WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 4, “Rendition,” which aired Sunday on AMC.
Following the Reapers attack at the tail end of Episode 2, Maggie’s group is still reeling with everyone separated and trying to get away from their pursuing antagonists. Now, in “Rendition,” fans get to see what happens to Daryl after he fled the scene -- and it’s a lot. From getting captured to infiltrating the Reapers and everything in between, the episode concludes with an important trial by fire.
The morning after the attack, Daryl is out looking for Dog when he finds his four-legged friends sitting with a Reaper. Dog is relaxed because the Reaper is his former owner -- Leah, who is also Daryl’s former love interest. It’s probably because of her that Daryl doesn’t die early on in the episode and is taken back to the Reapers' camp as a prisoner instead.
With Daryl captured, the Reapers are determined to learn what they can from him. First, they question him, but Daryl says he doesn’t know the people he was with. Not satisfied, the Reapers proceed to interrogate him in between sessions of waterboarding. Faced with no alternative, Daryl tells them that he only just met those people on the road. They still don’t believe him, but Leah puts a stop to their torturous methods.
Later, Leah goes to see Daryl and tries to convince him to give up more information, warning him that Pope would not be happy if he didn’t. Their conversation shows that they still care for each other, and Daryl -- while keeping up the rouge that he didn’t know the people -- gives over some information about the group that he “picked up on” over the week that he had known them. Leah, finally thinking that she has some ground to stand on, goes to Pope and proposes they let him into their group.
Leah clearly trusts Daryl, and Pope trusts Leah. So, Pope decides to give Daryl a chance and puts him to the test by setting the interrogation shed on fire while Leah and Daryl are inside. They have to pry boards off of a window and only narrowly escape. However, they get out unharmed.
The event mimicked a prior “religious experience” that Pope had with his soldiers years ago. So, when Daryl escapes unharmed, he declares that he has been baptized by fire, aka “Forged by fire. Ordained by God.” And just like that, Daryl is one of them. He hears their whole backstory and learns about their religious motivation and divine commitments. Of course, Daryl isn’t really having any of it, but he plays along. In that regard, he will likely have a major hand in overthrowing the Reapers from the inside.
To see how Daryl takes down the Reapers, tune into Season 11 of The Walking Dead. The series airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and is available to stream early on AMC+.