What The Walking Dead gained and lost in season 9A

The Walking Dead’s huge changes in season 9 threw fans into an unfamiliar world just like the first season did many seasons ago.

Like many of TWD family I am terrified and excited by the upcoming season 9B. I want to see Alpha in all her grotesque glory and I want to find out what happened that caused such distrust among the communities. However, this hiatus time is also a good time to look back at what the show lost, and what it gained, in this game-changing season.

Obviously the biggest loss is the end of the original Grimes Family storyline with the disappearance of Rick. Michonne, Judith, and RJ will carry Rick and Carl’s legacy forward in a spectacular fashion. But up until this point The Walking Dead has always been very much Rick’s story. We were plunged into the apocalypse world with him when he woke up from the hospital. We learned as he learned about walkers and what happened to the familiar world. Rick was always our center point of familiarity for the eerie world that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

Losing Rick has changed the narrative of The Walking Dead irrevocably. But now fans are once again plunged into an unfamiliar and uncertain world. The narrative, much like the world that the narrative is occurs in, is resetting itself. And that’s exhilarating and terrifying, just like the first time we experienced it back in season 1.

The arrival of The Whisperers represents the evolution of the show as much as the evolution of the post-apocalypse world. Cultures seem to undergo a major shift every decade or so, and the post-apocalypse culture that has grown over the past ten years was due for a major shift. Season 9 is reframing the narrative in a natural and evolutionary way that has jolted fans out of their comfort zone once again. That wouldn’t have been possible without the loss of Rick Grimes.

What The Walking Dead Gained

While losing Rick was jarring it has opened up the world of The Walking Dead in very exciting ways. It’s groundbreaking in genre TV to see so many major roles for women that feature complex character development and relationships.

Michonne may technically be the head of security in Alexandria but it’s pretty clear that she’s calling the shots in that community no matter what the council says. Tara will be taking on a major leadership role at The Hilltop now that Jesus is gone. Enid is also an important figure at The Hilltop as their doctor. And of course Carol  has always been a queen but now she’s an official Queen and is a co-leader at The Kingdom. With the arrival of Magna, Yumiko, Kelly, Connie, Lydia, Alpha, and the aged up Judith Grimes the women of The Walking Dead are going to be major players in the story moving forward.

And the multi-layered story of what happened during the six year time jump is something that the women of the show will get to bring to life in exciting ways with each actress bringing her unique talent and perspective to the story. That time jump story is primarily the story of how the women of the various communities rebuilt their world, and it’s pretty rare to find that in genre TV.

New Characters

Magna’s group has interjected some much needed new blood into the community dynamic. Although it seems like there is a story behind why Alexandria refuses to take in new people that has yet to be revealed the arrival of Magna and the others gives us a new perspective on the communities because just like we saw the apocalypse originally through Rick’s eyes now we can see the communities through the eyes of people who don’t know the history of these communities and have never known the characters that have been lost. They are going to give fans a new perspective on the characters and communities that they think they know so well.

The Whisperers

The Whisperers will be the first villains that deviate from the “Rick against Big Bad” formula that has played out since Rick first crossed paths with The Governor. And The Whisperers will force the survivors to adapt their fighting styles and their strategic thinking in order to have a chance of surviving against them. While Negan was intimidating and The Saviors were deadly they were not dangerous in the ways that The Whisperers are dangerous and it’s exciting to see a new threat emerge that no one will really know how to beat.

9B And The Future Of The Walking Dead

In order for a show to lose a central character like Rick Grimes and not implode that departure has to be handled perfectly and The Walking Dead’s new showrunner Angela Kang perfectly managed to wrap up the first era of The Walking Dead without making Rick’s goodbye too saccharine or cloying. It gave fans the callbacks and the emotional moments that they wanted without crossing over into a maudlin goodbye. And the exit of Rick Grimes provided hope that someday he will see Michonne and Judith again and get to meet his son RJ through the films that are on the horizon.

9A was the perfect ending to the apocalypse story that has became so familiar and 9B is going to bring fans into a whole new apocalypse world once again where there are new stories, new threats, and new relationships between beloved characters.

The Walking Dead returns February 10th.