The Whisperers finally made themselves knows on The Walking Dead. In “Bounty,” we find out more about who they are and what they want. Are the Whisperers bad? Or are they just surviving?
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Sometime within the Six-Year Time Jump…
Our friend Jerry (Cooper Andrews) announces to Ezekiel (Khary Peyton) and Carol (Melissa McBride) that he and Nabila (Nadine Marissa) are having a baby. How exciting!! Jerry is a daddy! The trio is on the road to meet Jesus (Tom Payne) and Tara (Alanna Masterson). How good it is to see Jesus alive again?
There is a sickness going around the Hilltop and the Kingdom is giving them medicine. Tara also brought supplies from Alexandria, more than Michonne (Danai Gurira) wanted to send. She also mentions that she has no intention of returning to Alexandria. Michonne and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) aren’t talking and Tara doesn’t agree with how Michonne won’t help Hilltop. They are family after all.
Tara gives Ezekiel the charter between the communities. She says Michonne was letting it collect dust. Ezekiel is hopeful that the communities will come together and sign the charter. He says they are family and have to work together to build a better future. He, Carol and Jerry look at it and no one has signed the document.
Skip the Present
Alexandria, Hilltop, Kingdom, Oceanside, and the Sanctuary all have a signature line. Ezekiel is looking at the charter again when Diane (Kerry Cahill) tells him it’s time to go. The Kingdom crew are going hunting. Diane has been scouting a herd of elk. Ezekiel says they should get enough food to share with Hilltop, Oceanside, and Alexandria at the fair.
After the hunt, the crew ties up the elk to the wagons. Ezekiel tries to tell Carol to head home with their bounty, but she knows he’s up to something. And Jerry is in on it. They are on a secret mission to procure a light bulb for their movie projector. Jerry’s kids have never seen a movie. Blows your mind doesn’t it?
Carol is on board but is seriously shaking her head because there are a lot of walkers in the movie theater. And Jerry has made a mission mixed tape with a pretty funky song to get you in the mood to fight. The group fights off a small group of walkers while Diane and Jerry find the projector room. Jerry finds the bulb and wraps it up.
Framed
Ezekiel had another reason for wanting to go into the theater. He wants one of the large billboard frames so he can use it for the charter. He plans to have all of the community leaders sign the document at the fair. Carol tells him not to get his hopes up about Alexandria being there. And they need to consider that they might have to move. She wants to ask Jesus to consider taking them in if things go wrong.
The walkers are about to get in, the group is in trouble. Jerry wraps up the bulb in bubble wrap, but a walking comes in and makes him drop it. It lands inside a theater full of walkers. Jerry regretfully informs The King that he dropped the bulb. There are about 30-40 walkers in the theater and a herd is on the way. But the Queen….Carol say “come on Sistas…are we doing this or what?”
They open the door, Diane and Carol shoot their arrows at the walkers while Jerry and Ezekiel take out a few with their swords. Afterward Ezekiel thanks Carol for completing the mission. And he says she was right earlier about being ready for the worst, but maybe they are done losing for a while. As the ride away, the pass a street sign with a strange symbol on the back.
Meanwhile…
The Hilltop met Alpha (Samantha Morton), the leader of the group who killed Jesus. Alpha is Lydia’s (Cassady McClincy) mom and she is there to collect her daughter. Alpha makes it clear that she does not want a conflict with their group, even though they have killed a lot of her people. Daryl (Norman Reedus) doesn’t want to give up Lydia, because Alpha abuses her.
Daryl goes outside to talk to Alpha saying they can’t have Lydia and the Hilltop has enough firepower to take them on in a fight. One of Alpha’s people has a baby. She explains that they are animals and animals have babies. It’s the way of nature. Alpha reveals that she has Alden (Callan McAuliffe) and Luke (Dan Fogler). She is ready to hand them over, unharmed for Lydia’s return.
