The Walking Dead
“Silence the Whisperers”
October 27, 2019
King Zeke is having a rough time of it. Between the loss of the Kingdom, the death of his son, Henry, and the separation from Carol, things are already shitty. But then when a tree falls on part of the wall surrounding Hilltop and traps some 9 residents, he can’t seem to find it within himself to lead his people in a rescue effort. When that duty falls on Yumiko, he stands there powerless. Yumiko orders the injured to be put into Maggie’s old office and the next morning she and Team Lady Gaga go outside the wall to fight off the walkers who have been attracted to all the hubbub. And King Zeke has a sad.
Later, Michonne, Judith, and some others from Alexandria are on the road to Hilltop, Michonne and Judith discussing the threat from the Whisperers, and whether they can take them at their word. Judith suggests that the Whisperers are trying to wear them all out so as to get an advantage over them, and Michonne is impressed by Judith’s cleverness. Michonne ponders this possibility when she happens to see King Zeke on horseback, riding into the woods by himself. Michonne orders the others to continue on to Hilltop, while she investigates what the deal is with King Ezekial.
Michonne follows him into the woods where she finds him on some sort of dock or platform? overlooking a river or a cliff or … I don’t even know what, but the suggestion is definitely that he’s about to hurl himself off of it. She asks him to step away from the edge, and when he refuses, she’s like, “FINE. WELL, I GUESS I’LL COME TO YOU, THEN.” Michonne approaches Zeke, puts her hand in his, and, breathing shakily, he eventually turns and hugs her. But then, King Z hauls off and kisses Michonne, so that we can have that shot in the season preview and be all WHAAAAAA!!! but it doesn’t actually mean anything because after a moment, he pulls away and awkwardly apologizes.
He explains that he’s been having the sads, and Michonne goes on a long soliloquy about her own depression and how it was “like wearing a mask,” but how she could “only wear it for so long.”
AND THAT’S FINE AS LONG AS YOU WEAR IT INDOORS WHEN YOU’RE AROUND PEOPLE YOU DON’T LIVE WITH, MICHONNE, OTHERWISE YOU’RE GOING TO GET THANKSGIVING CANCELED.
Back at Hilltop, the walker situation is going downhill, and Yumiko orders her team to retreat behind the wall, pissing off her girlfriend Lady Gaga who believes they need to stay and fight. And things aren‘t great, but just in the nick of time, King Zeke, Michonne, and the team from Alexandria swoop in and take up the battle against the walkers. During the fight, Michonne notices that Judith knows her way around her katana and Michonne has another proud momma moment.
Later that night, Michonne takes a radio call from Daryl who informs her on what is happening in Alexandria — SPOILER ALERT: nothing good — and then receives a panicked call from Oceania.
The next morning, Michonne explains to the Hilltoppers that she’s going to Oceania: they reported to her some Whisperer activity and she wants to investigate. Uncle Marvin, who has a crush on some Oceanic resident, asks to go along with her and in response is teased by his friends. DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO IN THE APOCALYPSE, UNCLE MARVIN.
Dr. Mullet, still stinging with hurt and embarrassment over the whole Rosita mess he created for himself, announces he wants to stay in Hilltop to help them rebuild their wall. His only concern is that he won’t be able to take Judith back to Alexandria, but Michonne is like, “It’s fine, she’s coming with me.” Judith beams with pride.
Later, Yumiko and Lady Gaga have a lover’s spat over Yumiko constantly telling her what to do, and elsewhere, King Zeke seems to have gotten his groove back.
In Alexandria, Lydia is still trying to fit in; failing. During a training session, three assholes — two Highwaymen and one of the shitty teenagers who shunned her before — taunt Lydia and order her to leave, and Aaron, who is leading the training session, does nothing to stop it.
Later, Lydia approaches Negan while he’s doing some laundry and tells him what happened. He advises her to not let them see her become upset — it’s what they want. But their conversation is cut short when Daryl interrupts them and sends Lydia away. Negan is like, “come on, man, she’s just trying to fit in,” but Daryl is NOT INTERESTED. He chases after Lydia to admonish her to stay away from Negan, and that’s when they find their house has been tagged with some street art.
