The second half of The Walking Dead‘s ninth season premieres on Sunday, February 10th and, as always, things are changing for our characters. After a midseason finale which felt like a response to criticisms that the show’s getting stale, it’s now in some new and interesting territory. Much of this is due to the six-year time jump that took place in the first half of the season, in which characters aged and infants grew up into children.
While finding out precisely what’s been going on and how the new status quo developed will be fascinating, my interest for these new episodes lies with the mysterious enemies The Whisperers and their leader Alpha (played by Samantha Morton). For those who don’t know, they’re humans who’ve developed an apocalyptic philosophy that man’s nothing more than a beast and so should act accordingly. This means an animalistic pack structure headed by the Alpha and her Beta lieutenants.
But that’s not all, as to fully embrace their vicious nature, they capture and skin walkers, wearing them as disguises that let them move among the hordes and use them as a weapon against their enemies. It’s a great trick, particularly because after nine seasons, both characters and audience have become a little bit blasé about the dangers of walkers. But now that any of them could secretly be a vicious enemy hiding in plain sight, it should crank up the tension.
Anyways, it’s looking like this second half of the run is really going to pick things up, with AMC teasing it as so:
The group’s rules and ways of survival no longer guarantee their safety. A whole new threat has crossed their paths, and they soon discover it’s unlike any threat they have encountered or endured before. The group will start to question what they think they see. What may appear to be normal in this post-apocalyptic world could actually be more disturbing and terrifying than when the apocalypse first broke out. All that is certain is the stakes are high and numerous.
While The Walking Dead has seen steadily declining ratings over the last few seasons, most are in agreement that season 9’s contained some of the best episodes and moments in the show’s history. As such, let’s hope it can regain its audience and carry on for many years to come.
