Spoilers The Walking Dead - Season 9 discussion and spoilers

Artificially inflated numbers since The Whisperers can control and direct the walker herds.

 

which really makes no sense, but not really picking at that. But anything short of sending the whole pile at them, so what? zombies haven't been a real problem in like 4 seasons. Barely even a plot point anymore. I dunno, other than crazy leader again, feeling this threat even less than usual. Just nothing to it, bunch of crazy nomads with knives. If anything, I'd make a priority of wiping them out so they DIDN'T live with the threat of sending a herd at me. Could have ended the whole thing with Alpha at the gate of Hilltop way back at the beginning, and at most lost the two hostages; dozens more have died so far are more on Sunday. Not even like they rolled in with big numbers or guns; we've had both of those happen before. This is a threat that made more sense when it was a small group still out in the wild, and is a little squirrelly when the good guys have the numbers, are better armed, and fortified.

 

Had they done that, Beta would have taken control, and he is an unstoppable force. So far in the show we've seen him shrug off being stabbed and tossed down an elevator shaft.

Spoiler: comic spoilers

In the comics, Negan hits him with Lucille which does nothing to Beta and instead causes Lucille to smash to pieces, and after being knocked unconscious, he temporarily awakes to kill a fellow Whisperer who was going to lift his mask off only to immediately pass out again.

Spoiler: super serious comic spoilers

Comics Beta is noted for brute force tactics, when he does take over the Whisperers after Beta is killed, his first action is to send the entire mega-herd after the communities.

So yeah, probably for the best they didn't kill Alpha at the gates of Hilltop.

 

This type of stuff has no place on The Walking Dead TV show. They are already moving toward Z-Nation level goofiness.

 

4.15 million viewers for this one, a new series low by a wide margin...

Likely reason: competition from NCAA tournament...

 

Nah, Beta’s a cuck, right? I never did wrap my head around that stuff...

 

Er I literally made that joke like four or five posts up!

 

Must have missed it.

 

I got lucky and saw the Hardwick warning. FIOS only recorded an hour.
My DVR ended right as Alpha sits next to Lydia and shushes her. I thought that was a great cliff hanger moment to end on for "The Calm Before". Boy, was I wrong.

Enid and Tara were the big surprises for me. The rest were just "Redshirts" including Henry.
Alpha at the fair was Hitchcock level creepy foreshadowing.
What does it take to kill Beta? LOL
I think they will "Unleash the Negan!" Kraken style.
Got to fight evil with evil.

Great episode. They need more of these.

 

I love the sound of that!!

 

REMEMBER THE BARN!

That should be the battlecry of the Whisperer War!

 

55 min in, anything actually happen yet? Yes, Kingdom was abandoned, but just such a bland episode. Don’t need all out war nonsense, this just seems like filler, which is weird for a finale. Waste of an episode thus far.

 

A voice was heard on the radio, but it wasn't Rick.

 

The Walking Dead
Season 9 Finale - episode 16- "The Storm"

Daryl: "Its their problem...not yours." I understand Daryl sees Lydia as much of a victim as the murdered friends, and his defending her from being harassed, but I hope his faith in her was justified.

Icicle weapon...novel invention.

Lydia: Interesting...this is the second time a girl with an association with Carol considered letting a walker bite her (Lizzie being the first to attempt it before being stopped by Mika). She's such "damaged goods" in wanting to die, but it would be nice if she actually honors Henry by being that good person, which will mean standing against her mother.

Michonne / Judith: Oh, the irony--the Savior's Sanctuary actually providing it to people responsible for its collapse. Between this and Negan saving Judith, the showrunners' message of the idea of heroes and villains being flipped (for the moment) was loud and clear.

Lamenting that Alpha was able to walk among them because they did not know each other was the statement of the past couple of seasons, but there was no way to avoid it, thanks to the rift caused by sparing Negan's life. One might argue that in saving Negan, Rick and Michonne ultimately saved Judith.

I know some viewers' first instinct was to shake heads at the child-in-danger trope, but for some reason, Judith just cannot inspire the kind of anger other child characters do. Her heart is ever in the right place (she had to watch out for Dog, after all), so she gets endless free passes for reckless behavior.

Negan: "Father...not the father" / "God.. I missed you, Eugene." Well, his zingers were amusing...but he deserved Rosita's dark response.

Carol / Ezekiel: As expected, the opening was pulling on the heartstrings with Carol & Ezekiel suffering from so much loss.

Ezekiel can say he's trying to get back what he lost, but its an incredibly weak-assed moved to see Daryl as a distraction / threat to his marriage. So-named "Caryl" shippers should not hope that Carol dissolving the marriage means she's going to fly into Daryl's arms. That would be pure fan service.

The Whisperers: Alpha...yes, she's insane, thinking she needs a beating to make her strong for that "next" she's planning.

The radio: A woman's voice. Some will think its Maggie, since the Kingdom sent a message to her earlier, but I'm thinking it might be Jadis.

Speaking of Maggie, I'm sure fans noticed paintings of Glen and Hershel on the walls of her former office.

NOTES: 9 seasons in, and we finally see the effect of freezing temperatures on walkers...at least walkers of a certain level of decomposition.

Overall, season 9 was one of the strongest in some time, with every major character (and even a few supporting players), feeling like they actually live, and are not just cutouts supporting a long-running franchise.

Of course, next season will mark the big anniversary of the longest-running horror series in American TV history, which also happens to be the most far reaching (in terms of appealing to the general population) fantasy series (overall) of this century.

 

After this, Negan must be going to fuck them over someday. It's just too sweet and cute to last.

Maybe he won't take out Alpha but displace her? Being Alpha to a bunch of lackeys might be too much to resist.

 

Anyone still having doubts that the show is taking a lighter approach after this episode?

 

So who died? The zombie threat must be pretty small now. Most would have decomposed into a unmovable mass.

 

You've forgotten about Supernatural, which is up to season fourteen with one more to go.

 

This is debatable as GOT has something to say on this matter. GOT has a peak of 12.07 million viewers on a far more limited platform than TWD, but TWD has a peak of 17.29. Like I said, impossible to compare because of different levels of reach, so I'd put them at a tie.

Also of note - GOT never had it's Negan kills Glenn moment where the show went from 17.03 million to 12.46 just 1 episode apart.