WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 10, Episode 20, "Splinter," which aired Sunday on AMC.
Season 10, Episode 20 of The Walking Dead, "Splinter," moves on from Gabriel and Aaron's terrifying encounter with Mays to focus on Eugen, Ezekiel, Yumiko and Princess. The episode picks up where Season 10, Episode 15 left off after Eugene -- joined by Ezekiel and Yumiko -- set off to meet the mysterious woman on the radio, Stephanie. Along the way, they encounter Princess, a lone survivor, who becomes a part of their group. After approaching Eugen and Stephanie's agreed-upon meeting place, they are apprehended by an unknown group of armored people reminiscent of Star Wars Stormtroopers.
"Splinter" is told entirely from Princess's perspective. She watches as her new friends are hauled away and locked in separate train cars. After the opening credits, Princess -- now in her own train car -- begins experiencing flashbacks of when she, Eugene, Ezekiel and Yumiko were captured. As anxiety sets in, she walks the length of the train car, counting her steps in Spanish and listing the U.S. state capitols in alphabetical order. She then spots a small crack in the wall. After peering through it, she discovers Yumiko is in the next train car with a head injury.
Although Princess wants to escape, Yumiko encourages her to stay put and not panic. Princess apologizes, saying she's just scared of the dark. Yumiko prompts Princess to tell her a story to which Princess recounts a similar situation when she was 14. Locked behind a door, Princess chipped at the inside door jam until she got a splinter, which became badly infected. Because of the infection, she couldn't go to school, which was bad because "home was no bueno." Her splinter became even more infected, causing her hand to swell. While her mom didn't notice, she says her stepfather laughed at her and forbid her to sit a the dinner table. When fourteen-year-old Princess snapped back, her stepfather slapped her across the jaw.
Just as Princess finishes her story, the captors barge into Yumiko's train car and presumably take her away, which prompts Princess to rattle off the state capitals again. The next morning Princess discovers a large hole in the wall that's been sealed by a board. After removing the board, Princess escapes and runs into Eugene, who is locked in the adjacent train car. Although Princess wants to free Eugene, he tells her to return to her car and not cause problems because there is no time for "miscalculations."
Shortly after returning to her train car, Princess is taken for questioning by one of the armored guards. The "boss" wants to know her name, where she's from and where she was when the fall happened. Princess is reluctant to answer. Instead, she continuously asks if Yumiko is okay. The boss switches gears, asking Princess about her friends and why they came here. When Princess refuses to answer, the boss slaps across the jaw and tells her she's "being a bitch."
The altercation knocks her out. When she comes to, she's back in the train car. Sneaking back out of the hole, Princess discovers Eugene is no longer in the neighboring car. When she returns to hers, Ezekiel drops from a hatch in the train's roof. Unlike Yumiko and Eugen's cautious warnings, Ezekiel tells her they need to escape, but she doesn't want to leave without Yumiko and worries her outburst during the interview put them all in danger. Ezekiel promises that no one is going to hurt her anymore while he's around.
While Princess and Ezekiel try to decipher a game plan, Ezekiel wonders if Eugene maybe trusted the wrong people. He says, "People tell you one thing but mean another. They tell you they love you," to which Princess finishes, "but they don't act like it." The apparent bonding moment is interrupted when a lone armored man comes into the train car. Ezekiel hits him over the head and takes his rifle. At gunpoint, Ezekiel interrogates him. The man offers little other than assurances that Yumiko is safe and his community's slogan: For the benefit of all and for all who seek solace at our gates. He insists they aren't bad people, and they just want to help.
When the man claims he can't say where Yumiko is, Ezekiel flys into a fit of rage and begins beating him. Princess begs for Ezekiel to stop, but he keeps going while screaming, "No one's going to hurt me anymore." This jolts Princess, and she suddenly realizes she is actually beating the man -- not Ezekiel. When she sees the hole she'd escaped from earlier is gone, she realizes she also imagined her interactions with Yumiko and Eugene.
The scene cuts and opens on Princess running alongside the train cars with the man's gun. She sprints for the exit but struggles to leave her new friends behind. Deciding she needs to find them, she turns around but is called back by an imaginary Ezekiel flanked by two well-dressed walkers, to which she responds, "Girl, get your shit together." Imaginary Ezekiel encourages her to leave, telling her these new people aren't her friends. Princess says she doesn't want to leave like her mother, that there are still good people in the world -- always has been. Knowing those good people came back for her, she makes up her mind to save the real Ezekiel, Eugene and Yumiko.
She returns to the train car where the man she beat up is still lying on the ground with his hands tied. She assures him she's "not crazy," and her talking to herself may be the only "sane response in an insane world." She unties the guard in good faith, hoping they can help each other out. Princess offers to answer his boss's questions if she can see her friends. He agrees, although he reminds her seeing her friends will be his boss's call, not his.
Princess tells him their names, how they got there and that she's originally from Pittsburg. He thanks her, saying, "See, it didn't have to be hard. The rules are simple. The questions are routine. People just complicate them." When she asks when she can see her friends, the man responds, "Right now." When he opens the door, Yumiko, Eugene and Ezekiel are kneeling on the ground with black bags over their head in front of more armored guards. The scene cuts to black just as the guard slips a black bag over Princess's head too.
While "Splinter" gave us insight into Princess's tragic backstory and struggle with mental health issues, it did little to answer who the Stormtrooper-looking group is. Despite the guard's insistence that they are "good people," there is no way of knowing if his words are truthful. Once again, Princess, Yumiko, Eugene and Ezekiel's fate is left on one heck of a cliff-hanger.
The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews. The series airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and is available to stream early on AMC+.
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