Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's fifth episode of Season 11. Be warned!
The Walking Dead is definitely in the thick of Season 11 now, at five episodes in. (Or six, if you're staying current with AMC+.) And the installment titled "Out of the Ashes" gave fans some pretty big moments, including Yumiko's reunion with her brother, as well as Eugene's eventual arrest. There were also three separate appearances in the episode from characters, to to speak, that fans might not have immediately realized were more interesting and/or important than it first seemed.
While not an in-person cameo, The Walking Dead paid tribute to the comic book's plotline involving Michonne finding her long-lost daughter in the Commonwealth, by way of naming the bakery Elodie's, and by having their last name, Hawthorne, as one partner's name in the sign for a local firm. But we're talking about actual living and breathing people here, even if the actors aren't playing living and breathing people, so let's kick things off with a familial cameo.
Gus Morgan As Pajama Walker
Because The Walking Dead's teenage survivors can't possibly exist without being total douchebag bullies, Cailey Fleming's Judith has to stop a selection of Alexandria's Finest from risking their lives via a trapped child walker. It turns out that hungry-looking kid-zombie was portrayed by one Gus Morgan, son of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Walking Dead vet Hilarie Burton Morgan. The celeb offspring's appearance was first hinted at earlier this year by the Negan actor, but it wasn't clear at the time how it would all go down. For anyone wondering what his motivation was in the moment, here's what Gus Morgan said on the Talking Dead after show.
I personally just pretended that the people I tried to nip at were tacos because my determination for tacos is very strong.
Ain't no party like a Gus Morgan taco party, 'cause a Gus Morgan taco party is founded on determination. Hats off to the young actor for finding his undead muse and delivering a disturbing lil performance. I guess it's too late to petition for him to be in any potential Negan spinoffs.
Greg Nicotero As Dream Whisperer
During Aaron's dream sequence in the early minutes of Episode 1105, he found himself being surrounded by various past villains from the show, and it's arguably one of the more noteworthy moments where The Walking Dead shows its characters suffering from PTSD-esque ailments. As it turns out, one of those nightmare Whisperers was actually TWD executive producer Greg Nicotero, who served as director for the episode. Here's how Aaron portrayer Ross Marquand described the experience to Decider:
We luckily had Greg Nicotero, who directed the episode, put on a Whisperer mask [laughs] and it was, honestly, pretty terrifying, to receive directions from him while he was wearing that mask. But, it was a blast.
Thankfully, Greg Nicotero's second cameo this season didn't end up as deadly as his first. While he only made a dream-set appearance here, the special effects master showed up previously in Episode 3 as the walker who signed Agatha's death warrant with its teeth. How much more of him can fans expect to see as the final season continues?
Margot Bingham As Ice Cream Woman
For those keeping track of the females coming and going in the life of Josh McDermitt's Eugene, it's clear that Season 11 is pulling some kind of a strange switcheroo on both viewers and on Eugene himself. A few episodes ago, Chelle Ramos was introduced as Stephanie, the woman from the Commonwealth that Eugene took kindly to via their radio communication. But viewers were already clued in on actress Margot Bingham having previously been cast in the role of Stephanie, and it was supposedly confirmed to be her voice that was on the radio.
So it was understandably baffling for many when Margot Bingham made her official in-person debut on The Walking Dead as someone who looked a little too put-together to just be a random extra. Not to mention her too-quick interaction with Eugene, in which he asked about the presence of Rocky Road in her ice cream cone assortment. Though she didn't say anything, and almost seemed surprised by the question, Stephanie did indeed mention in Season 10 that Rocky Road was her favorite flavor. Not that Eugene was aware whether or not any of the ice cream was actually for Bingham's character, and not that someone only has to ever get their favorite flavor from an ice cream truck. So Eugene was definitely harboring some suspicions, even if he likely shat them all out at the end of the episode when he was being arrested.
Will The Walking Dead clear up its Stephanie business before this chunk of Season 11 episodes is finished airing, or will we have to wait until Part 2 debuts? Be sure to watch every Sunday night on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET, with new episodes streaming a week early for AMC+ subscribers. Check out all the other big shows hitting the 2021 Fall TV schedule while waiting!
