The Walking Dead Season 9, Episode 7 Review: ‘Stradivarius’

(Photo Credit: AMC)

The Walking Dead

Season 9, Episode 7

By Garrett Yoshitomi

We’re two weeks into The Walking Dead’s post-time jump reboot, and we’re finally starting to feel the effects of Rick’s absence. Although it’s been six years since Rick’s “death,” the communities feel more separate than ever, with Alexandria, under Michonne’s leadership, the most isolated of them all. For some, this shift in diplomacy between Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom, might feel forced and out of place. However, there have been clues, sprinkled throughout 9A, hinting at the tenuous relationship between these former wartime allies. Daryl mentioned in the season premiere how deteriorating road conditions and dwindling fuel supplies would soon make travel between any two outposts take more than a day. Also, despite longtime Rick and co. member, Maggie Rhee, running the Hilltop, you could see the seeds of disunity being sown, when Maggie refused to fully commit Hilltop resources to Rick’s bridge project.

Combine all of these factors, and it’s slowly becoming apparent that Rick was right about the bridge and its necessity in keeping the communities unified. Although it seemed of little consequence at the time, the bridge would have served to facilitate trade, as well as maintain realistic travel times between the communities. We’re no longer just a year and a half out from the zombie apocalypse outbreak. Fuel is scare, if not practically depleted, and those sweet, sweet fully loaded Hyundai Tucsons aren’t riding in to save the day anytime soon. Not only did losing the bridge impart a practical cost on the survivors, but Rick’s “death” clearly had an impact on community cohesion and sent characters like Daryl and Michonne spiraling down different paths of solitude.

(Photo Credit: AMC)

We saw a bit of Daryl’s forest nomad act last week, but we’re only now getting a true sense of just how isolated Daryl’s been over the six-year time jump. According to his conversation with Carol, Daryl went off into the woods to look for Rick, and essentially just stayed out in the wilderness when he couldn’t find him. That means that Daryl has spent more in-universe time (six whole years!) living in seclusion than he did even knowing Rick (roughly a year and half. No, seriously, the first eight seasons of The Walking Dead took place over ~600 days.). It’s easy to dismiss this disproportionate amount of time as nothing more than a sloppy miscalculation or a plot hole, but over the course of the series, Daryl has always clung to his lone wolf tendencies, despite being a mainstay member of the group.

While Daryl had a mean loner streak during the show’s early days, he eventually secured himself a spot in Rick’s inner circle thanks to his fierce loyalty and love for his companions. However, when the group rolled into Alexandria in the middle of season five, it was clear that Daryl felt out of place, and spent most of that time on recruiting missions outside of Alexandria’s walls. Daryl looks back on these early/pre-Alexandria days wistfully. In the season nine premiere, he tells Rick, “That small group we had back in the beginning…we could do anything. That was right,” and further backs up his preference for the great white somewhere by stepping down from command of the Sanctuary and choosing to leave for the rustic Hilltop Colony over the suburban Alexandria.

(Photo Credit: AMC)

Seeing Daryl on his own (Dog not included) makes me strangely sad. As badass as loner Daryl is, I think he’s at his best when he can play off of other characters. The contrast between his ruff and gruff exterior and tender willingness to always stand up for his friends is something that I love. And, it’s this willingness to step out of his comfort zone and let others in that has endeared his character to so many fans. It makes sense, though that Daryl would withdraw from the group after suffering through so much loss and especially after losing such a core relationship in Rick. However, his other core relationship, Carol, has clearly been keeping tabs on him, as she’s able to find his forest camp with relative ease. As unlikeable as I find Henry, I don’t mind the idea of Daryl mentoring him because it’s more of a reflection of Daryl’s bond with Carol, two of the longest recurring characters on the show.

Another long-time character, Michonne, is also facing a crisis of isolation. But, unlike Daryl, who is very much alone, Michonne manages to cut off ties to former allies and walls herself in from new friends, all amid the hustle and bustle of Alexandria. Despite softening towards Alexandria’s unexpected visitors at the end of last week’s episode, Michonne is still weary of Magna’s group as she helps escort the quintet to the Hilltop. Thanks to the incredulity of a precocious Yumiko and Siddiq’s sheepish honesty, Michonne reveals that not only has she not been to the Hilltop in a considerable amount of time, but she also has no idea that Maggie left the colony permanently. What happened that made Michonne withdraw so much? As recently as the beginning of this season, Michonne was banging the drum for community charters and unity, just as loudly as anybody. Something happened during the six-year time jump that turned Michonne into an untrusting, security protocol obsessed wet blanket, and according to Angela Kang, it’s a story that should be revealing itself soon.

(Photo Credit: AMC)

Who won’t be revealing themselves soon, though, is Maggie, who is confirmed to be off rebuilding society and writing letters with Georgie and the twins from last season. Writing Maggie off in this way is messy. It leaves the door open just a crack for a possible eventual return, but it leaves a pretty unsatisfying gap in her character development, as well. It’s just so hard to believe that Maggie would actually abandon the Hilltop. While she might not have always relished being a leader, she’s always cared about her people, and the Hilltop was chock full of them. Behind the scenes, AMC found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place, and ultimately this version of Maggie’s story might be the best we were ever going to get.

The cloud of Lauren Cohan’s unsuccessful contract negotiations loomed quietly over filming for most of season eight. And, while The Walking Dead has never been known to pay much mind towards the long-term survival of its characters, AMC knew that Maggie would be a crucial character in future story arcs. It wasn’t worth risking those future arcs by killing off Maggie in season eight, plus there weren’t a ton of spots in season eight where writing her off made sense. So, a decision on Maggie’s future was put on hold, and all parties were able to come to an agreement that brought her back for five more episodes in the first half of season nine.

(Photo Credit: AMC)

The only problem is, Maggie’s brief season nine storyline didn’t do anything at all to setup her impending exit, nor did it minimize her importance in the show- if anything, it just increased it. So, suddenly losing Maggie in the middle of 9A, for seemingly no good reason, not only feels awkward, but detracts from the post-time jump storyline that her character development seemed to be playing into. Realistically, The Walking Dead probably couldn’t have given Maggie a better send-off, even if they wanted to. Her last episode just so happened to coincide with Rick’s big bang of a departure, and there’s no way AMC was going to let Maggie’s non-controversy free exit detract at all from #RickGrimesFinalEpisode.

Next week is the midseason finale for what’s been a pleasantly surprising season for The Walking Dead. Sure, ratings are still down, but they’ve been steady- a possible sign that fans are sticking around for the improved storytelling and writing. The scope of this show has been reset, something that’s been long overdue for AMC’s former ratings darling. The smaller scale storylines and more intimate character interactions have been a godsend, and I almost want to see more of this much-needed worldbuilding before turning it over to the show’s next big bad, the Whisperers. The Whisperer arc will be a good test for Angela Kang and the minds behind season nine. Will this show be able to continue its recent run of stellar storytelling? Or, will it fall back on old habits, weaving a shallow, convoluted plot around an uninspiring caricature of an antagonist?