A group of walkers shows up and Alpha commands her people to keep them away from the prisoners. Luke turns around and sees Connie (Lauren Ridloff) hiding in the cornfield. He signs to her to stay hidden because the dead are out there.
The Slip
Daryl goes to retrieve Lydia, but Henry (Matt Linz) has already let her go. While the Hilltoppers look for Lydia and Henry, the baby outside the gate starts crying. The dead hear the baby and make their way towards the mother. Alpha signals for the mother to put the baby down. The mother does so and the dead head toward the crying.
Daryl and Dog track Lydia and find that Henry snuck her out of the community. Addy (Kelley Mack) knows where they are going so Enid (Katelyn Nacon) offers to find them. Henry took Lydia to the teen hang out spot. Lydia says her mom broke her own rules by coming after her. Henry doesn’t believe that.
Alden and Luke are nervous about the baby. The Hilltoppers start making noise to try and detour the walkers. Luke signs to Connie about the baby. Connie runs out of the cornfield and picks up the baby. She runs back into the cornfield and fights off any walker that comes towards them. Eventually, she is surrounded by walkers. Daryl and others jump into the cornfield and rescue Connie and the baby.
Enid shows up to talk Henry into giving up Lydia. She says there’s no other way. If they don’t give her up, her mom will kill Alden and Luke. Enid tells Henry that they have to live with their choices by staying who they are and not letting the bad things change you. Lydia comes out and says she will go back to her mom. Those are her people out there and her mom. She says she will be okay. She kisses Henry before leaving.
The Exchange
Daryl escorts Lydia to the gates. They exchange her for Alden and Luke. Enid runs to Alden saying she will never let go of him. Lydia apologizes to her momma for getting caught. Alpha slaps her, telling Lydia to call her Alpha like everyone else. She takes Lydia and her group leaves the gates of Hilltop.
Things calm down at the Hilltop. Henry tells Daryl that he knows why he did what he did and asks how he can live with it. Daryl says sometimes that’s all you can do. Henry says he knows what Daryl did to help when things when bad at Alexandria, but Daryl says he doesn’t know anything. He did what he had to do.
Back to Life
Ezekiel is excited about putting the charter in the frame and Jerry is just as excited about getting the movie projector working. Everyone at the Kingdom and the Hilltop returns to their lives. Tammy Rose (Brett Butler) and Earl (John Finn) took in the baby that Alpha’s people left for dead. Addy gives Daryl a note from Henry. He says he can’t live with what happened and he left to find Lydia. Daryl decides to go find him. Connie sees him leaving and wants to go with him. At first, Daryl says no and asks why. Connie says she can’t live with what happened either. They leave the HIlltop together with Dog.
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Thoughts
I like the pace of the show. We are getting just the right balance of talking, action, story development, and character development. The last two episodes have been a little slow, but the introduction of the Whisperers required a little more explanation. Now we know who they are and what they are capable of. This exchange wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but still very intense.
So Alpha has her daughter back and that should have been the end of it. It was hard to see Lydia leave knowing she is going back to an abusive life. But is one life worth the risk of dozens? Henry thinks so. Henry is going to get the Hilltop in a lot of trouble if he’ not careful. He’s only thinking about what he wants to happen, not what’s best for the community.
How scary was it to hear things from Connie’s perspective? I can’t even imagine not being able to hear everyday things but to be in the open with walkers coming at you left and right. That was an amazing scene and one that fills me with dread for Connie.
OK, Ezekiel mentioned that Oceanside was invited to the fair, but this is the first time they’ve been mentioned since the time jump. I thought maybe the reason Maggie and Michonne weren’t talking had something to do with Oceanside. It still could, we’ll have to wait and see.
And there was a clue to the reason for the scars on Daryl and Michonne’s back. Something to do with that illness that hit the Hilltop…maybe. It sounds like Alexandria got into some trouble. Daryl and Michonne took it upon themselves to fix it, but at what cost? I hate waiting.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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