darkness. Though "The Walking Dead" will continue and we'll see many of these characters again soon, it's hard to deny that this is the end of an era. With the finale in the bag, looking back at the series is bittersweet, surprising, heartwarming, and, yes, even a little bit awe-inspiring.

Over the last 11 seasons, the series has accomplished wild feats of storytelling while juggling an ever-growing ensemble cast of superstars. While it did occasionally bite off more than it could chew, the impact of what it achieved is nothing to scoff at. This was a massive project with thousands upon thousands of people in front of the camera and behind the scenes that changed the way we view the zombie apocalypse forever. However, perhaps its most important feat was its willingness to look head-on into the darkness with a soft, gentle assurance that everything will work out okay in the end. That, more than anything else, was the message of its final episode.