After his death, the obnoxious Sebastian Milton (Teo Rapp-Olsson) was still doing his thing as a zombie in “The Walking Dead”. But this has now been put to an end in episode 20 from season 11 – including a directorial error?
The final episodes of “The Walking Dead” will primarily focus on the fate of the Commonwealth, which is now in turmoil following the revelation of Governor Pamela Milton’s (Laila Robins) lies. One of the triggers for this was the death of Sebastian Milton (Teo Rapp-Olsson), who was – more or less accidentally – thrown to a walker by Eugene (Josh McDermitt) while trying to save the love of his life, Max (Margot Bingham).
As usual in the “Walking Dead” world, the spoiled son of the Commonwealth leader then became a ravenous undead himself. Instead of redeeming him from this fate, however, his mother wanted to keep him alive and unceremoniously threw him into the prison cell of disgraced former Commonwealth No. 2 Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton), who was supposed to feed him.
When Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) free Hornsby in episode 20 of the eleventh and final “Walking Dead” season so that he can lead them to their kidnapped friends, Daryl first makes short work of the zombified Sebastian in a tried and tested manner. A quick stab in the head finally finishes off the politician’s offspring. When the indignant Pamela finds him a little later, however, his entire skull is suddenly crushed, without us having seen beforehand how this happened. Did the team behind the zombie series make a connection error here? Probably not…
LANCE TOOK IT OUT ON SEBASTIAN
While we don’t get to see that Sebastian’s head was so badly beaten up, the latest “The Walking Dead” episode provides clear, albeit rather peripheral, indications that someone was actually actively responsible for it and that the makers didn’t just want to include another particularly bloody effect as an end in itself (especially since there are plenty of other disgusting moments in the episode).
So it’s relatively clear: Lance Hornsby was still tampering with Sebastian’s skull after Daryl’s knife blow. Before he leaves his cell with Daryl and Carol, he explains that he still has to do something, but we don’t see exactly what he means by that either immediately or later in the episode. Pamela also finds Lance’s characteristic lucky coin in the bloody remains of her son, which he often – Batman villain Two-Face sends his regards – let decide his further course of action.
Here’s Sebastian’s head
Lance giving Sebastian another one here definitely fits the character’s development as well. On the one hand, it makes sense that the already mentally battered man would take it out on Sebastian – after the ordeal he has endured and all the years he has fulfilled Pamela’s and the cheeky Sebastian’s wishes without getting the recognition he craved. The fact that he also leaves behind his beloved coin is then also a very clear message to Pamela, whom he wants to make clear that he is responsible for the condition of her son’s corpse.
So while it may be a little confusing that Sebastian’s dead body suddenly looks different from one scene to the next, we are probably not dealing with a directorial error here. It is simply not spelled out explicitly or even shown what happened in the meantime (whether a corresponding scene was perhaps even shot but then dropped is not yet known). So at least we also get a slightly more subtle character moment in a not (anymore) particularly subtle series.
We’ll find out how it all turns out in a few weeks. The new episodes of the final eleventh season of “The Walking Dead” appear every Monday on Disney+ and ProSieben Fun. The very last episode will flicker across the screens in Germany on 21 November 2022.