The next day at lunch, Lydia joins the cool kids at their table and plops down a squirrel that she proceeds to skin in front of them to their disgust. When they freak out, she puts a blood-stained finger to her lips and shushes them. This, understandably, only further upsets the bullies and they run from the table.
Later, Daryl tells her that she can’t pull stunts like that, but she’s unconvinced.
That night, Lydia is wandering around in the laundry — which, just on the face of it seems like a bad idea — when she is surrounded by the Three Assholes. She reminds them that she was with them when the whole heads-on-spikes incident happened, but they are unmoved and suggest that she just run back to Mommy already. She refuses, again pleading that they are her people, so they begin to kick the ever-living shit out of her. Suddenly, Negan appears, and flings Highwaylady off of Lydia, killing her somehow in the process.
As others arrive on the scene, one of the Three Assholes blames Negan for Highwaylady’s death, but Lydia protests that Negan was defending her. Daryl sends Negan back to his cell, and Lydia to the infirmary, where Not!Dr. Siddiq has another freakout.
After Lydia is bandaged up, Daryl apologizes that this happened to her and she has a sad about her dead father, before telling him again that Negan saved her.
Daryl then goes to Negan’s cell where he is awfully huffy with the man who just saved Lydia’s life. Negan insists that Highwaylady’s death was an accident, but also, too, fuck her for being an asshole to a kid. Daryl asks why Negan saved her …
… and Negan’s like, “I don’t know, man. Maybe y’all’s moral code started to rub off on me. BUT IT’S A PRETTY FUCKING HILARIOUS JOKE THAT WHEN I FINALLY DO THE RIGHT THING, Y’ALL WANT TO KILL ME FOR IT.”
After, Daryl runs into Carol who says she heard what happened. He agrees that it’s a mess, and she marvels that everyone is talking about Negan again. “It’s like time never moves.”
Daryl tells Carol that while he doesn’t give a shit about Negan, he does believe Lydia. Carol reminds him that the real enemy is outside of their walls before sighing that they should have run away to New Mexico.
Yeah, probably.
Daryl then radios Michonne in Hilltop to explain the whole meshugaas. She tells Daryl to protect Lydia at all costs: she’s pretty sure Alpha didn’t kill them at the border because she wants them to protect her daughter. But the moment Alpha begins to think they can’t protect Lydia, or if Lydia runs away, they are all fucked.
Daryl signs off to go join the council meeting to determine what to do with Negan, and Michonne is like, “Cool, be my proxy vote. You’ll do the right thing.”
At the meeting, Aaron argues that yes, Negan appears to be on a redemption arc, but that ultimately he thinks he’s irreparably broken inside. Daryl votes for himself and Michonne to spare Negan, thereby tying the vote, and making Father Gabriel’s uncast vote the tie-breaker. He opts to sleep on it, ending the meeting.
However, when Father Gabe goes to Negan’s cell in the morning, he finds it empty. Obviously.
Father G and Aaron discuss who might have helped Negan escape, when Lydia appears and is like, “Yo, you’re looking at her.”
Later, Daryl finds Lydia in Negan’s cell, and he confronts her about confessing: he kept watch over her the night before and she never left the house. But Lydia’s all, “WHAT DOES IT MATTER, THIS IS WHERE EVERYONE WANTS ME TO BE, ANYWAYS. AND MY MOM WAS RIGHT ABOUT ALL Y’ALL BEING FAKE AND TAKING AIM AT WHOEVER IS AN OUTSIDER LIKE ME AND NEGAN AND NOTHING REALLY MATTERS, AND I AM AN ANGSTY TEENAGER. ANGSTY!” Daryl encourages her to leave the cell, but she tells him she actually feels safer inside.
So Sad Daryl leaves to go wash the graffiti off of his door.
TL; DR: Bullies suck. Onto the next episode!
The Walking Dead airs on AMC.