9.08: The Walking Dead - Evolution

ctg

weaver of the unseen
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"Son, look ... never hit the cold steel with a hammer. It will do nothing and it's dangerous..." Alden and Henry (Photo by Gene Page/AMC)

A small rescue mission braves a dangerous herd in their hunt for a missing comrade, only to discover a surprising threat that could doom them all.

This is the mid-season finale.
 
Jeez, Jesus! I realize you really, really did not want to be the Hilltop leader, but I wasn't expecting you to single-handedly take on a whole walker herd. Even with your Ninja skills, you must have realized you were risking death.
The revelation of "whisperers" masquerading as walkers and somehow communicating with them adds a whole level of suspense to the series. Too bad we have to wait until February to see where this goes.
 
Too bad we have to wait until February to see where this goes.

Isn't it lovely that you now actually have a reason to wait? I heard that some people have thought it was actually a scary episode, was it? I haven't watched it. Just read your comments, that's all.
 
Isn't it lovely that you now actually have a reason to wait? I heard that some people have thought it was actually a scary episode, was it? I haven't watched it. Just read your comments, that's all.
It was foggy graveyard in a thunderstorm scary. Yes, it was.
 
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The revelation of "whisperers" masquerading as walkers and somehow communicating with them adds a whole level of suspense to the series. Too bad we have to wait until February to see where this goes.
I would only ask "why?" There doesn't seem to be much of an advantage to it, unless they mean to wipe out the three colonies and then take their places. But there can't be enough of the mask wearers to take over the three colonies and run them.

Jesus - just made no sense. No need as they were almost through the gate. I can believe accidents (such as Rick falling from the horse or Eugene disjointing his knee.) Behaving like Jesus is just stupidity. As you say, did he really not want to be leader that much?

The Henry subplot also didn't make a lot of sense either. I get peer pressure. I get that Henry has never had anyone his own age. However, the other three kids would be on a much tighter leash. Why are they not employed in productive work too? They drink moonshine every evening but never get caught drunk? Never in six years? And they keep a Walker in a pit for six months and no one finds it? And leave every night and return without ever being discovered gone, or discovered crossing through the barriers? It is very difficult to believe. They would be expected to be teenagers. Even the Blacksmith remembers being young once.
 
I would only ask "why?" There doesn't seem to be much of an advantage to it, unless they mean to wipe out the three colonies and then take their places. But there can't be enough of the mask wearers to take over the three colonies and run them.
And "how"?
If the walkers (in their "natural" state) instinctively respond to noise, wouldn't whispering unmask the fakers and put them on the lunch menu? How are they, instead of being munched, somehow controlling what the walkers do?
 
Bring on the second half.

I hope we are going to find out what's happened over the last six years, you could taste the tension between Michonne and Tara.
The teenagers, we seen something similar in Fear.

I'm going to miss Jesus, his death was pointless he could have got through the gates.

The newcomers look like they will fit in.

It does look like the series is picking up, I'm slightly apprehensive that they are going to ruin it by allowing Negan to escape and the communities having to fight both him and the whisperers.

Nice to see there other children besides Grace, Judith and RJ, we seen them playing just before it switched to Gabriel and Negan.

Looks like Tara will be leader at hilltop by default.
 
I hope we are going to find out what's happened over the last six years, you could taste the tension between Michonne and Tara.
Yeah. What's up with that?
I thought that the bad blood was between Michonne and Maggie. Why is Michonne so against bringing the settlements together for something as symbolic as a fair?
 
There is plenty of mystery to be solved and my interest is once again piqued. Like the dead themselves this series keeps coming back to life when it should have being put out of its misery a couple of years back. I am happy it was not.

The graveyard scene was excellent. Atmospheric, some good action sequences and the final reveal of The Whisperers was oh so good(except for Jesus). Silly and uncharacteristic out of one of the more intelligent characters in the series. Although I should have seen it coming. He was getting too much screen time over the last two episodes.

The Henry storyline is still leaving me cold.

And Negan is on the loose again. It will be interesting to see what direction that takes.
 
Wow, Jesus killed off. It seems now the show kills off big characters more regularly than background ones! He's a fun character so it was certainly a surprise. They kept that one quiet. Apparently there were rumours.
The scenes with the Walkers and Whisperers spread over less than ten minutes of the episode were great. But for a midseason finale there was too much humdrum conversations and minor events. Some teen drunkenness, and some folks scowling about some years old grudge. About two thirds of the episode was mediocre but at least Negan's escape adds to the drama.
Looking forward to see the progress of the Whisperers. Now the communities will have to try and look for the humans in the zombie hordes. Challenging! Perhaps Negan will save someone after his escape?
 
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Why Whisperers seemingly travelled across the country among the herd of walkers? It feels so weird, so dangerous, because you only need to make one mistake and the dead will be upon you in a flash. To be honest, they feel like a secret cult or Kirkman's another attempt on making the supernatural feel freakish, because the dead alone weren't scary enough.

But, here's the thing, if you have a community of people, you must know that the hoard of the dead is the last thing coming to mill around your doorstep. So you either guide them or your eradicate them periodically, thus never allowing the problem become so large that you cannot handle it. Therefore, if you're wearing on those skinsuits in the horde, and a community fighters open fire upon you, how do you prevent them from shooting you as a walker?

It must be one of the realities you have to accept when you hide amongst those slumbering monstrosities. Food is another big problem, because you cannot easily carry supplies as it reveals your presence, and you cannot eat what they eat as that wouldn't be right. You cannot make a fire to cook your food as that would notify the dead.

Speaking of which,

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I admire how much work the Hilltop has put on the place over the years. It clearly shows, but I did find it strange that they emptied the fields as soon as the scouts spotted Michonne's caravan coming. And weird as it is it took very little time for Hilltop riders to reach Alexandria, where as it took the caravan absolutely ages to get the gates of the Hilltop.

