The Walking Dead season 11's two-part premiere comprises 2 separate storylines. In Washington, Maggie and Daryl lead a mission to take down the Reapers, while Eugene's team makes first with the Commonwealth. There's virtually zero crossover between these dueling narratives, but "Acheron Part II" subtly uses Daryl Dixon's subway adventure to tease an inner darkness bubbling beneath the surface over at the Commonwealth.
While traveling through a treacherous subway tunnel, Daryl separates from the group, (understandably) running after Dog. Following his rogue mutt while trying to avoid undead, Daryl stumbles across a shelter used by homeless people back before the zombie apocalypse began. Daryl finds a huge mural depicting social inequality between rich and poor, a suited corpse handcuffed to a suitcase full of cash, and a heartfelt note scrawled upon a $100 bill. Money has been a recurring theme in The Walking Dead season 11's opening episodes, and Daryl spends so long in the area the symbolism has to mean something - but what?
The subway shelter (and all of the curiosities within) could foreshadow a big problem lurking inside the Commonwealth. Thanks to flesh-eating monsters around every corner, precious little food and a desperate shortage of deodorant, The Walking Dead often paints the "world before" as a paradise communities like Alexandria and Hilltop should seek to rebuild. The subway shelter (which Daryl specifies was built before the fall) is a timely reminder that pre-zombie life wasn't so great and, for many, day-to-day survival started long before Rick Grimes fell into a coma. In truth, the apocalypse has been a great leveler, dismantling the rigged capitalist hierarchy responsible for so much homelessness, poverty and death.
With season 11 marking The Walking Dead's final run, it's a strange time to go full-on Rage Against The Machine, but these real-world sentiments are really a prelude to visiting the Commonwealth. Yumiko deduced how the Commonwealth uses American dollars as currency and tests potential citizens' for their capacity to accept civilization again. Yumiko also realized her people were being assessed based on pre-apocalypse occupations, meaning she and Eugene (the lawyers and doctors) get red carpet treatment, while the zookeepers and waitresses (Ezekiel and Princess) live like second class citizens - even though everyone enjoyed equal status back in Alexandria. We can tell from the tissue boxes and fancy pens that the Commonwealth is closer to recreating old times than any other group in The Walking Dead so far (except the Civic Republic, perhaps), but Daryl's subway shelter poses an all-important question - "are old times what we should be aiming for?"
It's also fitting that Daryl is the one to make this tragic discovery. In the Walking Dead comic books, Rick Grimes was the man who challenged the Commonwealth's status quo and questioned their unjust social structure but, for obvious reasons, Rick won't play the same role in The Walking Dead season 11. Daryl Dixon has always championed the underdog and stayed suspicious of communities that claimed to "rebuild." He's the perfect character to call out the Commonwealth's inequality and lead the charge among its citizens - and the scenes he witnessed in the subway shelter will be fresh in his mind when he does.