Spoilers for AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead‘ will be found below.
At the end of last season of The Walking Dead, Rick and Company ended the All Out War with Negan, but Rick — motivated by his dead son Carl’s vision of the future — decided to spare Negan’s life. The decision to do so has had major ramifications for the show this season, as Negan’s presence inside a jail cell has caused major problems. If Rick had killed Negan, the Oceansiders wouldn’t have killed off several members of the Saviors. Maggie wouldn’t have tried to kill Negan, which means that Rick wouldn’t have tried to stop her, which means that Daryl wouldn’t have tried to stop him, which is to say: Rick would still be on the show, and Maggie would still be running The Hilltop.
While madness nearly conquered Negan before the time jump, Negan’s head seems screwed on better after the time jump. He has a window, which he considers as good as television, as he collects outside gossip from inside his cell. He’s even been able to develop some relationships, like the friendly one he has with Judith Grimes. However, as we see in his interactions with Father Gabriel this week, deep down, Negan is still Negan. He does, briefly, show some concern for Gabriel after learning that Rosita had been injured, but that concern is fleeting. At the end of the episode, in fact, the gate to his jail cell is left open, and Negan gains an opportunity to escape.
The question is: Will he take it?
Comics Spoilers
The television series is obviously straying from the comics a lot these days. Several of the major figures involved in the upcoming Whisperers War — Rick, Maggie, Carl, Gregory, and Jesus — are already dead on the television series, so things will obviously differ. However, this opportunity to escape mirrors a similar opportunity in the comics, and in the comics, Negan declines to take it, choosing instead to stay behind in an effort to gain the trust of Rick (or in this case, probably Gabriel or Michonne). The gambit does not work, however. In the comics, Rick still refuses to trust Negan.
Nevertheless, once the Whisperers become a major threat, Rick (or in this case, Michonne) seeks the advice of Negan, and Negan advises a more authoritarian route. That shouldn’t be that hard for Michonne, who is already exhibiting Ricktatorship characteristics in Alexandria. Nevertheless, when Negan is offered another chance to escape. he takes it, knowing that staying put will not earn him any trust with the Alexandrians.
He eventually crosses paths with The Whisperers, and while I don’t want to say too much about how that goes, Negan likes the cut of Alpha’s jib. The way she controls the rest of The Whisperers is straight out of the Negan playbook, so obviously Negan is going to find some appeal in that. However, Negan — who will eventually be offered a skin suit of his own — realizes that his and Alpha’s motivations are different. He controlled The Saviors with an iron fist for “the greater good.” Alpha’s motivations are more nihilistic, and eventually, Negan and Alpha arrive and what I would call a difference of opinion.
Those differences, and the fallout, will be further explored in the back half of season 9 (and possibly season 10). I will say this, however, for The Whisperers War: It’s not the best arc in the comics, but the way Angela Kang is handling it on the series is terrific. She’s introducing horror-movie tropes into the series that makes it feel genuinely like a horror series for the first time in years. She’s also managed to make the zombies feel like a genuine threat again, as The Whisperers are not only pose as leatherface walkers, but they effectively use the zombies as weapons. For the survivors, not knowing who is a zombie and who is a Whisperer is introducing a real sense of fear and suspense, the likes of which we’ve never seen before on The Walking Dead.
