The Walking Dead: Season 9: Mid Season Finale: Ending Explained

The Walking Dead, Season 9 has thrown some pretty big moments at audiences. There’s been a six year time jump, the departure of a major character and the introduction of a new set of villains.

The season has just dropped it’s midseason finale and throughout this article I will be breaking down everything you need to know from Episode 8: Evolution.

There will of course be heavy spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode yet then I highly suggest that you turn off now.

For everyone else, I’m Deffinition and welcome to the channel where I ruin it so you don’t have to.

Episode 7 Recap

Last week we saw Daryl decide to return to what’s left of civilisation and agree to look after Carol’s son, Henry. At the end of the episode, Daryl was asked to help look for Eugene who had been separated from Rosita after they were set on by a herd of Walkers that exhibited unusual behaviour.

This new chatty bunch of Walkers becomes the main focus of this week’s episode and we learn a lot more about how they are able to communicate and what is actually going on with their Gollum impression.

First Carol and Daryl become Legolas and Aaragorn and now the walkers are Tolkein (talking)….like JRR Tolkein. Works better when I don’t have to explain it.

Episode 8 Break Down

Anyway, Daryl and Co eventually find Eugene who seems hysterical and paranoid that The Walkers are after him specifically. This story is corroborated by Rosita who wakes up alive and well after being treated by the survivors and this episode finally confirms that we are indeed dealing with the Whisperers once and for all.

For those who don’t know, The Whisperers are your worst nightmare and make Negan look like Gabrielle. They are a culmination of the Scavengers and the Wolves and wear the dead’s faces over their own in order to camouflage amongst them perfectly. Eagle-Eyed viewers will remember Morgan mentioning in Season 3, that he saw “People Wearing The Dead’s Faces” and this was the first tease of them that has finally come to fruition in this episode.

The Whisperers communicate by whispering to one another and this avoids the dead that surround them from noticing their presence. It’s the perfect disguise that allows them to hide in plain sight and travel the land with a caravan of the undead behind them.

Basically, they’re complete psychopaths, difficult to reason with and they also stink, probably, I’d imagine wearing your aunty Sandra’s face on your head all day is gonna make you smell like urine and Werther’s Originals and hey that’s enough to make anyone grumpy.

The Major Character Death

In the Mid Season Finale, Aaron, Jesus, and Eugene fittingly become trapped in a cemetery and have to battle their way out. The majority of the group make it except for Jesus who stays behind to fend the Walkers off. When one dodges a strike and stabs him back, uttering the words ‘You are where you do not belong,’ we know that the Whisperers are here in full force.

This is taken from The Walking Dead issue #134, when Jesus hears one of the Whisperers speak and then questions what they are. That’s when one of the Whisperers says, “We are Whisperers… and you are where you do not belong.” Which is a nice little callback, however, in the book Jesus manages to kill them whereas the television counterpart isn’t so lucky.

It’s safe to say Jesus, like his name will rise again but this time he’ll probably be out for blood and we leave our group surrounded by the herd with very little hope of getting out. Hopefully, the character’s death will lead to Maggie returning to lead Hilltop once more but we will just have to see.

Looking at trailers for next season, it appears that the group escape the cemetary and with a prisoner.

Negan Escapes

Elsewhere, Negan forgets to logo Negan’s cell and the character escapes. This entire event is kinda overshadowed by the sheer zombie horror on screen though and I’d imagine that the villain quickly returns when he sees the new threat that has emereged.

Your Thoughts

So, what are your thoughts on the mid season finale of Season 9? Are you enjoying the new features of the season and what do you hope to see when the show returns?

Comment below and let me know!