“The end of each story is vital. How would you want yours to end?” asks the last episodes of The Walking Dead, AMC’s flagship zombie drama that is reaching a conclusion after 11 seasons, 12 years, and 177 episodes. Charged by the cabler as an “awe-inspiring eight-part end” to TV’s most noteworthy rated series in cable history, returning October second on AMC and AMC+, the end starts at the start. The initial two of a final eight episodes released to pundits open with Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) narrating a nostalgic vignette of flashes from Walking Dead years and seasons gone by, starting with the 2010 pilot, “Days Gone Bye.”

The Walking Dead’s final season Part 3 debut opens on the notorious image of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) waking up post-apocalypse, shambling past the blood-smeared walls of a dark and abandoned hospital hall. The groans and snarls of the undead dig out from a deficit a chained cafeteria entryway spray-painted with an unpropitious warning: “DON’T OPEN. DEAD INSIDE.”

“I heard a great deal of tales about when the world fell,” narrates Fleming’s 11-year-old Judith over flashback footage from the initial 12 years of the walker apocalypse. “Individuals who bite the dust, and individuals who go, aren’t lost everlastingly,” she says in that frame of mind over clasps of the dead and the living as of now not on the show: Rick. Michonne. Carl. Hershel. Glenn.

Framed as a story told by Judith — a homage to the final issue of creator Robert Kirkman’s comic book — these short montages of bits from the initial ten seasons will be generally appreciated by fans who have taken this excursion with these characters starting around 2010. In any case, The Walking Dead isn’t living in the past. The smaller than normal reels returning to the show’s celebrated history also serve the present: as the survivors battle for a future for them as well as their kids, the result will conclude what legacy they leave behind.

Based on the initial two episodes made available for review, named “Lockdown” and “Another Deal,” there’s not exactly the sense of resoluteness or that “the end” is approaching presently. In any case, these two episodes are looking strong so far: to say how might be offering spoilers, yet the two episodes wrap setting up The Walking Dead’s endgame that will finish up with the series finale on November twentieth. That “it’s ending” feeling ought to soak in over the remaining six episodes, as “Another Deal” (debuting October ninth on AMC) conveys a stunner even comic book readers won’t see coming — a shock sure to contort the season in a new and unforeseen course.

Under showrunner and series veteran Angela Kang, AMC’s adaptation of Kirkman’s Image comic has expanded and sorted through the contention around the Commonwealth, the apparently ideal Ohio people group where the survivors desire to settle and restart civilization. Experiencing gatherings and networks isn’t new ground for The Walking Dead, yet the show is an in new area — literally — with a legendary extension and scale as it accomplishes something it’s never finished: take place in a dystopian culture of exactly 50,000 survivors, where walkers are the main update it’s not the “old world.”

Part kind awfulness, part political spine chiller, The Walking Dead has tracked down new life as the mantra of “battle the dead, fear the living” sees our legends clash with the “New World Request” of the Commonwealth.

Essentially a two-parter, “Lockdown” gets where April’s “Acts of God” midseason finale left off: with Peak, Oceanside, and Alexandria under foe occupation, seized as militarized stations of the Commonwealth. Pursued by deceitful Representative Lead representative Lance Hornsby’s (Josh Hamilton) army of armored troopers, Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) bunch enacts a plan to extract their kin from the Commonwealth before Hornsby can execute his retribution.

Inside the Commonwealth’s walls, an anti-Milton development fights for equity after Connie’s (Lauren Ridloff) article uncovered the defilement of Lead representative Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) and her child, Sebastian (Teo Rapp-Olsson). As Carol (Melissa McBride) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) safeguard the youngsters targeted by Hornsby’s covert operatives, General Mercer (Michael James Shaw) and officer Rosita (Christian Serratos) are dispatched to clear a massive walker swarm that powers the Commonwealth into lockdown — jeopardizing the leave plan.

The initial two episodes back have a greater amount of what fans love: more uncensored F-bombs, more zombie gore, more name-drops of fan-favorites, and more blending of characters. The action-packed debut is all gas, no brakes, separating Daryl and Maggie while pairing off Carol and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) on a mission inside the Commonwealth, all while Hornsby orders them shot without hesitation: “This ends here.”

While “Lockdown” is no “No chance to get Out” — the incredible, dangerous midseason debut that launched the last part of Season 6 with all of Alexandria fending off an invading walker crowd — the Greg Nicotero-coordinated episode is extraordinary and convincing, a roller coaster from start to wrap up.

For the most part arrangement for what happens next as Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and informant Max (Margot Bingham) make moves to subvert the Milton system, “Another Deal” slows it down a little — until its final minutes. In the same way as other episodes under Kang’s residency as showrunner, “Deal” ends with a jaw-dropper cliffhanger that drives us into the game-changing next episode.

Kang and chief maker Scott M. Gimple, also boss creative official of AMC’s TWD Universe, have guaranteed that these final eight episodes are about “finishing” The Walking Dead story, not “setting up side projects.”

Three spin-off shows are set to debut in 2023: one rejoining Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira); an independent series zeroed in on Daryl overseas in France; and TWD: Dead City, sending Maggie and Negan traveling together into dystopian New York. It’s questionable that this third and final part of Season 11 would (re)introduce regional variant walkers so near the end goal, yet there’s a ton of life left in these end chapters.

The end of each story is vital. Based on the initial two of the last eight episodes, The Walking Dead’s end could possibly be a fresh start.