WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS- If you haven’t watched AMC’s “The Walking Dead” mid-season premiere yet, do not read further. You have been warned.
When “The Walking Dead” midseason premiere came on at 8 p.m. as I lazily ate my reheated dinner on the sofa, I hardly looked up. I had just finished watching the midseason finale, which aired the hour before, and I was trying to remember the details of the beginning of season six.
From what I recalled, things had been more or less kind of boring. Glenn’s death-scare was about the most memorable thing that came to mind; other than that, there was some goat cheese, Morgan wasn’t killing anyone, Carol was mad, there was Wolf and the Wall fell down. Maybe it was because my brain had been given enough time to process through all the drama of the sixth season, but it all felt like pretty standard stuff.
Once I saw Daryl on screen, though, “The Walking Dead” had my attention— mainly because I have a crush on Daryl, just like the rest of America. Fewer than eight minutes into the program, I was totally absorbed in TWD universe. But it wasn’t the mindless way you get drawn into a TV show; it was an active intensity, an interest I hadn’t felt watching the show since the moment Nicholas shot himself and dragged Glenn down into a pit of hungry Walkers.
By the end of the episode, I found myself in that familiar position: hands clasped over my mouth, legs tucked up under me, body directly centered in front of the Television screen. What I had just seen was easily the best episode of season six.
We start off right where the midseason finale left us hanging, with Daryl, Abraham and Sasha being intercepted by a group of burly men on motorcycles— introducing “Negan’s Gang.” The buzz around TWD communities is that Negan is one man to be reckoned with, rumored to make the Governor of Seasons three through five look like weak sauce. The head goon of Negan’s gang is making way too many witty one-liners, demanding Daryl and company surrender their weapons, as all of their property now belongs to the mysterious Negan. The tension starts growing when joke-cracking bicycle man directs some big hunk of man strong arms Daryl and takes him to the back of the tanker, tells Abraham and Sasha they are not allowed to ask any questions, and then of course beautiful Abraham opens his mouth anyway to ask “Who is Negan?” (Can you blame him though?)
There’s a moment there where you think the biker man is going to kill Abraham and Sasha, a dramatic pause where he reconsiders, and then BOOM guns are out again and he is ready to blow the trigger. Then suddenly he, and the rest of his gang, explode.
Daryl returns from behind the truck, brandishing a rocket launcher they just so happened to have, which he has just used to save the day. (Go Daryl!)
The explosion does a great job of setting the tone for the rest of the episode, which more or less feels like a nonstop series of surprise explosions of some form or another. Sure, episode nine had its share of classic tricks and treats.
We get to see Rick, Carl, Judith, Michonne, Jessie, Ron, Sam and Father Gabriel all using the ole cover-yourself-with-zombie-guts-and-don’t-make-any-human-noise trick to navigate through the herd, which has completely overrun Alexandria.
Everyone gets to hate on Morgan for letting the Wolf live, especially when it looks like he’s kinda sorta got Denise hostage. But good ole Denise (whom I have grown to love, by the way) is getting stronger every time we see her, and for the first time, really challenges the Wolf to really take a look at what he has become.
We get to almost see the Wolf’s character evolve, or rather, re-evolve, into a human being with feelings again when he and Denise make a break for it and try to get over the wall and get swarmed with walkers, and the Wolf takes a bite for Denise. It looks like the Wolf is changed after all, but we aren’t really sure if he’s trying to save Denise because he’s a good person or because he knows she’s a doctor and the only person who can help him. But it doesn’t matter anyway, because Carol shoots him, almost as if she’s passive-aggressively getting back at Morgan for his whole “I don’t kill” thing.
We also get our fill of “HOLY HOT CRAP” moments when (SPOILER ALERT) Sam starts losing his cool whilst walking through a group of zombies and ends up getting torn apart and eaten. Then, snowballing off that, a shocked and devastated Jessie starts screaming and crying and ends up zombie food too.
Then, we get the climax of the “Ron Hates Rick” storyline where Ron looks around at his dead family and points his gun at Rick, ready to kill. But before he can, trusty Michonne takes Ron out, but not before he can fire off one shot.
It misses Rick, thankfully, but then we have perhaps the most poo-your-pants moment of the show, when Carl gently calls out, “Dad.”
Carl has been shot. This is not a drill. His eye is gone, man, like, gone. Luckily, the now ready to rock n’ roll Denise sees Rick sprinting towards the infirmary, and rather than throwing up in her mouth and swallowing it, she gets prepped and ready to save Carl’s life.
Then, we are treated to a nice refreshing Rick Kill Frenzy, which inspires the rest of the ready and able townspeople to rally for “Alexandria’s Last Stand.” We get a nice little montage of all our favorite apocalypse survivors hacking and whacking with their respective weapons. Perhaps Alexandria isn’t so boring after all.
And let’s not forget we are treated to yet another Glenn-near-death experience, which he is miraculously snatched from and returns to his beloved Maggie. (Leave Glenn alone!)
By the end of the episode, Daryl has led the herd away by setting the lake on fire, any remaining walkers have been hacked to death by Alexandrians, and Rick is giving a sleeping Carl a little speech about how cool everyone is when they work together, and how he was wrong about people being ‘soft’ and how they are going to rebuild the walls and stuff.
Overall, episode nine wasn’t bad. If anything, it probably generated enough hype to lure back at least some of the lost viewers the series suffered in 2015. It definitely moved the storyline out of the “how will Alexandria get rid of the herd/stop being so boring” rut and away from the heartwarming but uninspiring “can we live in this cute little neighborhood with a scary world outside?” phase.
“The Walking Dead” kind of slowed down, and while no one wanted to admit they’d lost faith, it was hard to stay interested in the ‘soft’ side of Alexandria. But episode nine promised us a lot for the rest of the season. We’re starting to see the shadows of the a new love-to-hate villain, Rick’s love interest is gone, Maggie and Glenn are back together and there are walls to be rebuilt. There’s more blood, zombie guts, death and explosions to come. I’ve got a feeling the second half of season six will, after all this time, deliver.
