# Walking Dead S09 E017 OAD 03/24/2019 The Calm Before



## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

*
SPOILERS BELOW!*

I know a lot of people have bailed on this show, but I am still enjoying the ride this season.

I was not expecting this. Wow. Completely shocked me. Alpha is one crazy lunatic. She even stabbed a guy simply because he saw her cry. Sheesh.

The count was 12:

Ozzy (Highwaymen)
Alex (Highwaymen)
Frankie (formerly under Negan)
DJ (formerly under Negan)
Tammy (Bret Butler)
Rodney (annoying kid)
Addy (annoying kid)
Hilde (wife that made the tokens)
Miles (husband of Hilde)
Enid
Tara
Henry

I loved the story Siddiq told about how they just didn't die, that they fought back. Worked together and took some of the whisperers with them.

The repercussions from Carol and Daryl should be epic. They just have that zombie hoard to worry about. Maybe this will be where Negan can finally be used in the show again - unleash him on Alpha.

Next week is the last of the season, so while this episode could've been the cliffhanger episode, I hope it means next week will be even better.


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

My recording cut off right after they were surrounded and Beta said "Give me the girl and no one else has to die". That seemed like a logical place to stop for a cliff hanger, so I watched something else until Talking Dead started. Then I found out I missed the massacre. Chris Hardwick said lots of people were talking about not seeing the last half hour on their DVRs, I recorded the next playing to watch tonight, though I know now what happened. A friend was texting me about it before either of us knew that I missed part of it. I was confused.


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## jamesbobo (Jun 18, 2000)

My DVR also missed the ending. The show ran over an hour but the guide data only had an hour show. But I was watching about 20 minutes behind the actual time. So I was about 20 minutes into what was supposed to be Badlands and simply rewound back to the commercial break where my Walking Dead ended and watched the ending. To play it safe, I extended next weeks recording by 30 minutes.


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

I just now loaded the AMC app on my phone and watched what I had missed. WOW!


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## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

Maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but how were those who were killed captured? I know Tara was supposed to leave for Hilltop “at first light” but were Enid and Henry going with her?


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## dwatt (Jan 11, 2007)

cherry ghost said:


> Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, but how were those who were killed captured? I know Tara was supposed to leave for Hilltop "at first light" but were Enid and Henry going with her?


Alpha was at the fair wearing the recently acquired blonde wig. She captured them one at a time. I assume there were other Whisperers helping as well.


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## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

Henry was last seen when he heard a noise and went to investigate. Others were traveling and assumed ambushed.

When Alpha started cutting off the blonde hair I thought for sure she was stealing her face to wear. Not to impersonate her, but just to freshen her walker face.


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## dwatt (Jan 11, 2007)

Tammy, Henry, Enid and the two other youngsters were at the fair, The two highwaymen plus the other guy came to the rescue and got over powered, Tara was on the road.

I think everyone was at the fair except for Tara and the three highwaymen.


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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

Tara was a shocker! I was sad about her and Enid. I liked the Highwaymen so that was a little sad too. 

Alpha is a gangster. Each baddie is worse than the last.


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## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

dwatt said:


> Tammy, Henry, Enid and the two other youngsters were at the fair, The two highwaymen plus the other guy came to the rescue and got over powered, Tara was on the road.
> 
> I think everyone was at the fair except for Tara and the three highwaymen.


That would mean Tara left the Kingdom alone and was traveling alone. I don't think that would be allowed.

I'll never believe that Alpha could go around the Kingdom capturing people on by one and removing them.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

cherry ghost said:


> That would mean Tara left the Kingdom alone and was traveling alone. I don't think that would be allowed.
> 
> I'll never believe that Alpha could go around the Kingdom capturing people on by one and removing them.


That's one thing I've always disliked about this show, and am starting to really despise. The bad guys are always invincible slasher-movie villains, unstoppable forces of pure evil. That is hard to sustain in a two-hour movie without being boring. It almost can't help but be boring in the context of an ongoing series unless you're a far, far more gifted storyteller than Kirkman & Co. It's ironic that Negan, who was maybe the most boring Big Bad of them all, has become interesting after he stopped being the Big Bad and started being a more nuanced character. I wish they could learn from that lesson, but I doubt they ever will.

It's funny, the Whisperers are somewhat differently-portrayed in the comics and in the show. But in both cases, I saw absolutely nothing worthwhile about them...except for the way other people reacted to them. And at least in the comics we knew almost nothing about them; it's as if they were just a plot device not only figuratively, but literally. Here, their attempts to make us understand them make them even harder to take.


