The much improved ninth season of The Walking Dead returned this week, and in doing so, began Negan’s redemption arc in earnest and potentially teased an upcoming death from the comics. Fans seem to be responding well to the improved The Walking Dead, as the ratings declines have halted and this week’s midseason premiere actually saw an uptick over the midseason finale, despite heavy competition from the Grammys and True Detective and despite the exit of Andrew Lincoln.
One reason the season has improved, other than the overall better writing shepherded by showrunner Angela Kang, is the arrival of The Whisperers, the most formidable foe on The Walking Dead so far. However, there is also another compelling mystery lurking in the background of the show that doesn’t appear to come from the comics. It involves the mysterious X-scars seen on the backs of Michonne and Daryl earlier this season.
The show has given us nothing on these scars, other than a passing reference in the most recent episode in which Michonne seemed to thank Daryl for helping out in the matter that led to the injuries. However, on this week’s The Talking Dead (via Forbes), Norman Reedus shed some light on that mystery while also leaving us even more confused.
“It is a backstory actually, but you’ll find out what happened with that is something that just happened between Michonne and Daryl.”
“And the rest of the group don’t really know what that is yet, but something horrific happened right there and you’ll learn later, with the new people coming into the group, that there’s certain lines that you don’t cross but we crossed them,” Reedus said.
“And just between she and I, that’s our little secret, but it’s a really dark, dark secret.”
Here’s what we can deduce from that statement: That new people who came into Alexandria are responsible for those scars, that Daryl and Michonne are the only characters who know about it, and it involved crossing a line. It also seems to explain why Michonne is so adamant about keeping Alexandria isolated from the rest of the world, and may also help explain why Daryl basically decided to live secluded out in the woods for several years.
What could this “really dark, dark secret” be? Considering that this show has already introduced cannibals; a villain who kept his zombie daughter and put decapitated heads in fish tanks; countless bloody and brutal murders; and a villain who bashed a man’s head in with a baseball bat until his eyeball popped out, this secret has to be super dark if it’s so bad that Michonne and Daryl can’t bring themselves to talk to anyone else about it despite the history of horrors on this series. It’s obviously a secret that fans are anxious to learn about.
The issue will be taken up in flashbacks in future episodes on this season of The Walking Dead.
(Via Forbes)
