My lord, what a breath of fresh air The Walking Dead is this season. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t quite returned to its former status as appointment television (you’d have to go back to season five to find the last time this show was truly “great”) but the show had found itself in a serious rut, and needed to be shaken up. The time jump achieves this, moving the status quo, but more than that, the noticeable uptick in quality could be thanks to new showrunner, TWD vet Angela Kang. Scott Gimple had overstayed his welcome, and Kang’s voice and approach is appreciated. (I’ve said it before: The Walking Dead should change showrunners every three seasons, if not more frequently.) For the first time in quite a while, it seems like TWD has something on its mind.
This is a strange comparison to make, and not one I thought I’d ever find myself drawn to, but The Walking Dead is really channeling its inner Deadwood. David Milch’s Shakespearean Western drama is the best show ever made about the difficult, bloody birth of civilization, and TWD seems to be aiming for the same effect here. (Lest I be misquoted, I’m not saying the two are equally good.) Whenever Rick’s group found another settlement, it was exactly that: a settlement, already established, with its own customs and morals. We never saw the birth of Alexandria, the Hilltop, the Sanctuary, Terminus, or even the prison. Maybe that’s what is finally making this show compelling again: we’re watching these characters find new difficulties and challenges nine seasons in (if this were a constant theme with this show, it would be one of the all-time greats).
Reintegrating the Saviors is, unsurprisingly, not going well. The distrust between the disparate groups is palpable, and makes for some nice tension. Early on, Maggie is accosted by a group of Saviors, demanding to know where Justin went. (This is the unintentionally hilarious scene wherein a Savior, Jed, does the tough-guy apple-eating bit, but with a tomato.) Jed looks at Maggie and says, “You’re the Widow.” The war, for them, has never ended. Some Saviors act like they’re POWs, while others, namely Alden, are trying to adjust to the new way of living. When Justin’s body turns up, things turn south, everyone convinced they know who’s responsible (namely Daryl or Anne, formerly Jadis). The reason this works is because, during this scene, we don’t know who’s responsible either. We know Daryl isn’t the type to kill someone in ambush, but Anne is a bit more of a wild card.
Where “Warning Signs” succeeds the most is in its frank discussion of forgiveness and vengeance (more shades of Deadwood). Rick doesn’t believe that Daryl killed Justin, but Daryl does resent the Saviors’ presence, and makes a good point when he asks, “Why do they get this future but Glenn don’t? Or Abraham? Or Sasha?” It’s a human moment – and one of surprisingly good acting, considering how checked out of this role Norman Reedus is – and Rick doesn’t undercut it. But he does nicely complicate it, when he points out that the last time Daryl showed mercy, it was to Rick, who had left Merle Dixon handcuffed to a rooftop. Mercy has its place in this world – but how far does that go? Rick admits that he struggles every day with the idea of killing Negan; indeed, he might be making things harder on himself, because Negan still being alive is not a secret, and some Saviors seem to think that his imprisonment is impermanent. Keep in mind, in “A New Beginning” we saw graffiti reading We Are Still Negan.
But if Rick gives in to his baser urges, what does that mean for the new world he’s trying to build? “Warning Signs” examines that too. When a Savior named Arat goes missing, Daryl quickly deduces that she was taken by some refugees from Oceanside, namely Cyndie. They reason that Maggie’s execution of Gregory showed them that “Rick’s rules aren’t the only rules.” This nicely lays the groundwork for the Rick-Maggie conflict the show has been teasing ever since Maggie assumed nominal control of the Hilltop. Her style of leading can’t coexist with Rick’s, and the show underscores this by having her and Daryl turn back to camp, leaving Cyndie to kill Arat.
Beyond all that, “Warning Signs” is successful from an aesthetic point of view, too. (Since this is my first review of season 9, let me take this moment to say that the new opening credits are insanely good.) The camp is lovingly designed, and looks lived-in and real. I found myself impressed at the little touches, such as hand-carved “clean” and “dirty” signs for the dishes. There are some nice set pieces here, too, such as the sight of walkers pouring out of a cabin. It’s the kind of old-school, visceral horror the show seemed to have left by the wayside.
The only real stumbling block of “Warning Signs” is Anne. Even as Jadis, the show never truly knew what to do with this character, which is a shame, because Pollyanna McIntosh has quite a screen presence (although the fact that she goes by Anne and not Jadis, and is speaking normally now, makes one wonder why the hell she did all that in the first place). It’s good that the helicopter is finally being addressed, but her cold-cocking Gabriel is more eyeroll-inducing than anything. I think all viewers are tired of her constant double crosses. But you know what? For the first time in a long time, I am willing to give The Walking Dead the benefit of the doubt.
4/5
A Few Thoughts
- I’ve never seen a show care less about a pregnancy than this one did about Maggie’s. It’s also hilarious that her hair is long again, which really confirms the fact that TWD only had Lauren Cohan cut her hair short to mess with viewers.
- Lauren Cohan is bringing it this season. She knows that once Andrew Lincoln makes his departure, she’s the co-lead of the show, and she’s making a compelling argument for the wisdom of that decision.
- “Cyndie said I showed her the way. She did the same for me.”
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