7 Questions We Have After The Walking Dead’s Midseason Premiere

After a two month break, The Walking Dead finally returned to our screens tonight with its midseason premiere, "Rock in the Road." It's no secret that many fans were turned away by the excessive miserableness of the first half of the season, resulting in some of the show's weakest ratings in years. To say that there was a lot riding on the premiere then to give The Walking Dead a sorely-needed boost would be a massive understatement. Thankfully, the episode was a big step in the right direction; the disparate communities are finally beginning to come together against Negan and there was a more hopeful tone to proceedings in general. There's still a way to go until Rick and the gang are out of the woods, of course, but things are starting to look up for both them and the show as a whole, which is great to see. In terms of re-igniting our interest in where The Walking Dead will go for the rest of the season, "Rock in the Road" clearly did a good job, as we've come out of it with a bunch of questions we desperately want answered, and here, you'll find 7 of the most important. 7) Why Is Father Gabriel Leaving? The episode immediately kicked off with an unexpected twist that raises lots of questions. Following on immediately from where the midseason finale left off, we see Father Gabriel at his lookout post. The surprise happens though when something seems to be troubling him and he abandons his position, robs Alexandria's pantry and takes off into the night. What the heck, Gabriel? We later find out that things might not be quite as they seem. Rick has enough faith in the holy man to check his notebook and sees that Gabriel has left an instruction for them to find - the word "boat." Apparently, he somehow knew about the houseboat that Rick and Aaron raided in the last episode. All this suggests that Gabriel is in cahoots with the mysterious booted figure who was seen watching Alexandria at the end of the midseason finale. But he hasn't really sold out or turned against his friends, has he? 6) How Long Has Gregory Got Left As Hilltop's Leader? Anyone who was hoping to see Alexandria, Hilltop and The Kingdom immediately unite to take down Negan would have been disappointed by the difficulty Rick and the others have in convincing Gregory and Ezekiel to join their cause in this episode. We'll get to The Kingdom in a minute, but for the Hilltop, it's Gregory's cowardice that stops the community from joining with Rick and waging war on the Saviors. A number of Hilltop's citizens are losing faith in Gregory, though, and announce that they're now siding with Rick. If Gregory's losing his hold on the community, his days as their leader could be numbered. We've been expecting this for a while now, though, with Maggie the natural successor to his position since she's gained a lot of popularity amongst the Safe Zone's people. So, how soon or far away is Maggie's coup for leadership? We hope it's sooner rather than later, as it's definitely well past time that the useless, creepy Gregory got his comeuppance. Don't you think? 5) When Will The Kingdom Join The Rebellion? As we just said, Rick and his friends find the same response at The Kingdom as they did at Hilltop. King Ezekiel is also unwilling to side with Rick as it'll endanger everything he's worked for to keep his people safe. Ezekiel is a much stronger leader than Gregory, but unfortunately, his decision is the same. At least, for now. Eventually, Ezekiel will change his mind and saddle up with Rick against Negan. But when will that be? Daryl stays behind in this episode, partly as a ploy to try and convince Ezekiel to join them. It's also said that Morgan could change Ezekiel's mind if he wanted, but the pacifist doesn't agree with the idea, either. It's going to be a tough sell for Daryl then, but he'll no doubt eventually manage it. Carol holds a certain sway over Ezekiel as well, so she might have something to do with it, too. Our best guess is that the team-up between the two communities will be saved until the last couple of episodes this season. Honestly, we just really want to see Ezekiel's pet tiger Shiva let loose to do some damage. After all, they've gone to the trouble of creating a CGI tiger, so they might as well do something with it, right? 