I kind of did the same thing, I didn't watch season 11 part C at all until last week and I caught up in one sitting.

Knowing that they are having new spinoff shows with Daryl in France and another one with Negan and Maggie, and there are only two episodes left. I got the feeling that what they would do is to just set up the last episode to transition to the spinoffs instead of winding things down and buttoning everything up with everyone finding a home.

So I expect this episode will finish the commonwealth story and the next one will set up the spin offs.

I have not watched any of the spin off show, not FTWD, not TWB, not the Tales of TWD, I used to watch the Talking Dead a bit but haven't lately.

So what I expect now is a cliffhanger to end TWD.

May be Daryl got word that Rick was taken to London so he gets on Zombie Airline Flight 666 to fly to Paris and while there he runs into vampires. Negan and Maggie I am thinking something to do with Hershel and Negan's baby and they had to go rescue them from smart zombies who now kipnap and demand ransom instead of eating the victims.

 

I'm caught up now too. It didn't take very long, tons of advertisers wasting their money on the show to fast forward through along with the Commonwealth stuff.

Some things that stood out to me:

The little intros they do as nostalgia at the beginning of each episode only serve to spotlight how bad the show is now.

There are just too many characters. Most of them I don't care about. Maybe if there had been a plan in advance to end the damn show they could've either killed these people off in a meaningful way, or provided a conclusion to their stories. Then you could focus on the core group at the end.

I'm not even joking when I say this, but I wouldn't be surprised if a soap opera writer did the the dialogue for the Commonwealth scenes. I caught bits and pieces as I fast forwarded and it was top tier cringe.

There are characters that have just been thrown together haphazardly in relationships that don't feel real because we never saw any buildup. Negan with a pregnant wife is particularly ridiculous. Then they just disregarded a relationship they attempted at one point to start, Connie and Daryl. It's all disjointed and weird.

And you're right about the unusual emphasis the Commonwealth is placing on our group. Why are they interested in such communities that are so far from them? I didn't like the Commonwealth in the comics, but it went from bad to worse on the TV side. At least what they did in the comics made sense.

A season finale needs to provide closure. In Breaking Bad the arc of Walter White ended. The story was told. Jesse escaped. They did a movie focusing on Jesse afterward, but that was just extra content for the fans. We all knew he had escaped, the film just showed how he fully accomplished that.

Spinoffs are supposed to just give you more, after the show ends, not be necessary viewing for people to find out how the story that began ten years ago ended. What a complete disaster.

 

Seems like a lot of us are doing the catch up watch of the season.

Daryl in Paris is like a double jumped the shark moment. To get to Rick maybe they'll then have Daryl fight his way through the tunnel between France and England so that they can film the whole season in the dark, like they love to do.

 

ALL SHALL BE REVEALED IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME.

 

Alot of negative reactions. Sorry to read you dislike the show this much. For me twd has always had a positive influence and yes i don't always get some choices. Does not take away i enjoy twd and the upcoming bigger world. I think it's gonna make it more interesting.