‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9, Episode 9 Review: An Okay …

Spoilers through Season 9 of 'The Walking Dead' follow.

The Walking Dead returns with an okay Season 9 midseason premiere that introduces us to the leader of the Whisperers.Credit: AMC

The Walking Deadreturns for the second half of Season 9 Sunday night. The midseason premiere, titled 'Adaptation' (after the midseason finale's 'Evolution') returns to the moments after Jesus was killed in the Episode 8, to the cemetery where our heroes make good their escape from the Whisperers, bringing Jesus' corpse and a wounded Eugene with them.

The group hustles as fast as they can given their burden, escaping the cemetery and eventually coming to a bridge with some walkers shambling in their way. Instead of killing them outright, Daryl cleverly shoots them in the legs to draw out which is a Whisperer. The ensuing fight is brief and they manage to take one of the bad guys prisoner: Lydia. They take her back to the Hilltop and lock her up in the jail that Henry is still locked up in.

Lydia is questioned by Michonne and Daryl and you can tell she's lying. They certainly can. She claims that her group was just trying to see if the Alexandria and Hilltop folk were "good people...and then you attacked!" Oh come on, Lydia. Your group stalked them through the night, cornered them in the cemetery and straight-up murdered Jesus. This "we're good people" act is so transparent. She also falsely claims that her mother is the only remaining survivor, which is confirmed as a lie in the episode's closing scene.

Daryl comes up with a clever plan. He gets very threatening, yelling at Lydia and brandishing a knife, telling her that she can tell him the truth or he'll kill her. She begs and pleads, he snarls and yells, and then Henry intervenes, begging Daryl to stop. Daryl grudgingly does so, leaving Lydia and New Carl alone. The two start talking, a budding friendship forming perhaps, and outside the cell, Daryl sits and listens. This is one of the smartest things Daryl has ever done.

Danai Gurira as MichonneCredit: AMC

Search Parties

Meanwhile, back at the Hilltop Tara sends out search parties to track down the first search party (what could possibly go wrong?) since it's been nearly a day since Michonne and the others left. Newcomer Luke---the music man---volunteers and heads off with Alden. They find arrows that look like the ones that Yumiko uses and follow them into the woods, but not before fending off a pair of walkers.

Luke and Alden have a natural camaraderie. Alden is excited about the upcoming fair that Hilltop and the Kingdom are holding. He ropes Luke in to play some music and the two talk about forming a two-man band. It's a nice conversation between two relatively new, and very likable characters. Too bad they walk right into the Whisperer's trap.

They find themselves surrounded by silent, still walkers. It's deeply creepy. Then one of the walkers strides forward,tosses one of the arrows at their feet, and pulls out a sawed off double-barreled shotgun. "Trail ends here," she says.

Things are not looking good for the survival of Luke or Alden at this point, which is a shame. Luke in particular adds a nice positivity to an otherwise incredibly grim show. I wish they'd kill of Eugene instead. I just can't stand any scene that Eugene is in.

This is the third of three search parties, and they're in hot water now.

The first and second search parties make their way back to the Hilltop, down one man. The community is pretty devastated by the death of Jesus---a death that came just when Aaron and his relationship was blooming, and both characters were finally getting more interesting. I'm not sure why the show is killing off Jesus and leaving characters like Tara and Eugene and Gabriel alive. It's frustrating.

Ross Marquand as Aaron, Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Nadia Hilker as MagnaCredit: AMC

Speaking of Eugene, he has the world's most awkward conversation with Rosita in the sick bay. In his own annoying way, he starts confessing his undying love to her, something that she obviously doesn't want to hear. In fact, she races from the room and throws up on the ground outside. At first I thought it was because she was so grossed out by the idea of being with Eugene (perfectly understandable) but she reveals to Siddiq that she's pregnant and that Siddiq is likely the father.

All of which makes me wonder: Why in god's holy name is Rosita with Gabriel? Siddiq is not only better looking, he's way more likable in just about every way. He's a far, far better match for Rosita than Gabriel. That romance just makes no sense at all. In fact, this show continually putting Gabriel in romantic roles (first the Trash Lady and now Rosita) makes no sense. He's not that type of character. It just feels weirdly forced.

