Eugene! [Grunts]
[Grunts] Thanks, partner.
Previously on "The Walking Dead"...
What do you want from me? I have a friend who's waiting for surgery
and I need you to get him to the front of the line.
That guy looks so familiar. Yeah, I kicked his ass in the train car.
Why is he serving food?
I need the name of your town and how to get there.
This place is like a city from before.
Where people who can't fit in get cast out.
[Birds chirping]
What in the name of little billy goats are you doing?
I woke up early and I couldn't go back to sleep,
so I started reading your novel.
Hold on. I'm almost finished.
Well, I-I on the other hand am nowhere near finished.
Um, you know, several early scenes
lack context intentionally,
which will be made clear in the subsequent
and as-of-now-unwritten chapters --
Shh!
I'm merely just trying to retroactively
manage your expectations is all.
I love it.
And I'm really proud of you.
Oh.
Oh, I'm gonna be late for work.
[Chuckles]
You know, uh, I was thinking about you yesterday
while I was getting my knives sharpened, and --
Should I be alarmed here?
Uh, no. The thought which sprang to mind
was decidedly not homicidal.
At any rate, this particular cutler
also happens to be a key cutter.
I want to very much see more of you.
And with your job taking up so much of your time as of late,
I just figured this might make things a little bit easier.
In case it is not clear, it is a key to my apartment.
Stephanie,
I love you.
I love you, too.
So, things went well?
Well, to put it bluntly, [Clears throat]
I'm meeting her for ice cream at 17:30,
and I'm still uncertain as to my follow-up move.
But I can recognize that what transpired
was a positive outcome.
I have so little frame of reference,
I cannot hold it conceivable what comes next.
Do you love her?
A strong affirmative.
And she has said that she reciprocates.
Then relax.
I'm serious.
When a woman tells you that she loves you,
believe her.
[Indistinct music playing on radio]
[Romantic music plays]
[Dramatic music plays]
[Doorbell rings]
[Knocking on door]
Stephanie. It's Eugene.
[Knocking continues]
Are you there?
Stephanie!
[Knocking continues]
Stephanie!
Stephanie, it's Eugene.
Are you there?
[Knocking continues]
Stephanie!
It's Eugene.
[Rustling]
Are you in there, Stephanie?
Looks good. Put it to bed.
Hold on.
She says it doesn't look good.
Yeah, I got that one.
[Sighs]
"Trooper Davis has a story to tell.
He wouldn't risk getting kicked out
of Commonwealth for no reason."
That's right. He didn't.
We have a statement from his doctors
backing up his PTSD claim.
"Come on.
I don't trust the military doctors any more
than I trust the military command.
Something happened to Tyler Davis.
Something that he blames Governor Milton for.
Something worth confronting her in public over.
And they clearly have a reason for suppressing the truth."
That's one interpretation.
The other is that Tyler Davis had a mental-health crisis.
And only one of those interpretations
has the facts to support it.
"He spoke of thousands more like him.
What does that mean?
We should be --"
"We should be printing what really happened
at the masquerade ball.
But, instead, you want to paraphrase
what Governor Milton said in her press release."
No, Connie.
I wantyou to paraphrase
Governor Milton's press release
so that the next time, I don't have to.
Well, if no one's seen her and no one's talked to her,
how can she have called in sick?
I never said she did.
All I know is, I was told to be here
because she didn't show up.
You mind?
[Conversing in American Sign Language]
This is a private room.
"Tyler Davis -- does he have a lawyer?
What are the charges against him?"
This is C.A.
We've been asked to perform a wellness check.
Please open the door.
[Keys jingle]
She's not there.
Then I'd like to make a statement immediately,
recount the details of her last-knowns on the record now
while this is still fresh in my mind.
Sure. Come down to the station.
I'll help you fill out the paperwork.
[Growling]
How often do you take trips like this?
Not as often as I'd like.
This probably sounds crazy, but I feel like
I'm better out here than I am in the city.
It doesn't sound crazy at all.
A lot of my people feel that way, too.
You still see this as your people and my people.
I want you to see how this place works,
because I want you to be a part of it.
I've done fairly well, all things considered,
but let's just say I didn't start out on the top.
Is that where you are now?
Hardly.
Governor Milton runs the city.
But I know how it runs.
Because you started out at the bottom.
I proved myself to the Milton family a long time ago.
If you're in with the right people, Carol,
the sky's the limit.
And one of the things you learn as you're climbing your way up
is that there are two types of people in any organization.
On the one hand, you've got the mercenaries.
They're in it for the money and whatever psychological itch
their position allows them to scratch.
And on the other, you have the patriots,
the true believers, the ones who want to do good.
