‘The Walking Dead’ Ended Its Best Season In Years Not With A Bang, But A Shiver

Spoilers for The Walking Dead “The Storm” past this point.

After last week’s horrifying episode of The Walking Dead, which eliminated 10 characters in the most gruesome way possible, you might expect the AMC show to end Season 9 with a blow-out battle between our surviving heroes and the villainous Whisperers. Instead, the zombie drama ended its best season in years not with a bang, but a shiver — as everyone dealt with their loss by trucking through a snowstorm… While still teeing up some big things for Season 10.

Most of the episode was spent shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic, as the residents of the Kingdom fled their crumbling home to head for the safety of the Hilltop; and the Hilltop dwellers headed first to the Sanctuary, and then Alexandria. Along the way, Carol (Melissa McBride) broke up with Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Michonne (Danai Gurira) adopted Hillary Clinton’s campaign slogan and realize the communities were stronger together, and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) began his redemption arc in earnest after saving wee Judith (Cailey Fleming) from freezing to death.

They also encountered some snow zombies, which was fun and new, and Daryl (Norman Reedus) smasheed various walker-cicles with the butt of his crossbow, shattering them into a million pieces. This, by the way, made me feel super bad for the Walking Dead props department, who probably worked very hard on those. Good work, folks!

It was really the end of the episode where things heated up (pun intended), as Alpha (Samantha Morton) returned from hibernation for the winter, ready to bring the pain to herself and the heroes. Oh, and someone called Ezekiel on the radio.

So… Who’s on the radio? That’s one of the biggest questions we’ll be asking until the show returns this Fall, and given the female voice there are two strong possibilities. The first is that Ezekiel is taking the place of Eugene (Josh McDermitt), and talking to a woman named Stephanie. In the books, Eugene forms a secret friendship with Stephanie, eventually revealing way too much info about his location and the communities he lives with. It’s okay though (mostly), because Stephanie is a representative for a vastly more technologically equipped society called The Commonwealth. Naturally, they turn out to have some serious problems of their own, but before that happens the Alexandria folks are shocked to discover that they have 50,000 survivors, and have thrived far better in the post-apocalypse than anyone in the Virginia area (the Commonwealth is based in Ohio).

What’s potentially most interesting about this possibility is that the prevalent fan theory was the Commonwealth storyline would play out in the planned Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) movies, given the character was taken away from Alexandria by a helicopter with Commonwealth-ish markings. If The Walking Dead goes this route, would they tie into the Rick Grimes movie? To further get into the weeds on this, Danai Gurira is reportedly leaving the show in Season 10. So what if Rick is at the Commonwealth, Michonne travels there as she does in the comics, and discovers him alive and well? This would tie into another comic book plot point, where Michonne finds out her daughter is alive once they get to the Ohio-based community. If Rick is there, that could provide an easy explanation for why Michonne leaves the mothership.

There’s another possibility for who is on the radio, though, and that’s one of the survivors from over on Fear The Walking Dead. Morgan (Lennie James) has already headed over to that show; and Dwight (Austin Amelio) will be popping up this next season. So there’s more continuity between the two series, and with a third Walking Dead reportedly being considered, there are plenty of crossover possibilities that could happen.

Aside from the radio, though, let’s talk about this season as a whole. It’s the first year under new showrunner Angela Kang. It departed from the comic source material significantly by getting rid of Rick Grimes, and elevating Daryl (among others). We watched Michonne kill a bunch of kids, the Whisperers arrive in terrifying manner, and experienced the worst series of deaths since Negan killed Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz). A lot has happened since Season 9 debuted in October, and looking back it’s safe to say this was one of the best seasons ever, and definitely the best season in years.

What worked about this season wasn’t just taking chances — including a new title sequence, and the aforementioned Rick roll out — it got back to the core of what worked about the show in the first place. It dug into the characters, built up the mythology of the communities, and with the weight of nine seasons behind it, finally got past the storytelling mode it had been mired in for a while. Instead of asking “what has the world become,” the characters moved forward, and began to ask “what can we make of the world?” It was exciting to watch, threw the excellent ensemble into new situations, and most of all felt unpredictable. With Rick Grimes gone (and Lauren Cohan’s Maggie, who also disappeared halfway through the season to go spy-hunting on ABC), anything could happen. Anyone could die, nobody was safe, the plot armor that protected major cast members dropped away. That opened storytelling possibilities for Kang and company that weren’t available for, oh, say, the previous eight seasons.

That includes the confidence of ending Season 9 with a quiet, chilly episode that had some danger, but mostly focused on the hangover of the previous episode. There was even a laugh out loud funny moment with Negan commenting on the show’s love quadrangle. When’s the last time you laughed at episode of The Walking Dead? Have you ever laughed at an episode of The Walking Dead?

Most shows don’t make it as far as Season 9, let alone Season 10. And when they do, it’s mostly to grind their wheels, repeat what they’ve done before. I opened my review of the Season 9 premiere stating that the show felt completely refreshed and new, and it ends that way, too. Here’s to nine more seasons.

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