Eugene (Josh McDermitt) has entered into a relationship with Stephanie (Chelle Ramos) and tells her he loves her; right after she tells him she loves him too, she mysteriously disappears. Eugene becomes obsessed with finding Stephanie and breaks into a man's house looking for evidence, but fails and Princess (Paola Lázaro) insists that she must have broken up and abandoned him. Eugene soon finds Stephanie again conspiring with Lance (Josh Hamilton) for an unknown task, and gets Lance to confess that "Stephanie" was a disguised woman named Shira who was used to get Eugene to confess to Alexandria's location due to many inconsistencies during the group audition. Lance tells Eugene that the group is better now, despite his heart breaking for Shira.
Meanwhile, Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Kelly (Angel Theory) investigate the Commonwealth military and its treatment of Tyler Davis (Cameron Roberts), and Carol (Melissa McBride) helps Lance deal with a neighboring community whose leader is extorting the Commonwealth for money. Eugene is later approached by "Max", who reveals herself to be the woman he was in contact with over the radio.
Reception
Critical reception
"Rogue Element" received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has an approval rating of 71%, with an average score of 7.20 out of 10, based on 7 reviews.[2]
Erik Kain for Forbes wrote of the episode: "The Walking Dead feels utterly unrecognizable for the most part these days, a tired husk of its former self barely clinging on. The Commonwealth is lame and the way they’ve integrated the characters into it is implausible at best."[3] Alex McLevy for The A.V. Club rated the episode a B, calling it "Huh. That was different."[4] Rith Cross for Starburst calific the episode from 3 to 5 rating and wrote: "Eugene makes for a predictably tenacious and single-minded investigator, and director Michael Cudlitz focuses attention on his efforts to peel away layers of deception and denial in what is a cleverly constructed script by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick."[5]
Ratings
The episode had a total of 1.67 million viewers in its original airing on AMC.[6]