And whether they are or not might be up to debate,
but in their hearts, they're there
because they believe in the organization.
Is that why I'm here?
You want to make a true believer out of me?
I read your file.
You're here because you're smart.
I think you'll be able to help me
deal with this asshole.
What you get out of it is up to you.
[Dog barking in distance]
What are we?
Drug dealers or smugglers?
We're smugglers.
But it's not what you think.
This place is not exactly a part of the Commonwealth,
but they need us, and we need them.
We use the poppies to make opium for the hospital.
Things will start looking pretty bleak there if we run out.
I make sure that doesn't happen.
But, sometimes, that means dealing with guys like Moto.
I told you what was gonna happen.
And I asked you to manage it.
I talked him into processing this last batch.
Best I could do.
I told you they're gonna hold the harvest hostage.
They want a raise.
They swear they'll let it rot without one.
Well, [Sighs] let's see what we can do.
Hey.
We're with theTribune.
You're in number 2.
Man: Yeah, he said wait for recon to burn.
Alright.
Man #2: Alright, let's march it down.
Man #3: There's still some room over here.
Man #4: Let me know when we're ready.
[Engine starts] -Alright.
-Let's roll. [Knock on door]
Princess: Hey.
I haven't seen you around.
How are you holding up?
I'm functioning within to-be-expected parameters.
Yeah, no, I can see that.
Uh, so can you let me in?
I brought lasagna.
[Sighs]
This is an empty dish.
Oh, yeah, sorry.
I didn't make lasagna.
People just always have to let you in if you're carrying food.
So, what's up?
When the C.A. gave up the search,
I decided to investigate
Stephanie's disappearance myself.
Truth be told, as the hours tick by
with nary a bread crumb to be found,
I let my despair get the best of me.
[Urinating]
That is, until a chance encounter put me on the trail.
Sir. Sir.
Sir, I need to talk to you.
Please, I need to talk --
1634 Racine.
It's an apartment building in Residential One.
Three days ago, you were seen --
At 7:00 in the p.m., you were seen coming down the stairs.
I don't remember this. Uh, wait.
Uh, sir, sir.
Sir, please.
Someone near and dear to me has gone missing,
and you may have seen something that might help me find her.
Where was this?
Residential One.
Three days ago, at approximately 7:00 in the p.m.
Yeah.
At Residential One.
I remember that now.
I got called in to fix a clogged sink.
What -- Do -- Do you remember seeing her there?
Do you remember seeing her there?
Or anything suspicious
in or around the premises that night?
No.
We done?
I sincerely apologize for having troubled you.
If there's a better time in which we could talk --
Needless to say, I greeted his story
with a great deal of skepticism.
There were no city service carts on the street that night,
nor was he wearing any sort of identifying uniform
or carrying any tools.
I found it very peculiar
that the one person I knew was there
the night she disappeared happened to have
such a flimsy alibi.
So I started following him.
So, like, what's this plumber's deal?
To start with, his name is Roman Calhoun.
And he is most definitely not a plumber.
He mostly conducts his business at night.
His base of operations is a building
in the warehouse district,
which purports to be a purveyor of plumbing services
and which, on the surface, appears to be legitimate.
However, they never receive any mail.
There's lights on at odd hours, when they're ostensibly closed.
And while people go in and out
with a fair degree of regularity,
it's usually just the same four people over and over.
They usually arrive alone and depart shortly thereafter
and frequently meeting in groups of two.
And on the one occasion they were all together,
they were also met by a fifth,
who I also believe to be the head honcho,
the mastermind of some sort of rogue element
within the government that Stephanie somehow ran afoul of.
Rogue element?
Like, you think she was kidnapped
by the government or something?
Shortly after I began my search,
the man who later became known to me
as Co-Conspirator Number Two, a.k.a. "Beanie Hat Man,"
showed up to Stephanie's apartment
with a team of movers, collected all her belongings,
and took them to an unknown location.
Then, that same day, this was found
in Stephanie's file at Union Station.
It's a work-transfer request signed by Stephanie
on the day of her disappearance.
The man who filled in for her at the radio room
that day told me she gave no notice whatsoever.
Such orders could not be falsified or fabricated
without direct influence from within the halls of power.
She knew they were coming for her.
When she eluded them, they filed that false
work transfer to cover up her disappearance.
They took all her belongings to recover
any evidence she may have gathered,
and now silencing her is the last step
in repairing that leak.
If I'm right,
her only hope is for me to expose them
before they find her.
[Birds chirping]
Good hatches this year?
Yes, sir.
We catch enough that I can actually just do it for fun.
It's nice when your hobby is also an apocalypse skill.
