The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 3 Review

The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 3

In my last two reviews I have clearly stated that if The Walking Dead wants to survive, they will need to drastically change the structure of the show. I'm disappointed to say that it looks as if that change will not be coming this season.

Thirteen minutes into the episode and we haven't gotten a single piece of new information. It feels like a long recap of the previous episodes. 

We already know someone killed a Savior. We already know that tensions are rising between Saviors and the rest of the communities and we already know that Michonne is working on a charter. I could have skipped the first thirteen minutes of this episode, and it wouldn’t have mattered.

Around the fifteen-minute mark, we FINALLY get something even remotely interesting. The Saviors all have different theories on who killed one of their own, and they all involve revenge theories from the recent war.

It’s evident that the events of the past two seasons are still fresh in everyone’s mind and there are people from both communities trying to move past it while others are stuck in the past.

A group of Saviors start to pick up weapons and prepare to attack the other communities, and leaders like Anne and Daryl take out their weapons to do the same. 

During the conflict, Anne is accused of murdering the missing Saviors.  Just as a new war is about to start, Rick comes riding in on a horse and breaks up the fight.

Anne seems pretty torn up that she was blamed for a Savior’s death. It doesn’t help that she knew Rick and Gabriel were curious about her whereabouts. 

I like this new relationship and different levels of trust between Gabriel and Anne.  Hopefully, their relationship is explored more and comes into play further down the line this season.

 

Later on, we get yet another scene between Daryl and Rick about how Daryl doesn’t believe in the new direction these communities are heading in. We got a lot of the same dialogue as past episodes, but Rick ended the conversation with an interesting thought.

“Maybe it’d be one of the best decisions you ever made. Like not killing a guy who left your brother on a rooftop to die.”

I always love throwbacks to past (and better) seasons, but this one stood out. It shows that everyone can have a shot at redemption for their past actions. Hopefully, that was the push Daryl needed to end his nonsense and recent anger issues. However, after looking at his actions after finishing the episode, it doesn't look like that will happen.

While re-directing a massive herd, Maggie and Cyndie come across a decent sized group of walkers surrounding an abandoned house. Instead of waiting for backup that they know is coming, the two decide to take on the group of walkers.

Since it’s not an episode of The Walking Dead without something going wrong while killing zombies, Cyndie falls through the porch and a group of walkers miraculously gain the strength to take out a barricaded door instantly.

Maggie and Cyndie fight for their lives while backup shows up in the nick of time. This was a pretty pointless scene, and it was apparent that it needed to be thrown into the episode so that viewers don’t complain about not seeing any zombie action.

After the action, Rick notices that not all of the backup has arrived and a group is missing. They soon find that the same mysterious force that has been causing them so much trouble recently has taken Arat.

Meanwhile, Anne heads back to her old camp and Gabriel follows her. She takes out a hidden radio she talks to a man on the radio.

Gabriel catches her and Anne explains she used to trade people for supplies. Anne then tries to convince Gabriel to run away with her, but Gabriel decides to stay and tell Rick.

Anne then hits Gabriel over the head, and it’s obvious she has plans to trade him for her benefit. This seems like a major change in character for the Anne that we have seen this season but looks like she is back to her old ways.

At the end of the episode, Maggie and Daryl find out who has been taking and killing the Saviors. It was a group from Oceanside who were murdering Saviors because of past horrors the Saviors have committed. During a villainous monologue from one of the Oceansiders, Maggie discovers that the murders started to take place once Gregory was hung. It was a pretty dumb motivator on their behalf, but at this point, I’m all for whatever moves the show along.

Maggie and Daryl then turn their back as Arat is murdered while she begs for forgiveness. This was a dark turn for these two characters and I hope to see more of this. Drastically changed characters are something we need if this show is going to survive.

Overall, I wasn’t impressed with the episode. It felt like a filler episode and I don’t want to continue watching the same show with the same conflicts week after week. This season started off strong and now I am beginning to lose interest. 

3/10


What did you think of this episode? Let me know below!