The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode Titles Get Mythological

When AMC released the official synopsis for The Walking Dead’s 11th and final season last week, fans could be forgiven for being a little disappointed. 

On an action-heavy show known for shambling hordes of corpses and terrifying villains, the description seemed to fall short of final season expectations. After your characters have confronted cultish freaks who wear the skin of the dead to blend in, concepts like food insecurity don’t seem quite so cinematic.

Now, as part of its “11 Weeks of Reveals Until Season 11” of The Walking Dead, AMC has unveiled titles for the final season’s first eight episodes and some additional descriptions of the two-part season premiere. And you know what? The season premiere gets such a cool episode name that food insecurity suddenly sounds a lot more compelling. First, the episode titles…

1101 – Acheron: Part I
1102 – Acheron: Part II
1103 – Hunted
1104 – Rendition
1105 – Out of the Ashes
1106 – On the Inside
1107 – Promises Broken
1108 – For Blood

For those who are not read up on their Greek mythology (like yours truly wasn’t until a helpful Wikipedia deep dive), Acheron is both an actual river in Greece and a river in the underworld in Greek mythology. According to the ancient Greeks, Hades is home to six rivers: Styx, the river of hatred; Lethe, the river of forgetfulness; Phlegethon; the river of fire; Cocytus, the river of wailing; Oceanus, the river that encircles the world; and Acheron, the river of pain or woe. 

Charon, known as the Ferryman, rows the dead over the Acheron en route to their damnation. In Dante’s Inferno, the Acheron river forms the border to hell. Naming the season premiere of the final season of a show as bleak as The Walking Dead after the river of pain is just all kinds of metal. Kudos to the writers for taking the responsibility of naming episodes seriously. Granted, the remaining six in the season aren’t quite as evocative but hey, sometimes you just gotta roll with “Hunted.”

In addition to the episode titles, AMC has released the descriptions for both parts of “Acheron.”

Episode 1101: “Acheron: Part I”
Director: Kevin Dowling
Writers: Angela Kang and Jim Barnes
Returning to Alexandria from a critical food mission, the group realizes it isn’t enough. Maggie proposes a new plan, potentially a suicide mission. What choice do they have? They must find more food for all their people in order to survive and efficiently rebuild Alexandria. If they don’t, Alexandria falls, taking them down with it. Once on the road, a violent storm erupts forcing them underground into a subway tunnel. As nerves fray and suspicions increase, chaos ensues. The terror is relentless as our people get a glimpse of what Maggie and her group endured prior to returning to Alexandria. Meanwhile, those captured by the strange soldiers are relocated to another undisclosed location.

Episode 1102: “Acheron: Part II”
Director: Kevin Dowling
Writers: Angela Kang and Jim Barnes
The group discovers a member did not make it to safety inside the subway car. Surrounded by walkers, going back out into the tunnel to search is a guaranteed death wish. All eyes are on Negan as the rule of survival shifts. It is no longer No Man Left Behind. The motto now is We Keep Going. With very little ammo and energy remaining, the group must ready themselves as the walkers have found a way inside the subway train. Meanwhile, Daryl is in his own intense hellish situation trying to find Dog and finding more than he expected; and Yumiko challenges the process at the Commonwealth outpost, which threatens her future and that of Eugene, Ezekiel, and Princess.

The mention of a subway tunnel coincides with some of the pre-season art. It would appear that the subway is not part of The Commonwealth but rather on the outskirts of Alexandria. That makes more sense as Alexandria is relatively close to Washington, D.C. The second episode description makes mention of someone not making it safely inside the subway car. Start making your bets on who that can be!

The second half of that episode 2 description is particularly harrowing. “Daryl is in his own intense hellish situation trying to find Dog and finding more than he expected…” So help me God, if you lay one zombie finger on Dog’s precious head, The Walking Dead…

The Walking Dead season 11 will premiere Sunday, August 22 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The season will contain three parts of eight episodes each, totalling 24 episodes.