Last Night Showed ‘The Walking Dead’ Is Doing Something …

The Walking Dead is on a quality upswing the likes of which I cannot remember another show ever experiencing as late as season 9, but the more I watch of this season, Angela Kangs inaugural, the more I believe the show could actually be reaching an overall quality peak, despite all its newly missing cast members.

The main reason why things are working right now is because the introduction and the arrival of the Whisperers has been absolutely perfect in almost every way. The reveal of the skin-wearing villains who killed Jesus in a surprise attack at the graveyard was the best villain introduction in series history, more so than even Negan.

Once upon a time I wondered if The Walking Dead might be better off just skipping the Whisperer comic plotline altogether as I held the (rather unpopular) opinion that it just wasnt that great, and with Rick and Carl gone, what was the point, really?

I was wrong about that, however, and the Whisperers have been a truly terrifying enemy the likes of which the show has never seen before. Part human, part walker, and led by a total psychopath in the form of Alpha, who was a somewhat less horrific person in the comics, but seems totally messed up at her core here. In two episodes we learned that barely a month into the apocalypse she murdered her husband and has been physically abusing her daughter ever since. Last night we saw that a Whisperer showed up to the confrontation at the Hilltop with a crying baby, and her order was to let roaming walkers eat the baby as some sort of survival of the fittest show of force.

While that doesnot seem great for the long term prospects of the Whisperers (all babies are going to cry, Alpha), it was a terrifying moment all the same. Even though The Walking Dead wasnt about to let a baby get eaten onscreen, it still cemented Alpha as truly demented. The Walking Dead has constantly tried to humanize most of its villains. The Governor wasnt always so bad, we learn in Flashbacks. The psycho Wolves can be turned back to the side of good, Morgan maintains. Negan is currently living out his redemption arc despite brutally executing people and keeping a harem of sex slaves.

There does not appear to be any such arc coming for the Whisperers or Alpha. Lydia is the only sympathy case were getting out of this group, but Alpha is clearly so far past the point of redemption shes barely even human. And we havent even met Beta yet, which I assume is going to be another awesome reveal, one that I wont spoil.

The point being is that even if The Walking Dead has found itself in a rut of meet enemy group, fight enemy group for like seven years now, it helps when that enemy group isactually interesting and scary like were seeing with the Whisperers here. Angela Kang and company have done a great job with this storyline, and the only thing I would change would be to have Carl back instead of Henry in the key role opposite Lydia. Thats a mistake I will never let The Walking Dead live down.

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Last Night Showed 'The Walking Dead' Is Doing Something ...

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero