The Walking Dead Releases Scene From New Season 10 Episode “Splinter”

The Walking Dead releases a special sneak peek at the upcoming half-season with a virtual cast table read from “Splinter,” one of the six new season 10 episodes airing on AMC in early 2021. Picking up where the season left off with “A Certain Doom,” the episode finds Eugene (Josh McDermitt), King Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), and newcomer Princess (Paola Lazaro) imprisoned in train cars by the armored soldiers of the Commonwealth. The troopers surrounded the group when they reached a railyard in Charleston, West Virginia, where Eugene was to rendezvous with his so-far unseen radio contact Stephanie (Margot Bingham).

This second virtual table read clip, with Jerry actor Cooper Andrews acting as narrator, comes after AMC premiered a scene from new season 10 episode “Home Sweet Home.” That episode, reuniting Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for the first time in years, takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Whisperer War.

Narrator: EXT. TRAIN YARD. NIGHT. Prelap the sounds of troopers marching over dirt and gravel. A train car door closing as we fade in. INT. TRAIN CAR EARLY MORNING. Princess sees something she didn’t see before the light changed — a patch in the east wall made up of a rusty metal plate haphazardly screwed into the wall. She rushes over and tries to pry the boards around it away. One comes off in her hand.

Princess: Alright, yay. Vamonos.
Narrator: She feels a rush of excitement as she pulls another one away, and then another. She finally pries the metal plate off that so that she can slide it away and shimmy her way through the hole and outside, where EXT. TRAIN COUPLING SPACE BETWEEN CARS. She lowers herself down onto the train coupling. Then, suddenly…
Eugene: Hey. Stop.
Narrator: Princess looks up to see Eugene peering through the grate at her. He’s in the next train car. Her face lights up.

Princess: Eugene, oh, thank God.
Eugene: Shh! Our armored chaperones are making frequent checks on these vicinities. What are you doing?
Princess: We gotta find Yumiko. I think she’s hurt bad.
Eugene: There’s a similar portal on the other side?
Princess: Well, no, but I can hear her. Or, I could. They took her somewhere. We have to go check!
Eugene: On what? You said our potential benefactors are providing her with assistance.
Princess: I said they took her! I don’t know where or for what. Come on!
Eugene: No. That’s not a good idea.
Princess: Why not?
Eugene: My people back home need help. We’re in the middle of a fierce battle. Even if it’s come to a conclusion by now, the need for significant aid is inevitable. To be blunter, all my kinfolk are counting on me to be a cross between Santa Claus and a guardian angel, if you will.
Princess: You think I’m gonna mess things up.
Eugene: We have to present ourselves as worthy of allegiance. No room for miscalculations. You hear me?

Narrator: They hear more footsteps approaching – the next patrol. Princess motions that she’s going to return to her little hiding place, but Eugene reprimands her.
Eugene: Do not make things worse!
Narrator: Princess nods, absorbing the pointedness of the warning. She shimmies back into the train car, when — bang, bang, bang, bang! Princess jumps, alarmed. There’s someone clamoring on the roof of her train car. An emergency hatch above creaks open. Bright light beams down.

Princess: What the…? Ezekiel?
Ezekiel: Shh! Took some epic maneuvering. Might’ve been spotted. Let’s get out of here.
Princess: Right now?
Ezekiel: No, next week. Yes, right now!
Princess: I don’t think running will help right now.
Ezekiel: We don’t know these people. And we can’t trust what we don’t know. We can find a way out.
Princess: You don’t know that!
Ezekiel: I made it here, didn’t I? We’ll be fine.
Princess: How are we supposed to find Yumiko and Eugene? We can’t just leave them here!
Ezekiel: You think I don’t know that? They’re my friends!

Narrator: Princess flinches, hurt. Ezekiel is immediately sorry.
Ezekiel: Fear brings out the worst in us. As it just did in me. I apologize.
Narrator: He slides to the floor. A beat.
Ezekiel: What if Eugene trusted the wrong people this time?
Princess: I just want to do the right thing.
Ezekiel: We need a better plan.
Narrator: Smash to black. End of Act 3.

“I think there’s going to be some major consequences just in talking on the radio with this person,” McDermitt previously told TV Insider about Eugene’s over-the-air correspondence with Stephanie. “He’s making some decisions that could severely alter everyone’s way of life, and I don’t know that that’s solely his decision to make. There could be some life and death consequences based on those decisions he’s making.”

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Walking Dead returns with new episodes early 2021 on AMC.