'The Walking Dead' Season 10 Episode 12 Review: 'Walk With Us' brings the Whisperer saga to an abrupt end
Spoilers for 'The Walking Dead' Season 10 Episode 12 'Walk With Us'
It's not the end of the season. Not just yet. But 'The Walking Dead' seems to have a greater twist in mind as it delivers shocker after shocker in 'Walk With Us'. These radical changes might just also set the tone and the storyline for Season 11, the pre-production of which has currently hit the pause button over coronavirus concerns. For 'The Walking Dead' fans, this episode can be a highly debatable one as it brings the storylines of certain key characters to a grim end.
Season 10 was heavily borrowed from issue #145 of the comics with the plot revolving around the survivors and their elaborate plans of unifying to take on Alpha (Samantha Morton) and her Whisperers, whilst combating the zombies. 'Walk With Us' seemingly ends this threat by eliminating Alpha. As jaw-dropping as it seems, the post-apocalyptic horror series delivers a stunning blow by revealing Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as the Savior (all puns intended) as he slits her throat and beheads her.
The episode picks up with the decisive battle of Hilltop, where the survivors, after their spirited initial fight, were overwhelmed by the horde and the Whisperers. They beat a hasty retreat with the main characters splitting into groups. As for the answer to who won, it's nobody as almost every character, including Alpha, has lost.
A critically injured Luke and Aaron scramble into the woods, while Daryl, Rosita, Jerry and Nabila take a different route. Alden, Kelly, Gamma and the baby manage to escape and so do Eugene, Carol and Yumiko. Earl, Ezekiel, and the children slip away to safety. However, Ezekiel, in all melee, gets disoriented and left behind. Magna's return from the dead is the next big spoiler. She somehow survives the horde after being trapped in the cave and manages to reunite with Yumiko and Co.
Breaking down the storylines of each group, Kelly, Alden and Gamma, after fleeing the battle scene, have a bit of bonding, but get stuck with a horde. With the odds against them, Gamma takes on the horde and just when she's done killing them, gets stabbed brutally by Beta who's been following the trio. There's a twinge of sadness there, but in 'Walk With Us', it's just the start of the many deaths.
Judith and the other kids are led to the rendezvous point by Earl, who himself is on the brink of death after being bitten by a walker during the battle. He attempts to kill himself, but Judith offers to stay with him. Earl eventually kills himself, but in what may make this episode controversial, it sees a young kid kill the zombie. It's a lot of violence to take, but that is a debate for another time. The group is eventually found by Daryl's group.
While the Yumiko, Magna and Eugene storylines serve in as fillers, the upcoming episode has a lot of explaining to do with Negan and Carol's secret plan. It does seem like Negan pulled off a double agent and Carol was the only one who knew of his plan. That he killed Alpha may just pose more questions than answers.
Trickery was the route to take as Negan lures Alpha by saying he's found Lydia. The death is personal as he narrates the story of his wife succumbing to pancreatic cancer, and how he distanced himself from emotions. He also calls Alpha's ideology a facade and hopes to talk her out of it. Alpha still persists and that's when the Eli Jorné & Nicole Mirante-Matthews-directed episode throws in a suspense. Lydia was captured but was kept in a different location while Negan sets the trap to bring Alpha's reign of terror to an end.
Final verdict
What now? At this stage, a major storyline comes to a staggering end. 'Walk With Us' is definitely a conclusion for Alpha, but it does leave the remainder of the season to answer plaguing questions that have been there since the start of the season.