Amen to that.
So, I can't give them what they want,
but maybe we can meet halfway.
They get a raise, but they earn it.
Incentives.
Produce more,
make more.
Best I can do.
[Reel whirs]
[Lure splashes]
[Walkers growling]
[Slicing]
[Man panting]
[Flies buzzing]
See what you need to see?
"More than enough."
Then this is the part where you ask me
the questions they sent you.
"It's been a month since former trooper Tyler Davis
has been in the hospital under armed guard.
What is he being charged with?"
That's not one of the questions.
"Does it have anything to do with the fact
that the woman he took hostage was your sister?"
I was wondering when you were gonna figure that out.
For the record, the answer is,
my sister don't have a goddamn thing to do with it.
"He was loyal,
recommended for early promotion --
by you.
And he wound up feeling like the military
was being manipulated by the politicians."
"If I was you, I would be really interested
in who I was risking my life for."
And if I were you, I might wonder why I'm out here
digging for answers that we both know
will never see the light of day.
Hey, Eugene,
it's really cool, you know?
You doing so much for her.
Strike that. Reverse that.
I'm merely trying to repay what I owe.
Mm.
I made a promise to myself in those early days,
back when we thought this would all blow over in a few weeks,
that if I lived through this,
I'd pursue my dream of becoming a science-fiction author.
I have jokingly related that story to Stephanie
over the radio.
And she told me,
"You can't wait till after you've lived through it,
'cause ready or not, right now is all we've got."
She gave me the courage to do something
I've always wanted to do,
and when someone can do that for you, well...
...words like love seem insufficient.
[Door opens]
Mm.
Shit.
Let's go.
You want to break into his apartment?
Yeah.
I don't want to get in trouble, Eugene.
I got a little job. I got a little bed.
I might get a little cat.
This is so bad.
His Tuesday 10-mile is ironclad.
He'll be gone for 90 minutes.
Please.
Princess, he's the key
to cracking this whole thing wide open.
I just know it.
[Sighs]
Sorry we can't stay for the fish fry.
Next time, my friend.
Yeah, deal.
Well, what do you think?
He's robbing them.
I talked to one of the lieutenants.
He's pocketing the money that you give them for raises
and beating them to keep quiet about it.
He went too far the other night,
and that's why they're on strike.
They'll get their money back
and the raise I just promised them.
What about Moto?
Well, I'm not gonna go fishing with him anymore,
that's for sure.
Take him into custody now.
Hey! What -- What the hell?
Get your hands off of me.
Hornsby!
You mother-pussbucket!
[Dogs barking]
[Rattling]
[Thunder rumbles]
[Rain falling]
Hey, Eugene?
What's this guy do when it rains on his 10-mile run?
Eugene: Well, given our recent lack of precipitation,
I've not yet gathered that data.
Well, you have now. He's here.
We have to get out of here.
Count off his range.
What?
His range -- 50, 40, 30.
I'm not good at that.
Just tell me how much time I have.
Dude, I am telling you how much time you have,
and you have no time.
[Thunder rumbles]
Woman: I saw them on the ladder outside.
Couldn't have gotten that far.
Hey! There they are! That's them!
[Monitors beeping]
Nurse: General Mercer, how can I help you?
Where is the patient who was in M-33
and the soldiers that were with him?
There's no one in M-33.
I realize that.
I want to know what happened to the man who was in there.
He can't be moved without my authorization.
I'm sorry, but, apparently, he can.
I'm truly sorry that I manipulated you
into accompanying me on this lame-brained misadventure.
I fully intend to make known that you had no role
in planning my scheme and no witting part in its execution.
Hey.
I just got back in town.
What the hell, you two?
Well, Roman Calhoun is exactly who he says he is.
He's a plumber at Ruby's.
They've been a little lazy with the paperwork,
but they do have a contract with the city.
And, according to this invoice, Mr. Calhoun was sent
to Stephanie's building on the night
you saw him there to fix a sink in a work area.
But what about the kidnap kit we found in his closet?
Those weapons are illegal.
For you.
He's a full citizen. He has a license.
A lot of us have go bags,
even people who have been here for years.
[Chair scrapes floor]
[Sighs]
I told Calhoun your story,
told him about Stephanie,
explained everything you've been through,
the mental anguish that it's caused you,
and he has agreed to not press charges.
But you have to leave him alone.
Oh, and sign that.
It states you were emotionally distraught
and in a paranoid state
following the disappearance of your girlfriend.
I'm sorry this didn't lead where you thought it would.
You were wrong about Calhoun, and you need to accept that,
because if you don't, I'm not gonna be able to help.
Eugene: I should have known.