What was even stranger was that they had bales of hay laying around the fields. You cannot do that in the old school method. So, they must have solved the problem with biofuel as you'll need a tracker for baling the hay. Yet, the horses are the main method for going around as nobody else expect Daryl is driving any sort of vehicle.

Against the dead a tracker is a mighty death machine.

I find it strange that nobody has brought back steam power. They could quite easily make loads of coal out from the woods as most of the people hacking them back are now dead. In twenty years time most of the places should be overgrown with vegetation, and if they want to keep roads accessible, the maintenance and lumber work has to become the norm.

Yet, Michonne said to Carol that the communities has to remain independent instead of being part of the Rickland. Everything after his death seems to have fallen apart and instead of unity they are divided. Just like the States is today.

How did the invisible borders become a thing, when there shouldn't be anything between them?


The Henry subplot also didn't make a lot of sense either.

The Henry storyline is still leaving me cold.

His storyline was supposed to be Carl's, and this story at the aftermath was supposed to be his rise to be the leader of the communities instead of Rick being the central character. If it doesn't move you, it is because you are not affectioned by Henry as you should be. Henry, the young adult has done nothing to really show his worthiness.

The teenagers, we seen something similar in Fear.

I did too find the young adult stories as a rehash from the ones we already saw in the Fear. There is nothing worth to explore in those plot lines. Instead the new comers are far more interesting. And I find them suspicious on being part of the Whisperers as they arrived conveniently at the same time.

They drink moonshine every evening but never get caught drunk? Never in six years? And they keep a Walker in a pit for six months and no one finds it? And leave every night and return without ever being discovered gone, or discovered crossing through the barriers? It is very difficult to believe.

There is nothing I can say in their defence. Teenagers do stupid things, because they need to be rebellious. Keeping a zombie in the pit for the six months is a level of stupidity that they would do as they explore their boundaries. The newcomers are different to the hilltop young ones.

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I cannot understand how Jesus were believing Dr Evil's bullsh** on the walker evolution. It doesn't make sense that the dead are alive, but evolving to have an actual brain activity and an ability to speak perfect English should have given him warning bells. Why is it that none of them are carrying around rifles? Eugene must have made tens of thousands of round of ammo into their armoury by now.

After Jesus got stabbed and he fell on the ground, he was still breathing. Yet, nobody bothered checking his pulse or try to stop the bleed. I like that Jesus showed that he was a capable swordsman, but I think he was also a fool for not understanding Eugene's message.

I cannot believe that Payne said he was bored with Jesus' role.
 
The Whisperers may not value their own values highly. After all that Whisperer surely knew he would be killed by Jesus's friends.
Remember Nick walking with Walkers in FTWD.

Oh and Michonne carrying a community debilitating grudge for 6 years seems a bit too much. Or perhaps she should have been replaced as leader. Is she a dictator?

Regarding Henry- it seems saving Daryl & dog, and then finishing off the walker are early steps on his path to greatness.
 
Sorry, my first sentence above should say "The Whisperers may not value their own lives highly."
 
The Walking Dead fans are starting to believe the Whisperers were teased years ago in a Season Three episode.

The fan theory started after Daryl Dixon unmasked a Whisperer in the conclusion of Sunday's Episode 9x08. In the final moments of 2018's last episode of The Walking Dead, it was revealed that human survivors were wearing faces which once belonged to walkers. Covering themselves in walker skin and flesh and keeping their voices to a whisper allows them to blend in with the dead.

Going back to Season Three, Morgan's first reunion with Rick Grimes came at a time where Morgan Jones was thought to be hallucinating. While acting quite crazy, he told Rick he saw "people wearing dead people's faces."

At the time, the Whisperers were years away from arriving on The Walking Dead TV series and were also years away from being a factor in Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comics. For this reason, it appears that Morgan was not talking about the Whisperers but it is, instead, a coincidence.
'The Walking Dead': Did Morgan Meet The Whisperers Years Ago?

The Walking Dead killed Tom Payne's character in the final moments of its latest episode, marking the arrival of the Whisperers. However, this won't be the last time fans see Payne in the part of Jesus, after his three year stint on AMC's zombie series appeared to come to a close.

"There is a six year time jump between Episode 5 and Episode 6, so you maybe might see what happened with Jesus in those six years," Payne told Good Day LA. "As far as this point in the timeline goes, at this point, he's done-zo."

The actor will return to the series in the second half of Season Nine during an episode containing flashbacks. Much of the story has been left untold, though recent episodes have teased a pair of mysteries in need of explaining. The first story in need of exploring is the how Daryl and Michonne came to have "X" marks on their backs. The second is the sudden beef between Alexandria and its surrounding communities, prompting Michonne's journey to Hilltop to be an unwelcome one.

As for Tom Payne, he remains satisfied with his characters sendoff, although he wishes to have seen more from his role earlier in the series.

"All I care about is the story, and if the story is good, and they do it in the right way, then I don't care," Payne told ComicBook.com. "And if I help to tell that story, in a cool, surprising, and shocking way, then I'm down with that, and I think they really did that with the exit. So I'm super happy actually. I loved my beginning on the show, and I loved my ending on the show. The middle was meh, but the end was really cool and I'm really, really happy with that. So, yeah, I think it was kind of a mutual thing."
'The Walking Dead's Tom Payne Reveals How Jesus Could Return

So, Jesus is officially dead and nothing other then God is going to bring him back again. And AMC for a flashback. I get that he might have missed whisperer sneaking by and getting into a position to stab a dagger between his ribs, but I was hoping that he was going to recover.
 

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