Episode Recap by Josh B. Taylor
It’s a year and a half after the war between Rick and Negan. The season nine premiere begins with highlights of the communities as they are after the war.
Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonnne (Danai Gurrira), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), King Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Jadis/Anne (Pollyana McIntosh), Siddiq (Avi Nash), Enid (Katelyn Nacon), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Cyndie (Sydney Park), and others make a run to Washington D.C. They go to find artifacts they’ll need to help build their communities –in accordance to what Rick envisioned it could be.
There’s a lot of neat shots and mini-scenes, but honestly the first half of this premiere felt like a challenge to get through. There was a kind of decent, intense moment with the group trying to bring down some of the artifacts from a museum, from the top floor to the bottom floor. Oh, and the bottom floor was a glass floor, and it’s cracking due to the damage from fallen debris. To top it all off, below that floor is a room full of walkers.
As they get the last of the artifacts down, the glass floor does break, and Ezekiel falls through, but was saved from the group with no bites. Now heading back with the artifacts, Ezekiel proposed to Carol, but she was quick to change the subject to something else. The group see that a bridge has been destroyed, so they need to take another route back home.
As they’re on that new route a mini walker horde emerge from the woods and the group try to handle the situation. A random character (Ken, played by AJ Achinger) gets bit and dies from the wound. Ken was a member of the hilltop, and when Maggie arrives back to the hilltop with Kens body, his parents (Brett Butler, and John Finn) are not happy with Maggie. At the Hilltop, the citizens voted for who should lead them — Maggie or Gregory (Xander Berkeley) — and they voted for Maggie. Now Ken’s parents are wondering if they voted for the right leader.
At the Sanctuary, Darryl tells Rick that he doesn’t want to lead this group; instead he wants to head back to Hilltop with Maggie. Carol offers to lead them for a couple days, but that community isn’t having the best of luck with growing crops, or gathering supplies. It’s pretty tense in there, and some people are hoping for the Saviors to be saved from Rick. Rick asked Maggie to visit Alexandria sometime soon, but she refused to visit, knowing that Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is still alive.
The final moments of the episode were the best moments, when Gregory was filling Ken’s parents head with the thoughts of Maggie not being the leader the Hilltop needs. So he talks Ken’s dad into trying to murder Maggie, and when that doesn’t work out, Maggie has Gregory executed for his masterminding the plot.
Overall, I thought the episode was directed very well, and the acting was great. However, it felt like a chore to get to the last 10-15 minutes. Hopefully the season picks up (with the Whisperers around the corner, I’m sure this season will pick up soon) before more people tune out like they did last season.
Episode Analysis by Bill Bodkin
The Walking Dead finally did something out of the ordinary — it broke its endless cycle.
What endless cycle is that you may wonder?
It’s the cycle of starting off a season red hot. For the past few years, we’ve seen the series end a season with a cliffhanger, which is usually resolved in either the mid-season premiere, or the next’s season premiere. And the formula was effective — you were sucked in every single time. You had to know what happened. Of course the show would then devolve into a boring slog of a show, but at least it was book ended by something fun.
‘New Beginning’ broke that cycle. And instead of a high octane, high stakes premiere we were thrust right back in the agonzingly slow, melodramatic, mess of an episode we’re used to seeing midway through a season.
We had your boring personal dramas, the moody stares, the illogical plotlines, and the requisite “herd slaughter.” The aftermath of this requisite slaughter led to the series’ most annoying cliche — the random character we have no investment who, thanks to their own stupidity, gets killed, and somehow that throws everyone in the series off the deep end, and even more stupid stuff happens.
Here it’s Ken, who saved a horse from maybe being eaten by a walker. Ken has no introduction. He has no backstory. He’s some random guy who acts a fool and gets done in. This somehow leads to an entire plot involving Gregory trying to overthrow Maggie’s power, and former Grace Under Fire star Brett Butler showing up as Ken’s mom.
Also, let’s talk about the stupidity of this premiere. I fully understand and appreciate the gng going to D.C. in order to steel seeds. That makes perfect sense. But a covered wagon? A canoe? Seriously? These people can make bullets, create ethanol gas, and rebuild cities…but they can’t build a covered wagon, or hollow out a canoe? The wagon was literally there just to slow them down, and it was painfully obvious it was there for that.
Let’s also talk about the heavy handedness of the “tension” between Rick and Daryl, and Rick and Maggie. Maggie and Daryl employ the ridiculous “I’m going to talk obtusely how I feel about you, so everything I say is cryptic and is up for interpretation.” Just say what you feel guys. Or just kill Rick at this point.
The Walking Dead did not return to “its glory” in this premiere, it returned to the boring status quo. We’re in for another long, boring season.
Comments are closed.