Luke and Alden are almost cavalier about the zombies. That’s reinforced in Corey Reed’s script. The other characters in these situations don’t have that advantage, so when Luke and Alden see zombies behaving strangely, they don’t see a threat so much as an opportunity to study their rotting enemy, and that lures them into trouble. Knowing the threat firsthand, the fleeing Daryl cleverly figures out a way to determine zombie from human via arrow to the knee. It’ll either be people or zombies, both of which have established patterns of attack. Negan, Luke, Alden and the like are going out thinking it’s a normal search and rescue mission, with normal enemies. We know that not all these walkers are real zombies, but the characters (aside from those fleeing the Whisperers) don’t know that. Part of the situation’s stress comes from dramatic irony. At several points, they’re just background movement, until it’s too late and characters are surrounded or forced to confront an attack from thinking, logical opponents.įurther Reading: The Walking Dead Season 9 – Who Lives and Who Dies Nicotero plays up the weirdness of zombie movements, the way they hide in plain sight by becoming part of the background-a shambling distant presence-and the Whisperers pantomime zombie walking so perfectly as to be indistinguishable from the real thing until there’s no time to react to them. It’s difficult to distinguish between a regular walker and a person hiding behind the mask of one, and that’s deliberately muddled by the actors. Wisely, Greg Nicotero plays this up at every possible moment. Whether it’s connected to the Whisperer attack or not, every time a rotting ghoul appears on screen, there’s an expectation that they’re going to turn out to be a secret human, capable of fighting back against an opponent who is taking them less than seriously. From the first moment a zombie pulled out a blade and attacked Jesus, zombies are dangerous again, and throughout “Adaptation,” that secondary threat looms large in every scene involving a walker. Various attempts have been made to make the zombies more of a menace, from the massive well zombie in season 2 to the zombie torso attached to another zombie seen in this episode, but they usually don’t work as a real threat. Anything smaller than a herd tends to be easy pickings, more or less, if one of the main characters isn’t alone or caught unaware due to shooting-related hearing loss. Zombies on The Walking Dead are only a threat to our survivors when they’re in large groups. Let’s dive right into the deaths which happened in the ninth season of The Walking Dead kicking things off with a young man attempting to be heroic when some horses were faced with a group of walkers.This The Walking Dead review contains spoilers. There are a LOT of spoilers in the deaths that follow in this article, so it is highly advised that you be caught up on the show as well as be ready to re-live some of the painful losses that happened during season 9.
Yes, Rick Grimes and Anne (Jadis) have left the show and now Michonne seems to be doing her best to move on, but the real focus of this half of the season was watching the settlements attempt to come together and learn of the threat of the Whisperers. Everything was changing all over the world, including the communities, leaders, characters, dynamics, and just about anything viewers could think of. Season 9 of The Walking Dead was a bad time for survivors. Here are the named character losses from the powerful 16 episodes. Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Avi Nash as Siddiq, Danai Gurira as Michonne, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Eleanor Matsuura as Yumiko – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC The Walking Dead lost some great characters in season 9 and the body count was high.