The Walking Dead has been using its extra batch of season 10 episodes as an opportunity
to give fans a more intimate look at some of its characters, and none have been quite
as up-close or personal as the latest, entitled "Splinter."
This episode locks viewers in a boxcar with the eccentric and resourceful Princess. This
setup allows The Walking Dead to give its audience a deeper insight into Princess' complex
personality.
To recap : Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel are on a mission to make contact with the group
Eugene's long-distance crush Stephanie is a member of, and they meet Princess along
the way. "Splinter" jumps right in where we left off last time: the Alexandrians and Princess
are in a train yard surrounded by soldiers wearing futuristic-looking white armor and
wielding heavy-duty weaponry.
While the soldiers order everyone to drop their weapons and surrender, Princess lunges
for one of their knives, causing a scuffle that leads to Yumiko being knocked out. The
soldiers throw each member of the group into a separate boxcar, and as soon as Princess
is alone, she begins to spiral with guilt.
Almost as soon as she's put into the boxcar, Princess begins to look for a way out. She
manages to talk to Yumiko and Eugene in the adjoining boxcars, and they both tell her
that the best course of action is to wait it out. However, being locked up and at the
mercy of a group of people she doesn't trust is a nightmare for her.
At one point, Princess tries to pull apart some wooden boards and gets a splinter in
her finger, which leads her to remember a story from her pre-apocalypse life. While
speaking with Yumiko, Princess reveals that when she was a kid, she got a splinter in
her finger that became infected. Her step-father blamed her for the injury and treated her
abusively, while her mother did nothing to protect her.
It's all pretty symbolic : the splinter that Princess has in the present day represents
the instincts she's developed because of her traumatic childhood. She has trouble accepting
her friends' advice because those instincts are constantly telling her she needs to flee.
Like the nagging pain of the splinter, they distract and irritate Princess.
Eventually, a guard arrives and takes Princess away to be interrogated, but she can't let
go of her instinct to resist. She refuses to give answers and is sent back to her boxcar.
Back in her makeshift prison, Princess gets a surprise: Ezekiel throws open a panel on
the roof and smiles down at her. The two regroup, and Princess apologizes for botching the interrogation.
"I didn't do us any favors in my interview."
Throughout the episode, we've seen her in a cycle of rumination and overthinking. Princess
knows that her goal is to escape and help her new friends, but she's conflicted about
how to do that. Not knowing how to help is making her feel like a failure.
A guard interrupts the pair, and Ezekiel swiftly knocks him out. With the tables turned, Princess
and Ezekiel interrogate the man, who tells them they shouldn't worry, and that the reason
for the extreme precaution the soldiers are taking with them is because their community
has a lot to lose.
When the guard has the chance, he tries to gain the upper hand. Ezekiel pounces and begins
beating the man senseless.
"No one is going to hurt me anymore!"
The words sound strange coming from Ezekiel's mouth, but there's a reason for that.
After dissociating for a moment, Princess snaps back into the present and realizes that
she imagined the entire scene with Ezekiel. He's not even there, and she's the one beating
the guard. She takes the guard's rifle and flees. However, as she's trying to squeeze
under the fence and escape the trainyard, Princess remembers the bonding moments she's
shared with this new group of friends. Even though her instincts are telling her to escape,
she doesn't want to abandon them.
However, before Princess can turn back, Ezekiel appears to her again, along with a couple
of walkers dressed in train conductor outfits, a clear reference to the undead dioramas Princess
used to set up to make herself feel less lonely. Ezekiel tells Princess to forget the others
and save herself. In this vision, he's appearing to her as a manifestation of the instincts
she's developed due to the trauma in her past.
"You're good on your own."
Princess looks down at the splinter in her finger, but this time, she doesn't let it
pull her back into her past. Although she's conditioned herself to survive on her own,
she doesn't want to let her instincts get in the way of fostering new relationships,
and she decides to go back.
Back in the boxcar, Princess apologizes to the guard for her behavior earlier, and informs
him that she's not actually crazy.
She frees the guard from his handcuffs, and as she does, the splinter in her finger comes
out. It's symbolic of Princess finding a way to quiet the things that have been distracting
her throughout her ordeal. While she's not totally rejecting her instincts, she's focused
in a way that allows her to trust the advice of her friends without overthinking things
to the point where she causes more trouble.
But almost as soon as she's offered this symbol of trust, it's tested in an extreme way. When
Princess asks the guard if she can see her friends, he opens the boxcar door and reveals
that they're all standing in the train yard with black hoods over their heads. The episode
ends with the guards putting a hood over Princess as well, leaving us to wonder if Princess
was wrong to ultimately go against her initial instincts.
We've heard that the soldiers are taking extreme precautions to protect their community, but
is it a lie? We probably won't get a clear answer until season 11, though fans of the
comics likely already have an idea. These soldiers are part of the Commonwealth, a massive
web of communities comprised of more than 50,000 members, and they're not like other
survivor groups. They've got a class system, jobs for its members to take, sports arenas,
concert stadiums, high-tech equipment, and their own army guard.
But, as with most things in The Walking Dead universe, the truth about their actual motives
most certainly won't be as straightforward as this episode makes it seem.
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