The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 8: Evolution Review

If you would like to read our review of last episode of The Walking Dead, click here.

Synopsis: A small rescue mission braves a dangerous herd in their hunt for a missing comrade, only to discover a surprising threat that could doom them all. (IMDB)

Writer: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick

Director: Michael E. Satrazemis

Rating: TV-MA

Running Time: 44mins

Airs: Sundays at 9pm on AMC (Canada/United States)

whispers This midseason finale was actually kind of good and a major character died. whispers

This episode started with the Eugene search party gazing upon a large amount of Walkers in a field seemingly responding to whispers. Meanwhile back in Alexandria, Gabriel was having another session with Negan whose comes to terms with his arrangement. He particularly enjoyed eavesdropping on everyone through his window, using it to try and rattle Gabriel. Michonne and the gang arrived at the Hilltop and things got awkward. Everyone would have to wait until the search party got back before anything was going to happen. Michonne was still uneasy and hearing about what was going on behind her back only seemed to make things worse.

Michonne and Carol caught up and tried to mend the differences between Alexandria and the Kingdom but Michonne wouldn’t budge. It’s every community for themselves. The Walkers were staying away from the search party for now. Now alone at the Hilltop, Henry showed promise as a blacksmith, however, he also had his eye on Enid who appeared to have her eye on Alden. He also befriended a group of insufferable teens. Though Michonne was seeing the outcome of the choices she made, she was still unwilling to budge. Meanwhile, Gabriel visibly had enough with Negan who was actually remorseful.

Rosita woke up, immediately worried about Eugene and the search party as they had no idea what they were dealing with. The search party came across a barn where they found Eugene stashed away. He warned them about the whispering Walkers who seemed to be looking for him and of course they did. Meanwhile, the insufferable Hilltop teens were being insufferable and peer-pressuring Henry to join them in their escapades. Henry was the bigger person but he was the only one who got in trouble though wasn’t willing to rat on his insufferable friends. Fortunately, he talked himself out of being sent back to the Kingdom. Also, someone left Negan’s cage unlocked so he got his lost ball.

The search party split up in order to get to their horses. Daryl stayed behind to try and lure the Walkers away but it didn’t work. The whispering Walkers were tough so there was no running from them and Jesus and Aaron had to take them on in a foggy cemetery. As the whispers grew stronger, Michonne, Magna, and Yumiko found them and helped them get through an old gate while Jesus held off the Walkers. He did so until one of them ran their sword through him. The others went back in to take on these Walkers who were really people wearing Walker faces.

As they all came together, the whispers grew and they were surrounded by what appeared to be Walker people.

Overall, this was actually a good midseason finale. The search party scenes and the whispers were actually some of the best scenes in recent memory so an episode devoted to those alone would have been much better. The cemetery sequence was actually awesome which was a nice surprise. The trek to the Hilltop was far too long and there is still so much that hasn’t been addressed since the time jump which would have made the other things that happened here much more impactful and were mostly a side note amongst everything else. The Henry scenes and his insufferable friends were meh. Negan’s out but will this gentler version still exist outside the cage. The new enemies were actually kind of cool so hopefully the series doesn’t ruin them. Will the new people prove themselves? I’m not overly hopeful about anything when it comes to this series. Until February my friends.

Score: 7.5/10

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