The Walking Dead 9x06 Review

Six years have passed. The communities are thriving (most of them), and Rick still affects the group, even though he is presumed dead.

Rick's death especially affects Michonne, and she constantly mourns his death. She is uncertain of his fate because she never found a body.

Will we see Rick and Michonne reunite? Seeing as AMC told us Rick won't appear in the TV show again, chances are slim. 

However, since Andrew Lincoln will portray Rick Grimes in three big-budget movies, their reunion is still possible if it is in a movie rather than a TV episode. 

In this episode, we get to see a continuation of the scene we saw in last week’s episode. Judith Grimes, now ten years old, is helping a new group of survivors. These survivors include Magna, Luke, Yumiko, Connie, and Kelly.

It’s revealed that Connie is deaf and communicates with her group members via sign language – ASL (American Sign Language). I love seeing more deaf representation in the media, and it also makes me so much more invested in the character.

People with full hearing have a hard time surviving the apocalypse, so Connie and her group must have some serious skill if Connie has survived this long. 

I’m excited to see how they utilized her other senses to survive. 

As a fan of subtitles, there is one thing that bothered me throughout the episode. Whenever ASL is used, the normal captions are blocked out by the subtitles.

The result is that you can’t even see what is being said in ASL. This seems like an easy thing to fix and yet it happens in almost every show I watch!

Aaron, who is now a father, and other members of the group don’t think it’s a good idea to bring strangers into their home. Judith insists. She threatens not to come home unless the new group gets help. She definitely shows traits of her “deceased” father, Rick.

Back at the Kingdom, their buildings are starting to fall apart. Pipes are bursting and Prince Henry, son of King Ezekiel and Queen Carol, have been fixing them with duck tape. Henry has taken a role of Carl Grimes from Skybound’s comic series of the same name.

In the comics, Carl wants to live in the Kingdom and train to be a blacksmith, but Rick won’t let him.

In the show, Henry wants to go train and learn from Earl Sutton in Hilltop so that he can properly fix the Kingdom. Ezekiel thinks Hilltop is too far away and worries about Henry’s safety. He eventually allows Henry to go train.

On the way to the Hilltop, Carol and Henry are captured by old Saviors. The Sanctuary has fallen, and now they are scattered and violent. The group takes their supplies, but leaves them with their horse and carriage. Unfortunately, they get away with Carol’s wedding ring.

Carol comes back to the same group later that night and doses them and their camp in gasoline and lights the fuse.

This is a dark side of Carol that I thought she had eliminated from her past. It seemed very out of character for her and makes me wonder what she has gone through the past six years.

Much like other moral arcs in The Walking Dead universe, Carol’s doesn’t last very long and it feels like a lost of wasted time was spent on the character.

In Alexandria, the new group is introduced to the town. This gives us, the audience, a chance to see how much has changed in the past six years.

They have working solar panels, lots of plant life, houses, a windmill, town hall, fresh produce, shops, and much more. It's great to finally see a community thriving so well.

The town is very cautious of the new group and it’s obvious they haven’t come across new people in a long time. They decide to put their fate to a vote first thing in the morning.

In the morning, Alexandria questions the new group by asking who they were before the apocalypose, who they are now, and what they had to do to survive. Rick's old method of accepting new members is no longer used. In the past, new groups were asked the following questions:

1. How many walkers have you killed?

2. How many people have you killed?

3. Why?

Michonne is very hesitant of the new group and points out that one of the new members, Magna has a prison tattoo. It turns out the ex-prisoner has a stealthy knife hidden away in her belt.

This makes the community causious and it reminded me of a news story I recently saw. It was about a campgain called Ban the Box. The organization is working towards the removal of the question on a job applicartion that asks if they have ever been convicted of a crime. This will prevent a lot of discrimination, especially for people who were charged with a minor or non-violent offense.

It’s for a great cause and you should definitely check it out.

Much like real life, Michonne is against trusting Magna even though she doesn’t know her criminal background or what she was charged for.

The group’s fate is still undecided and Magna will do anything to stay inside the walls of the new community.

Magna’s attitude it toned down after her friends spend time convincing her. While Magma goes to give up one last hidden knife, it is revealed that Michonne and Rick has a child together!

Pretty exciting that Rick Grimes left another legacy child, RJ, behind. Although he doesn’t have a big role now, it will be interesting to see what is done in the future. 

This was never confirmed, but I'd be pretty surprised if that wasn't Rick's child we saw.

Judith has been talking to Negan from prison and they seem to have some sort of friendship that has formed. Luckily, Judith is too smart to fall for any of Negan’s tricks and smooth talks.

This was an interesting dynamic and I want to see more of these two together. Negan has a way with kids and it's always great to see him on screen.

Meanwhile, Gabriel has been working on a radio to contact any other survivors and it’s revealed that Gabriel is dating Rosita. It’s a weird relationship and will take some getting used to.

Rosita and Eugene decide to head out to try and boost the radio signal, but they are stranded when an incoming herd startles their horses and Eugene hurts his knee.

Realizing that they can’t outrun the herd, Rosita and Eugene cover themselves in mud and wait for the walkers to pass. In their horror, the walkers begin talking to each other, plotting their attack on the two.

For those who don't read the comics, this is the introduction of a famous group that is a major threat to the community's way of life. 

This group called the Whisperers, skin zombies and wear those skins to blend in with herds. 

As a result, they can move and be undetectable, therefore, eliminating the danger of walkers. 

The acting was pretty good in the episode. It was very dramatic and over-the-top, but that is just The Walking Dead’s style.

The special effects were as you would expect from the show at this point. One scene that did stand out was when we saw a zombie grown into the side of a tree. We've seen this before in season 4, but this time it was standing and moving around while the bird was interacting with it. The bird wasn't afraid because it obviously wasn’t a threat. 

This continues the growing and changing the theme of season nine in an interesting way.

The Walking Dead threw us a huge curve ball. This six year time jump brings forth a lot of change, but the writing and pacing issues remain the same. 

This is disappointing because the time jump had the potential to change that all, but now it is a missed opportunity. Maybe future episodes will prove me wrong, but I am not holding out hope anymore. 

4/10