The second half of The Walking Dead's ninth season will begin airing on AMC in just over two weeks, and while I've had some serious issues with the show (and its companion series Fear the Walking Dead) recently, I am excited to see it return. I loved the ending of the midseason finale, and can't wait to learn more about the new villains. They're a group called "The Whisperers", and they move among the dead wearing masks made of zombie flesh.
A new teaser for the second half of the season has been released online, and it gives some glimpses of Whisperers in action while warning that Alpha, the leader of the Whisperers and a character we haven't been introduced to yet, is not someone to mess with.
The Walking Dead "Season 9B" has the following synopsis:
The second half of The Walking Dead: Season 9 finds our groups of survivors, both old and new, continuing to deal with the impact of events that took place during the six years that have passed. Since the disappearance of Rick, many of these characters have become strangers to each other, and in some ways, strangers to themselves. What they do know is that they are in undeniable danger. They will soon realize the world just beyond does not operate as they thought. The group’s rules and ways of survival no longer guarantee their safety. A whole new threat has crossed their paths, and they soon discover it’s unlike any threat they have encountered or endured before. The group will start to question what they think they see. What may appear to be normal in this post-apocalyptic world could actually be more disturbing and terrifying than when the apocalypse first broke out. All that is certain is the stakes are high and numerous.
The midseason premiere is scheduled to air on AMC on Sunday, February 10th. Titled Adaptation and directed by Greg Nicotero, the episode has this description:
The recent loss of their own drives the communities to band together. New leaders rise when a disturbing and dangerous threat is unmasked. An escaped captive revisits his past.
Here's hoping the story of The Whisperers plays out better than the story of The Saviors did.