4) How Long Will Daryl Stay At The Kingdom? Back in the midseason finale, Daryl finally escaped from the Sanctuary and reunited with old pal Rick. These two badasses coming together again was something most fans were crying out for, since the pair had been separated and terrorized by Negan since the beginning of the season. Given that, we were looking forward to seeing a lot more of the duo in this next batch of episodes. Sadly, their reunion turned out to be pretty short-lived. After Ezekiel invites him to stay, Daryl begrudgingly remains on at The Kingdom this episode, upon the instruction of Rick. As he says, it's the "best play" open to them: staying at The Kingdom both ensures Daryl's safety and while here's there, he can try and win Ezekiel over. For the last few seasons, it's been common for the writers to split Rick and Daryl up, so we shouldn't be surprised by this turn of events. Still, we were hoping that the show had gotten past this and was going to keep them together this time. On the upside, at least this should mean that we'll have Daryl and Carol reuniting instead. How long will Daryl stay at The Kingdom for, though? Will this be another half-season-long split from the group, or will he get Ezekiel, Carol, Morgan and everyone on board and return sooner rather than later? 3) When Will Carol Get Into The Thick Of The Action Again? Speaking of Carol, she yet again only appears briefly in this episode. Despite Rick and other Alexandrians being close by, she doesn't get to reunite with them. Neither party knew the other was there, of course, but this will hopefully change soon now that Daryl is staying in The Kingdom. Will she get back into the thick of the action again anytime soon though? Carol's self-imposed isolation, brought on by a conscience made heavy after all the murders she's committed in the process of surviving, was an interesting character arc for a time. However, to keep Carol out of the loop for the entirety of the season would be a waste of one of The Walking Dead's best and most badass characters. Melissa McBride has promised that Carol will get a bigger role this half-season, but does that mean within the confines of her cosy cottage, or out there in the thick of it? Both Daryl and Carol have heaps of guilt to deal with - Daryl, of course, blames himself for Glenn's death - so they could perhaps help each other out of their respective funks and back into the fighting spirit. When exactly this will happen is unknown, at least there's something interesting on the horizon for the character again. 2) Will Negan Take A Back Seat For The Rest Of The Season? The presentation of Negan was a double-edged sword in the first half of this season. On the one hand, he was a winningly larger-than-life character who was gleefully played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And gleeful isn't an adjective often associated with The Walking Dead, so that came as a breath of fresh air. On the other, though, his constant gloating and lording it over our heroes got old after a while. With just about everyone underneath his boot, the series was in danger of becoming The Negan Show. This wasn't helped by the fact that he appeared in more episodes than most of the other characters. In this outing, then, it was a surprise that the leader of the Saviors was relegated to a single - though admittedly hilarious - radio message, with his right-hand man Simon taking on the responsibility of intimidating Alexandria into giving up Daryl. With his favourite prisoner escaped, and with one of his own men killed, you would think that Negan would want to deal with it himself, so it's a bit of surprise that he doesn't make an appearance here. Have the showmakers taken on board people's criticisms then? Do they plan on limiting Negan's involvement for the rest of the season? That remains to be seen, but it could be a good idea. With Negan confirmed to stay on until season 8, the character could quickly suffer from overexposure if he remains such a prominent presence on the show. 1) Who Are The New Arrivals? When Rick and the others try to find Gabriel, they instead discover that they've walked into the middle of a trap and are ambushed by a bunch of silent people wielding weapons. Weirdly enough, this causes Rick to smile. Care to share the joke with us, Grimes? The big question we have after watching this episode is: who are these enigmatic new arrivals? And do they actually mean the Alexandrians harm? The weapons would suggest so, obviously, but they could still turn out to be friends rather than foes. Whoever these folks are, they're definitely tied in with the reason Father Gabriel left Alexandria and who exactly that spy in the boots was. It's possible that they're the TV show's version of the Whisperers, a group of demented survivors from the comics. The spy in the boots, then, could be their leader Alpha - the Whisperers strip themselves of their human identities e.g. Alpha's second-in-command is called Beta. However, it would be weird for them to be introduced this early on and - more importantly - they don't have the zombie face-masks that signify the group in the comic books. Still, there has been a lot of speculation that the Whisperers would be joining The Walking Dead this season, so who knows?