what happened to the kingdom on walking dead

[Alarm: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Walking Expressionless Season ix Episode 15, "The At-home Before."]

If you thought last calendar week'due south episode of The Walking Expressionless was intense, "The Calm Before" takes the season'due south conflict to new heights (literally).

Ezekiel'southward fair, a gathering the evidence teased all season, has finally arrived. With the fair comes some pretty major, pretty horrifying events from the comics, and TWD has embraced the source textile, albeit with a new, shocking twist.

Many goodbyes are said this episode… and for some unlucky characters, they prove to be final.

A Unsafe Journey

The episode opens past telling the story of the woman who makes the "H" wooden necklaces at the Hilltop. She and her husband live a pretty happy life in the community over the years, until they decide to go to the fair. They stop up getting killed by Alpha en route to the celebration.

Alpha starts scalping the woman's body equally she sings, "Lydia, oh Lydia…say, take you met Lydia…"

Choosing Sides

At the Kingdom, Ezekiel gives a oral communication honoring Rick and Carl Grimes to open the fair. Carol, Zeke and Henry share a joyful reunion, every bit do Kelly and Connie. Ezekiel'south happy to see Michonne, but Tara'southward non too happy to see Lydia.

At a coming together of customs leaders, Michonne declares that Alexandria will officially join forces with the others. Male parent Gabriel announces that Lydia will be granted asylum in Alexandria, only Tara brings upwardly a valid point — if Alpha retaliates, information technology'll be against Hilltop. Using her own and Tara's pasts as an example, Michonne says Lydia didn't choose where she came from, merely she chose where she wanted to be.

Daryl says they should accept fighters to Hilltop to protect it from Alpha, and the other communities agree; they opt to send people that dark. They decide they need to nowadays a united forepart and seal their pact by signing Ezekiel'south charter.

Heartfelt Goodbyes

Several characters get emotional moments at the fair; Alden and Enid, thanks to Luke's nagging to become the former to perform with him, finally decide to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend. Siddiq well-nigh tells Michonne he's going to be a dad before long. Rosita and Eugene take a heartfelt chat in which she thank you him for his help and tells him that even after everything that happened, they tin can nonetheless talk.

Things aren't going well for Lydia. Addy apologizes to Henry for letting people know he was hiding Lydia in the cabin at Hilltop. This, paired with Addy'due south friends telling Lydia that Addy and Henry "have a thing" for each other, makes the sometime Whisperer storm abroad in jealousy and anger. The pitfalls of young love!

Meanwhile, the Hilltop grouping is getting ready to get. Michonne says goodbye to Judith, Daryl leaves Connie in accuse of Dog, Team Magna bids farewell to its leader and Yumiko, and Ballad, Ezekiel and Henry office ways. Several other fighters from the diverse communities join them, and they head out. On their way the group runs into the Highwaymen, who permit them know near the wagon that was carrying the necklace-woman from Hilltop. There are tracks leading away from the scene. The grouping decides to split up upwardly; Yumiko, Michonne, Daryl and Carol investigate where the tracks atomic number 82, and the rest proceed to Hilltop.

That Bargain Is Done

Of course, the tracks don't pb anywhere skillful. The group gets ambushed past a sizeable horde of walkers, and one time they manage to have the undead down, there are Whisperers waiting. Beta shows upwards and tells them to drop their weapons. "You lot just had to give me the girl," he tells Daryl. "No one else had to dice. Now, that bargain is done."

Earlier, in flashbacks, it's revealed that Alpha infiltrated the fair wearing the Hilltop woman'south hair, hat and clothes. While she creeps around being creepy, listening in on people's conversations and staring at sketches of Ballad and Ezekiel, Henry finds Lydia and manages to get the truth out of her regarding what Gage and Rodney told her. Henry tells her she has nothing to worry about and they kiss, but their moment is cut short past a loud noise Henry feels the demand to go investigate.

A Hard Wintertime

Alpha next happens upon Ezekiel, who introduces himself to her. They have a truly unsettling conversation. "Could you point me in the direction of the clothing booths?" Alpha asks. "It'due south going to be sweater weather soon, and I want to be set up. I have a feeling it's going to be a difficult winter."

The movie seems to get equally planned, though several notable people are absent, namely Ezekiel and Henry. As Lydia watches the movie, the nonetheless-disguised Alpha slides into the seat next to her and puts a finger to her lips.

No Empty Threat

That night, Carol, Daryl, Michonne and Yumiko are taken to the Whisperers army camp. Upon hearing that Lydia was offered asylum in Alexandria, Alpha orders Daryl at gunpoint to come up with her, alone. In a scene direct from the comics, Blastoff shows him the giant horde of walkers she'southward amassed. "The only reason you lot and your friends are live is because I let you live," she says.

Blastoff assures Daryl that his friends in her military camp are fine, merely the adjacent time their people cross into her land, her horde will cross into theirs. She tells them she has marked the border of her territory, and that they'll run across it every bit they go out. Daryl asks her if she killed Lydia, and Blastoff remembers how Lydia refused to return to the Whisperers at the fair.

Heads on Pikes

Daryl meets the residual of his group in a field, where Blastoff said they would exist. He shares happy reunions with Carol and Michonne, but that relief evaporates when they find a terrified Siddiq tied to a tree. Michonne frees him, but he points out into a clearing — a clearing where there are zombified heads on pikes.

The group approaches the pikes and, much to their horror, discover those heads belong to people they knew: people who were in omnipresence at the off-white. They get-go see a couple of the Highwaymen, then DJ, Frankie, then Tammy Rose, then Addy and Rodney, so Enid, then Tara, then final — and most horrifyingly — Henry.

Daryl runs to Carol and turns her away from the pikes, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Just wait at me," he tells her. "Just look at me." He holds her as she starts to cry.

A Story to Remember

In the backwash of the horror, Siddiq stands on the podium at Kingdom and gives a speech about what happened. He tells the assembled group about how the Highwaymen establish Blastoff's victims in a befouled and freed them, and even though they were somewhen overwhelmed, they all fought dorsum confronting the Whisperers together.

"So we have to keep going," Siddiq says. "For them, and for all of u.s.a.. Nosotros need to accolade them. We demand to laurels them, and we demand to remember these friends, our family, died as heroes. That's the story that I desire to tell you. That's the story I want us all to remember."

The episode ends with Lydia and Daryl going to the field where the empty pikes still stand up. Lydia places her Hilltop necklace by Henry's, and snow begins to autumn.

Other Observations:

• This is the first episode of The Walking Dead since "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" that actually fabricated me sick to my tum. The pikes were gruesome, and the impact these deaths volition have on each community will exist profound. Bear McCreary's music for that scene was, as always, fantastic.
• Kudos to Angela Kang for not making this a finale cliffhanger. I was worried we'd become the pikes at the very end of episode 16, only this mode, the characters have one more installment to process the losses and make a program to fight back. This is the most excited for a finale I've been in a long fourth dimension.
• I'grand non a fan of the conclusion to kill off Henry. This is pretty repetitive storytelling for Carol's grapheme, who has already lost an abundance of children over the seasons (Sophia, Lizzie and Mika, Sam). And what was the point of bringing in Henry to replace Carl, just to kill him later?
• Who's going to pb Hilltop now? They've lost ii leaders in a very short menses of time. This would be a great way to re-introduce Maggie, but it'll remain to be seen whether Lauren Cohan's schedule allows her to render.

The Walking Dead , Sundays, 9/8c, AMC

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Source: https://www.tvinsider.com/761721/the-walking-dead-recap-season-9-episode-15-the-calm-before/

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