The Walking Dead Season 9, Episode 12 Review: 'Guadians'

(Photo Credit: AMC)

The Walking Dead

Season 9, Episode 12

By Garrett Yoshitomi

We’re halfway to the season nine finale, and this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, ‘Guardians,’ builds on two major storylines that should grow into the dominate narratives that shape the remainder of the season. The Whisperers conflict and the upcoming community trade fair may seem like separate subplots as of now, but they’ll likely converge by season’s end, and this episode does a good job of laying the foundation, by providing solid world-building for both The Whisperers and their nomadic lifestyle, as well as Alexandria and Michonne’s decision to forego the fair.

If you’re a fan of townhall debates, you probably enjoyed watching Alexandria’s council argue the merits of attending the upcoming trade fair. However, if the lifeblood of democracy isn’t really your thing, you can still find value in the precious world-building that this scene provides, as it lays out the dynamic for the council, and how their way of thinking has evolved over the six-year time-jump. With the exception of the prison back in season four, and the early days of Alexandria with Deanna, there haven’t been a ton of opportunities to watch organized democracy in The Walking Dead’s history. For the most part, our characters have been governed by the iron fist of the Ricktatorship. But, with Sheriff Grimes off to greener pastures, for the first time ever, it’s up to the remaining characters to establish some sense of governance.

It’s still unclear what led to the creation of the council, but we do learn that Gabriel serves as its leader, and is joined by Michonne, Aaron, Siddiq, and former Savior, Laura, as members. Supposedly, at its impetus, the council voted and made rulings together, but over time, that democratic approach shifted once Michonne, as head of security, was granted final veto power over all of the council’s decisions. Predictably, and as Gabriel points out, unfairly, this results in a system where Michonne gets to decide what happens, regardless of how the rest of the council votes. However, both Michonne, as well as Aaron, argue that this rule was put in place for a reason, and although it seems like an absurd amount of power to bestow in one person, there was clearly a time where the council believed it was the right call.

(Photo Credit: AMC)

But what exactly led the council to make this call in the first place, and when will we learn why Alexandria closed itself off to its allies in the outside world? The show hinted back in episode six, the first post-time jump episode, that something seriously sketchy went down in Alexandria sometime during the six years since Rick’s “death.” We get another hint in episode seven, when Daryl reveals an “X”-shaped scar on his back in the same location as Michonne’s from the previous episode. We’re now on episode twelve. And, while six episodes isn’t too long of a stretch to keep the curtains closed on what’s ramping up to being one of the series’ biggest mysteries, it is a long time to go without any new information, and the second half of season nine has been noticeably mum when it comes to this elusive subplot.

On the whole, this lack of progress isn’t hugely detrimental to the show because it’s been able to rely on the Whisperers arc to carry most of the season. It is unfortunate, though, that this stalled storyline has turned fan favorite Michonne into a rather unenjoyable character – almost unrecognizable in her outward detachment towards the friends she used to hold so dear. It wasn’t that long ago when Michonne was the most vocal for creating a charter that would unite the allied communities under one set of world rebuilding rules. And, in general, Michonne has always been a character who believes in the power of building relationships, as opposed to Rick, who often had difficulty in trusting those outside of his core group. If the mystery of the “X”-shaped scar storyline doesn’t deliver on its promise of providing a horrifying and justified reason for Michonne’s fear-driven isolation, her entire post-Rick arc will seem like a complete waste of what should be one of The Walking Dead’s most easily bankable characters.

(Photo Credit: AMC)

If there’s one redeeming aspect to Michonne’s storyline, it’s the interesting parallel you can draw between the isolationist tendencies of both Alexandria and The Whisperers. While it’s obvious that Alexandria is nowhere near as far gone as The Whisperers, what with the latter’s walker skin drying racks and trial by combat electoral system, their closed borders approach does set a dangerous precedent when it comes to the group’s long-term prosperity. If your only goal is to survive, then sure, limiting the number of people you interact with will help that cause – nobody can kill you if you never cross paths with them in the first place. But there are downsides when a community puts such a premium on its own survival that it goes to the unsustainable lengths of completely closing itself off from other people.

We’ve seen it before in past seasons. A place like Terminus initially welcomed visitors in with open arms, but quickly learned to mistrust strangers after letting the wrong group of people past their gates. Eventually, the residents of Terminus turned all kinds of weird when they literally resorted to eating people they came into contact with. Another season five location, Grady Memorial Hospital, started out as a community of police officers, hospital staff, and patients, who were able to wait out the early days of the apocalypse thanks to the hospital’s massive structural size and sturdy walls. However, these same walls that kept the walkers out, also kept its inhabitants in, allowing frightening and brutal power dynamics to develop between the officers and the rest of the inhabitants. And, let’s not forget about Morgan, who probably serves as The Walking Dead’s greatest example of all that can go wrong with a person whenthey’re deprived of too much human interaction. After losing his wife and son towards the beginning of the outbreak, Morgan became a shell of himself-losing his mind, turning volatile and violent, and almost killing his friend, Rick, in the midst of his mania.

(Photo Credit: AMC)

And now we have The Whisperers who, unlike the groups mentioned above, appear to be thriving in their isolation – surviving the harshest of elements, deep into the zombie apocalypse, thanks to their animalistic lifestyle.But, how long can this last? Alpha herself admits in this episode that it’s been years since her leadership was challenged, and that this instance “felt different" compared to past uprisings. The fact that cracks have started to form even within The Whisperers should be all the proof Alexandria needs to start rebuilding bridges, either literally or metaphorically, with The Hilltop and Kingdom. By episode’s end, it appears that this is the direction they’re leaning, and we should see soon, in the coming weeks, whether it’s the right choice.