This week’s ‘Walking Dead’ was a true return to form for the show, but will it last?
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Staff Writer
The Walking Dead: “A New Beginning”
Season 9, Episode 1
Airdate: 10/7/2018
***SPOILERS INCOMING***
PREFACE:
Despite my best efforts not to, I buy into the Walking Dead hype train every single year. The trailer released at San Diego Comic-Con each July always leaves me 
excited for an upcoming season. For the first couple of seasons of the show, it lived up to the hype.
The show has been a chore to sit through for the last two seasons. The show has had a few great episodes and added fantastic new characters (Please don’t die, Jerry), but despite the positives, the show has suffered greatly. What’s at fault is the writing and deeply illogical storytelling. Season 8 was terrible, with the choice to kill Chandler Riggs’ Carl Grimes character going down as a spectacularly bone-headed decision.
That is primarily because his father, Rick Grimes is about to reach the end of his road. As was confirmed months ago, Andrew Lincoln’s character will be departing after the season’s fifth episode (set to air on November 4th). A show that was always centered around a small-town sheriff surviving in a zombie apocalypse is about to lose him; despite the great premiere and positive advance reviews for the next few episodes, I remain worried about the show’s future post-Rick Grimes.
It’s impossible to talk about this episode and the upcoming batch of episodes without acknowledging and speculating about his exit. I think I have a good idea about how he’ll specifically leave the show, but I don’t want to say much about it because a lot can change in a few weeks.
I’m torn about it because, even though the actor is leaving, I don’t want Rick Grimes to die and I don’t think we’ll see him get torn to bits. I have a funny feeling that we’re going to get an open-ended finish to his story. I don’t want that either. After nine years, there shouldn’t be any mystery about his fate. This can’t be a Glenn-Under-The-Dumpster situation. Either he dies or he lives. It’s going to be an emotional night on November 4th.
I buy into the hype every year. I hope this year, despite some of the changes they’re dealing with, they can live up to it.
And now, my thoughts on Season 9, Episode 1: “A New Beginning”
Right out of the gate, this was the best episode of Walking Dead since the second half of show’s sixth season: fantastic acting, natural-sounding dialogue, and a sensical story. I know it’s only night one, but I am already pleased and impressed by both the big and small changes the new showrunner, Angela Kang, has made. The only real criticism I had is that the episode felt a bit too long, but seeing as there was a lot going on in this episode, I can somewhat excuse that.
Instead of doing a straight play-by-play recap of the episode, I want to speak specifically on a few of the episodes big plotlines.
It’s been about 18 months since Rick and his crew won the “war” against Negan and The Saviors, and things appear to be going rather well. Alexandria has seemingly been rebuilt and reestablished, the other communities seem to be flourishing for the most part with the exception of a few noticeable cracks in the ecosystem, and while the group we know and love is spread out among the communities, they seem more unified than ever.
At least it appears that way on the surface. Maggie (who finally had her baby, THANK GOD) and Daryl continue to be upset over Rick’s decision to spare Negan. With Maggie still out for revenge over Glenn’s murder, and Daryl angry over a multitude of offenses, the two are doing exactly what Maggie said in last season’s finale… they’re biding their time, waiting for the moment to strike. The tension between the two sides isn’t as prevalent as I thought it would be heading into this season, but it’s definitely there. While their main target is Negan, Rick and Michonne are definitely going to get caught in that crossfire.
Daryl has apparently been the leader of The Saviors since Negan’s downfall, which honestly is one of the worst ideas Rick has ever come up with. I would imagine after all of the torture that Negan and The Saviors put him through in Season 7, that is the absolute last place Daryl would want to be — especially on a permanent basis. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want to be the leader there; Daryl never was the type of person to be a leader, anyway. Instead of him, Carol will be in charge of Sanctuary going forward, which actually sounds like a much better fit and gives her character more to do than stand around and chill with Ezekiel.
The scavenging mission to the museum was a lot of fun to watch. The bit with the glass floor was cool, but there is no way Ezekiel wouldn’t have been grabbed by those walkers. (Has anyone seen his dreadlocks?)
The death of the character Ken from the Hilltop community didn’t resonate with me emotionally (partially because he died due to his own stupidity and also because he’s never been seen before this episode), but his death did something that a lot of deaths on this show haven’t done these past few seasons… it actually had real, immediate consequences while pushing the story forward.
That’s because another character who also met his demise in this episode is The Hilltop’s former leader, Gregory. In a long-overdue demise, he is hung from a tree after masterminding an attempted assassination on Maggie in a scene straight out of the comic book series. The road getting to that scene is a lot different here, but the end of the road is the same and, while I’ll miss the great Xander Berkeley on this show, his scheming, morally reprehensible character had to go. Using Ken’s death to get his father drunk (breaking decades of sobriety) and convince him to try and kill Maggie was pretty disgusting, being the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.
His death, too, will have an impact going forward. Ordering his public execution was starkly out of character for Maggie and signals a change of character for her. She’s not the same farm girl she was when we first met her, but she’s not a total monster. She absolutely had to do this for reasons beyond Gregory being a threat.
During the course of the episode, Rick comes to Hilltop to meet with Maggie and ask her to help give the Sanctuary more food and she puts her foot down. She says that she won’t give the Sanctuary more food unless they give the Hilltop more fuel and perform most of the labor of rebuilding a bridge that would make transportation between the communities easier. She also gave Rick a much-needed reality check.
“When we were fighting the Saviors, you said soon you’d be the one following me,” she said to Rick, “but you didn’t. ‘Cause I wasn’t someone to follow. That changes now.”
Maggie had to execute Gregory to prove a point. That she was a leader equipped to make decisions that others dislike, one courageous enough to stand up to Rick.
Perhaps, after all of the bad guys and gangs that Rick has faced and conquered, it will be one of his closest allies that will bring about the end of his story.
SCATTERED THOUGHTS:
- I know there was a time jump and a lot of things had to change to reflect that, but after five seasons of practically being the quietest toddler, it’s so incredibly jarring to hear Judith talking in full sentences.
- Also saying a lot of words this episode? Daryl. It’s weird to hear him talk normally, too.
- Melissa McBride is a fine actress and I’m glad her character, Carol, is given a good story to work with. As well, I’m glad she’s getting to show real emotion again unlike the past two seasons. Carol has been my favorite character on this show for a while now, even when her character wasn’t given much to do. Now that Rick is on his way out, she has to make it to the end of the series. You know, like McBride’s unnamed character in The Mist.
- Negan didn’t make a physical appearance in this episode, which surprised me. His shadow and presence are felt in various scenes, though, and it looks like we’ll get our first glimpse of him in captivity next week.
- Father Gabriel looks AWESOME.
- I have to speak about Scott Wilson. News broke on Saturday night that Hershel Greene’s portrayer had passed away from Leukemia at age 76. I have seen a few of his other works (for instance, his performance in the original Great Gatsby movie and his guest spot in Season 7 of The X-Files) but I was introduced to him through this role. Hershel Greene is my second favorite character to ever be on this show (the first is Carol) and he was a big part of the show at its peak. He was a fine actor who nobody ever had anything bad to say about. That’s rare, especially in today’s entertainment industry. Luckily for us, he was able to film some new material before his death and will appear later this season in some capacity, hopefully for a scene with Maggie.
