The Walking Dead stops to explore the spirit of a girl we have just met

Almost all characters in a TV show contain a world of storytelling possibilities. "Omega" is a cruelly effective way to establish the character of Alpha, new antagonist and leader of the Whisperers. As an episode of The dead who walkit's a fine gruel.

Using Lydia's imprisonment as an opportunity to better understand the new villains of the season makes sense, but it's far too early to give us many reasons to take care of us. Although the series has spent too much time with beginners earlier in the season, trying to sell them as key elements of the story while spreading almost everyone we are involved in, this episode goes too far in the # The hypothesis that we want to go deep. in the original story of Lydia and her mother, the first person who appeared only last week and who uttered a dozen words, and the last person that we do not have. we have not met at all. Especially when our point of contact to go out with this person we just met is … Henry. Sigh.

If the show ignores almost all the characters we want to spend time with, except for Daryl, at least she managed to give us Samantha Morton. The fierce actor is the best asset of this episode because it quickly turns Alpha into a kind of malicious figure who could likely be seen as a charismatic leader of people looking for someone to follow. Of course, she follows the dead ("My mother walks," said Lydia to Daryl), after creating a cult for walkers in her method of adapting to the new world. Alpha brings something new to the gallery of rogues Walking Dead Naughty: Someone is not trying to build a new company because they are convinced that there is no longer any world capable of making it live. "This place is not real," says Lydia, explaining her mother's philosophy of faith. There is no governor or Negan capable of holding back the inevitability of the dominion of the dead. Walls fall. Communities are collapsing.

The back and forth between Henry and Daryl on Lydia is all-purpose Walking Dead: Give the new person a chance, or suppose you can not trust him and you're done? Henry, for his part, acts like a moron, what we know and do not like all. The only thing that prevents him from being hit by a hammer when he lets Lydia out of his cell (after already telling the Kingdom) is that the girl accidentally realizes that babies live in Hilltop. The tears trigger Lydia's memory of what really happened in childhood; she realizes that it was her mother, not her father, who was always the most cruel. According to her later confession to Daryl, she had just seen the version of her childhood of Alpha being inflicted so often that it had become the truth. She abandons the camp site of her people, but at least Daryl is not stupid – unlike Henry, he is not yet ready to buy everything Lydia offers, honest admissions or not.

Speaking of stupid, let's listen to it for beginners! After obtaining permission to reside at Hilltop, they immediately challenge Tara's order by sneaking past Luke's death. And what's the plan: they go under the wall in the middle of the night, walk in the forest and immediately realize that it's night and they do not have an incredible chance to drop a trace of ice . So they go back inside, with the exception of Connie and Kelly, who decide that Kelly's wise reaction to crying over Luke's absence is to stay alone in the woods, where they come from to be attacked. Magna and Yumiko look good with this plan. What is the problem with these people?

This secondary plot was such a strangely misguided gesture on the part of beginners and the series, it is almost impossible to deny that we were lucky to see how they managed to survive all these years: they are really very good to kill the walkers. . From the throwing of Magna's knife to the slingshot dams offered by the siblings, the attack of the dead horses offered a much better opportunity for the series to demonstrate why we should keep them. In addition, it introduced the difficulty of having to check guns every time they fell on walkers, and to what extent it throws a key in existing survival methods.

Did the writers learn about Danai Gurira's existence? decision to leave the show next season during the mid-season break? Honestly, after designating us as our central character following Rick's passing, it's strange to spend his time focusing not only on Lydia, but at the expense of the scenarios we've been focusing on since the time jump . Everyone in parallel this week did not do much to maintain the momentum, although it was interesting to quickly return to the initial outbreak, which we have not done in a long time. And after the Whisperers' threat created such a strong new discomfort, it was a little embarrassing to see one of their teammates just walking around the city gates, while Alpha demanded the release of his daughter. This removes the mystery of their existence, although it is at least unexpected. Presumably, Luke and Alden are still alive, negotiating for Alpha to withdraw during the negotiation, even though Lydia can not think of a reason why her mother would spare them. Let's hope that next week comes back to make things happen, instead of going through the brackish waters of Lydia's memories.

Observations lost

• A little beat that really landed: the child Lydia in the flashbacks tracing the outline of the tattoo on the arm of his parent. It is a touch so subtle but touching.
• It's really irritating to have not one, but two teenagers thinking they can psychoanalyze Daryl after several minutes of conversation. Henry barely knows him and Lydia does not know it at all. Stop making them talk like characters thirty and a few.
• "I just ate a worm."
• Another week, another complete lack of development on the "What's happened between communities?" The show continued to be teasing during the first half of the season.
• That's all for giving Lydia what I had hoped to be the hammer of Chekhov.