The conspiracy goes deeper than I initially thought.
Dude, none of this is happening!
Stephanie broke up with you.
[Scoffs]
That's utterly absurd.
Look, I've been thinking it, but, you know,
what if you were right about this Calhoun guy?
But the dude is a plumber, Euge.
You've got -- Mira.
You've got Stephanie's work-transfer order.
Moving guys literally came and took her furniture.
Maybe it's not that complicated.
But the first bit of advice you gave me was,
"When a woman tells you she loves you, believe her."
Yeah, well, when a woman quits her job
and moves away without telling you,
maybe you should believe that, too.
The day my dad had enough,
my man just split.
And I thought that it was because
I smoked his cigarettes.
And I never saw him again.
So, who knows?
Maybe that was it.
I mean, you can think you know someone
and then find out you never even met them.
Yeah, it sucks, man.
But it happens all the time.
I can appreciate how you might reach that conclusion.
However, I'm privy to one piece of data that you are not.
[Birds chirping]
I know how it felt.
Okay.
Well, it was just a theory.
[Door opens, closes]
[Conversing in American Sign Language]
[Indistinct conversations]
[Door opens]
[Door closes]
Man: Hey!
[Spraying]
Aah!
[Eugene grunts]
I told you I heard something.
[Gasping]
I'll handle it.
[Crying]
You played me.
I knew.
You corroborated Calhoun's bogus alibi,
I was certain you were involved with covering up
Stephanie's disappearance.
But now I realize the depths of my self-delusion,
because Occam's razor should have led me to this conclusion
before a well-placed kick to the belly ever did.
There was never any Stephanie.
Who is she?
Is she an undercover agent?
A con artist that owes you a favor?
Well, she was very convincing.
You used her to pull at my heartstrings
and to trick me into telling you
everything you wanted to know about our communities.
Well, it worked.
She led me to the train yard,
where we were captured by you!
You thought I wa-- you thought I was an easy mark,
the most trusting of the police, so you --
you split off my friends one at a time,
thinking I'd break, but I didn't break.
Then she led me to the -- the radio room,
where we were captured again.
Oh, and you certainly got your money's worth there.
I actually fell for that one twice!
She's the one that told me I can trust you!
And I did.
She even read my book so that she could get
any helpful autobiographical information
that might serve your needs!
But now that you've gotten everything you wanted, what?!
No need to continue the ruse?!
Is that it?!
But you didn't see this twist.
I am gonna make absolutely certain
that everybody knows exactly who and what you are.
Okay.
And who or what is that, exactly?
The villain?
The boogeyman?
Or the best goddamn thing that ever happened to you?
You're right, Eugene.
I did lie to you.
Just like you and your friends
lied through your teeth to get inside these walls.
No. No.
But who's keeping score, right?
So, I did what I had to do to get you here.
And you know what? You should be thanking me for it.
It's not my fault you people are too stupid to know
a good thing when it landed in your laps.
You're just -- you're just admitting it?
I fell in love, and everything I know about her is a fiction!
Look, we tried to rip the Band-Aid off
when we saw it was getting serious,
and I did everything I could to get you to stop looking for her,
but you wouldn't.
And here we are.
At least you can stop now, right?
It wasn't gonna get better for your people, Eugene.
They were about to starve.
And now you're here
and your community is getting fixed
and you've got everything,
from concerts to cancer surgery.
And literally the only thing we've ever asked of you all
in return is to be productive members of society here
for as long as you choose to stay.
â™ª
So, tell them whatever you want.
The statement you signed to get out of jail
says you were suffering from paranoia
as a result of nervous strain.
Remember?
I mean, look at you, Eugene.
This has obviously taken a toll.
Am I sorry your heart got broken?
Absolutely.
And I'm sure your friends will be very sad
to hear about it, too.
But in the balance of things,
I still think it worked out in everyone's favor.
And they probably would, too.
Oh.
By the way,
Stephanie's real name is Shira.
And she hates Iron Maiden.
But she genuinely enjoyed your book.
You should stick with it.
[Fire crackling]
Woman: Eugene?
Are you alright?
Eugene, I need to talk to you.
Tater Bug.
This is Blue Weevil to Tater Bug.
Please come back.
Who are you?
It's me.
I'm the one you were talking to on the radio.
I'm the one you were talking to on the radio.I'm not convinced we need to stretch our resources like this.
Hornsby: You and I are in the same sinking boat.
So if Maggie says no, Alexandria is cut off.
[Gunshot]
Why do you trust these people?
Daryl: Who says we do?
Eugene: Do you regret coming here?
Do you? [Walker growls]
Mercer: Don't get too comfortable.
Remember, they're always watching.