Though her voice was heard, Yumiko was oddly absent in The Walking Dead season 10, episode 20, which centered on the group’s first encounter with the Commonwealth. Played by Eleanor Matsuura, Yumiko was one of the four characters to be captured by them in what was The Walking Dead season 10 finale, with the other three being Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), and Princess (Paola Lázaro). So just where was she in the episode?
The Walking Dead, season 10, episode 20, titled “Splinter”, is the fourth of the six bonus episodes that were tacked on to the end of the season by AMC. It was also the first to address the fate of Eugene and the others, who were ambushed by the same people that came to acquire help from. “Splinter” focused specifically on Princess, the newest addition to the group. The episode saw Paola Lázaro experience a hallucination of Ezekiel and make a brief attempt to free Eugene all in an effort to escape from confinement. For the most part, her goal was to find out what happened to Yumiko, who mysteriously went silent during a conversation.
Instead of showing Yumiko, the episode only featured the voice of the actress. When Princess saw her three friends in The Walking Dead season 10, episode 20’s final scene, the actress playing Yumiko in this moment was likely a stand-in. According to Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang, that’s because Matsuura was in the U.K. at the time of filming. During production, it was agreed that they shouldn’t fly in actors based in European countries due to safety concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic [via EW]. Magna actress Nadia Hiker, who lives in Germany, is another member of the cast who wasn’t able to return in the extra six episodes as a result of this plan.
Kang says that the cast for the episode being limited in this way has a lot to do with why “Splinter” was a Princess-focused episode. Considering that Yumiko was there when they were captured by the Commonwealth, then it makes sense that the character had to be included in some way. To get around that problem, then,, they decided to do a “POV” story about one character, so that it can only show what that single person sees and experiences. In doing things this way, there’s no reason for viewers to ever lay eyes on Yumiko in the episode.
By looking at the three episodes that preceded “Splinter”, as well as what’s known about the final two, it’s clear that this approach was applied to a certain degree to all of the bonus episodes. A handful (or less) of the cast has been featured in each episode. While this has so far prevented audiences from seeing what’s going on with characters such as Rosita (Christian Serratos), Alden (Callan McAuliffe), and Magna, and has kept others from getting significant screen time, it has allowed The Walking Dead to deliver some deep and nuanced stories about fan-favorites like Daryl (Norman Reedus), Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Aaron (Ross Marquand), and more.
