How The Walking Dead Fans Really Feel About The Reapers
The Reapers, the latest group of adversaries faced by the survivors on "The Walking Dead," got a full introduction in Season 11 Episode 4, "Rendition." And after all the hype and cool masks and costumes, once they actually got to hear what they're about, fans found them a bit lacking.
In the episode, Daryl (Norman Reedus) reunites with Leah (Lynn Collins), a woman with whom he had a relationship during his wilderness years as seen in the Season 10 episode "Find Me." Dog used to belong to her. After she and Daryl split up, she linked back up with the Reapers, having previously been a member of the group. She takes Daryl captive, as the Reapers and Daryl's group are in conflict, and she and the other Reapers –- who are War on Terror veterans-turned-mercenaries -– press him for information on his comrades by waterboarding him. Leah eventually persuades him to give a little bit of intelligence by being nice to him.
Then he gets jumped into the group by saving Leah from a burning building, which was intentionally set as a test for Daryl, like the fiery furnace from the Bible – probably not a coincidental choice of test, as the Reapers are religious fanatics. Or at least their leader is, a mustachioed survivalist type named Pope (Ritchie Coster), who explains to Daryl that he believes the Reapers were chosen by God to survive. Daryl is now a Reaper for the time being, pretty much against his own will.
Pope says that God uses fire both to baptize and to punish, and he executes a Reaper he feels showed cowardice by shoving him into a bonfire.
Fans on "The Walking Dead" subreddit were not impressed by any of it.
This feels Reap-etitive
Fans feel like they've seen everything happening in the Reaper storyline before -– because they have. Many times.
"And yet again daryl gets captured (woodbury, claimers, terminus, saviors, jocelyn's group, whisperers) and/or asked to join (claimers, terminus {revealed in interviews that the "come eat with us" was a genuine recruitment tactic}, saviors)," Reddit user BOBULANCE wrote, contextualizing the Reapers in "Walking Dead" history. "And yet again he refuses to talk (claimers, saviors). And yet again Daryl's communicating directly with a member of that other group who he has a personal connection with that is starting to have second thoughts (Merle, Noah, Dwight, Lydia)."
And that's not all: "For the 'kill your own group member,' that's been done by Dave and Tony's crew (via abandonment), prisoners, woodbury, woodbury 2.0, claimers, Grady memorial, saviors, whisperers," BOBULANCE added. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), when he was the leader of the Saviors, even killed the member of the group he felt betrayed him in the same way, burning Dr. Carson (Tim Parati) alive back in Season 7.
The Reapers just aren't cool
Other fans just didn't think the Reapers lived up to their potential. They seemed intriguing when we didn't know much about them beyond the fact that they had cool costumes and were very good at killing, but once we found out who they really were they weren't that impressive.
"You ever remember seeing someone so cool and then you get to hang out with them and they start talking...and you immediately come to conclusion that they are dumb?" JoeStorm wrote "This is my revelation about the Reapers."
"This is so accurate. Like dying to get into a cool party and then it sucks," wrote tango_tempo.
RHallman321 wasn't scared by the mayor from "True Detective" Season 2. "Their leader looks like discount Walter White! Lol!" they wrote. "When they did that reveal where he walked out of the shadows, I was just watching it thinking, 'that guy is supposed to be menacing?!?' Terrible casting IMHO!"
Finally, no one thought it was a good idea to kill a member of your small group, especially when you're so mad at another group for killing one of your people. The Reapers just don't make a lot of sense.
"The main thing I got from this is that the Reapers aren't as terrifying, or as strong of a group, as they seemed to be in previous episodes, they just seem insane," PrettyPunctuality wrote. "They don't have that 'main villain of the season' feel to them." It's an astute observation. CenCal805 compared them to the Wolves, the secondary antagonists of Season 6, who weren't around for long and didn't make much of an impact.
No, the real action in Season 11 is at the Commonwealth. Hopefully the show spends more time there going forward.