The penultimate episode of The Walking Dead season 9 ended on a whopper of a cliffhanger. After Alpha had kidnapped them, Daryl, Michonne, Carol and Yumiko discovered that 10 of their own had been brutally killed by the Whisperers, with their heads put on pikes as a warning. It was a game-changing scene, but apparently the end sequence of this week’s season finale will be even more transformative for the series.
First of all, showrunner Angela Kang explained to Deadline that she wished to explore more of a “survival of the fittest” theme this season on the show, which led to the finale, aptly titled “The Storm,” being based around a ferocious blizzard blighting the land.
“Since this was the year we’d meet the Whisperers — who have adopted an animalistic, anti-civilization, ‘survival of the fittest’ philosophy — we paired that with seeing more stories about how environmental obstacles and the breakdown of man-made infrastructure have affected our characters. Then I wanted to push that past the limits of what we’ve done on the show before, so in the finale: winter is coming.”
Kang then went on to tease that season 10 will kick the Whisperer war up a notch in ways that will surprise audiences. And this will be all start with the final scene of the finale which will, and I quote, “change everything” for the survivors.
“And then in Season 10, the conflict with the Whisperers will amp up in terrifying and hopefully surprising ways, and we’ll also discover something related to the last scene of this season, which I won’t spoil, that will once again change everything for our heroes!”
Honestly, season 9 has seen everything change for our heroes a number of times already. First, we had a time jump. Then Rick left. Then we had another time jump. Then the Whisperers arrived, wiping out Jesus, Tara, Enid and Henry in the process. We’ve no idea where things go from here and what this major twist is that Kang is promising – something she’d previously described as a “left turn” for the narrative – but we’re certainly excited to find out.
This current run has arguably been a big step up from a couple of mixed seasons so whatever happens, hopefully season 10 will only improve things. First, though, The Walking Dead season 9 concludes on AMC this Sunday, March 31st.