In any case, now we have some love triangle stuff. Love square? I'm not sure. All I know is that I'm sick of Eugene, Gabriel is a bad match for Rosita, and I'm not thrilled by where any of this is going.

The other search party members have their own conversations. Aaron, bizarrely, admits to Michonne that she was right. Apparently living in total isolation in Alexandria would have somehow prevented all this tragedy. The actual lesson here, however, is that isolating themselves off and not communicating properly with the other communities made everyone more vulnerable to a group like the Whisperers. If Eugene and Rosita hadn't had to go sneaking around they could have gone with a bigger team, more prepared to face down enemies. Michonne's leadership has been abysmal. Maybe some of the flashbacks we're supposed to get this half of the season will make me more sympathetic to her.

(You can read why I'm relieved to hear Danai Gurira will be leaving the show next season right here.)

Michonne and Daryl also converse, though mostly it's all irritatingly cryptic, designed to get viewers to say "Whatever do they mean? What happened that we don't know about? What about those strange scars?" Yeah yeah, we get it. Something happened that explains why Michonne is acting this way and Daryl has hermited himself off in the woods, and it's not just Rick's "death". Let's find out what that is, please.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as NeganCredit: AMC

Negan Wanderer

Elsewhere, Negan makes good his escape, convincing Judith to let him go and promising not to cause any more harm. He wanders around the region for a while, returning briefly to a now empty Sanctuary where he attempts to befriend one of his old followers, now a zombie. He has a run-in with some wild dogs, making for a good tense scene, but ultimately returns to Alexandria on a motor cycle. Judith shoots at him causing him to crash. He tells her he's returned because there's nothing for him out there. "Told you so," she says, though I'm paraphrasing.

I can't help but wonder: Why is Judith out there all alone? This can't be a good idea. It's not a good idea for anyone to be out there alone, but certainly not a nine or ten-year old girl, even one as skilled as Judith. I suppose it was just so that she and Negan could have their scene, but come on. I'm all for Judith being a little badass but this is just silly.

I'm not really sure what the point of all this was, but I suspect it's so that Negan can return and say "I escaped but I'm returning of my own volition so now you can trust me" and somehow we're going to get to a point where they start trusting him and he becomes one of the gang. This will have to do with what happens with the Whisperers, but I'm not sure how exactly. I'm also not sure that makes any sense. Yeah, his relationship with Judith is cute and all, but this is a guy who kept a harem of sex slaves, who tossed people alive into furnaces and melted peoples' faces off with an iron. I've said it before and I'll say it again, even if Negan isn't past redemption, he's past redemption with this specific group. He should have gone off and found a new community to be a part of---with a clean slate, if not a clean conscience.

Norman Reedus as Daryl DixonCredit: AMC

Verdict

Overall this was an okay episode. Nowhere as good or scary as the midseason finale, with that crazy final fight scene and the "walker" dodging Jesus's attack.

It wasn't stupid---the show has been avoiding outright stupidity pretty well, though it doesn't take much to not be as godawful as the last two seasons. There are still weak moments, like when the blacksmith's wife starts telling Tara that people will hold her accountable blah blah blah, justshut up lady.Every now and then, scraps of dialogue have that whiff of bad writing. But for the most part, it was a decent midseason premiere, and the final cliffhanger was great.

I think the problem is that it was all just kind of flat. It's another episode that's just leading up to the good stuff, setting the stage. That's kind of boring. The whole episode just felt like a bit of a letdown after such a crazy midseason finale. I also feel like the Whisperers, whenever our heroes encounter them in a fight, are surprisingly wimpy. It's like inArrowwhen the heroes fight the League of Assassins and all these supposedly super highly trained assassins are just level 1 kobolds, basically, taken down with ease. Shouldn't the scary Whisperers be a little more formidable? It's like when Obi-Wan Kenobi told look about the expert accuracy of imperial Stormtroopers and then we discovered that Stormtroopers literally don't know how to shoot a gun.

In any case, that's all I have to say about 'Adaptation.' I'm hoping that next week is more exciting. What did you think? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook and thanks for stopping by.

Matt Lintz as HenryCredit: AMC

Further Reading

Past Season 9 Reviews

Read more from the original source:
'The Walking Dead' Season 9, Episode 9 Review: An Okay ...

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Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero
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