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## fireman9302 (Jul 1, 2004)

Donbadabon said:


> *SPOILERS BELOW!*
> 
> I know a lot of people have bailed on this show, but I am still enjoying the ride this season.
> 
> ...


 I
Just to add to you post..
Frankie was one of Negans wives...I think will play a major part of the show next season..I don't know for sure it's just a thought.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

How are some of you recording that you missed the last half hour? In my guide (Uverse) it showed as 1:28 minutes and that's what was recorded. TWC often goes beyond an hour. Sometimes by a few minutes, sometimes more.

This was a good ep, I agree with above, seemed like a good season ender so next week should be good. I don't watch previews


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## SoBelle0 (Jun 25, 2002)

Tara!! Noooo!

That was pretty intense. 

Alpha, and her crew, had to have kidnapped these people. Tara was coming right back to discuss training plans and locations... she would never have taken off solo. 

I wanted to know where Alpha showered, and turned Hilde’s scalp into such a clean looking wig? Come on! 

Couldn’t remember much about Frankie. I hope you’re right that Negan uses his powers for good, and helps in the fight.


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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

SoBelle0 said:


> .
> I wanted to know where Alpha showered, and turned Hilde's scalp into such a clean looking wig? Come on!


And quickly got nasty for her Daryl encounter.


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## jamesbobo (Jun 18, 2000)

dwatt said:


> Alpha was at the fair wearing the recently acquired blonde wig. She captured them one at a time. I assume there were other Whisperers helping as well.


I knew it was a walker as soon as soon as she was shown at the fair. I did not know it was the mother until it was later revealed. It looked nothing like her and I would never have guessed.
In the end she kills her right hand man and best fighter because he saw her cry. I have to think others in the group will wonder what happened. It has been shown that her group has dissenters. Now that her enforcer is out what's to stop a handful of people from killing her by surprise? Especially now that they know there's a lot better way to live then walking around with walker masks on. I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

jamesbobo said:


> In the end she kills her right hand man and best fighter because he saw her cry.


No, that was some other guy. Beta is still alive and well (and impossible to kill anyway!).


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## jamesbobo (Jun 18, 2000)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> No, that was some other guy. Beta is still alive and well (and impossible to kill anyway!).


Had me fooled. He looked just like him.


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## tlc (May 30, 2002)

Wow.



> Tammy (Bret Butler)


Another wow. I never realized that was her.

And while I'm checking names, I find out that Beta is Opie!

Yeah, they're evil. But _animated_ heads on stakes is pretty bad-ass.


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## tlc (May 30, 2002)

jamesbobo said:


> Had me fooled. He looked just like him.


She spoke to Beta just before and he walked off, then this guy walked up. Maybe you blinked.


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## bryhamm (Jun 30, 2004)

VegasVic said:


> How are some of you recording that you missed the last half hour? In my guide (Uverse) it showed as 1:28 minutes and that's what was recorded. TWC often goes beyond an hour. Sometimes by a few minutes, sometimes more.
> 
> This was a good ep, I agree with above, seemed like a good season ender so next week should be good. I don't watch previews


I think it's another directv issue. My recording ended just as alpha sat down in the movie and put her finger to her lips for shhhhh. It was right at an hour.


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## DUSlider (Apr 29, 2005)

I knew immediately that Alpha was an imposter at the fair, she took Debbies face/hair and was wearing her dress/hat.

I think they kind of foreshadowed/misdirected how they were taken based on Alphas(Debbie) interaction with King Ezekiel. I was getting a sinking feeling that his was one of the heads on the spikes. With the exception of the highway patrol guys, I don't think anyone had actually left the Kingdom until they were kidnapped. All those kidnapped, with the exception of the highway patrol guys, were from Hilltop. They didn't show it, but I got the feeling she got close to all of those kidnapped like she did with Ezekiel. It felt like there was some time hopping during this episode which may have confused things a bit. Also, Tammy Rose's husband wasn't with her. I can't imagine her going back to Hill Top without him.

Looking back, when Tara was talking about wanting to get back to Hill Top, she wanted to leave by first light. She said she wanted to make sure they knew they could count on her when trouble comes and that they had a leader that showed up for them. More misdirection. They show her wanting to be a better leader... oh woops, we killed her off.

Jesus, now Tara. Who's going to be Hill Tops next leader? They are dropping like flies. Maybe we see Maggie come back for the season finale, lol.



bryhamm said:


> I think it's another directv issue. My recording ended just as alpha sat down in the movie and put her finger to her lips for shhhhh. It was right at an hour.


 No issues here with Verizon FiOS.



tlc said:


> She spoke to Beta just before and he walked off, then this guy walked up. Maybe you blinked.


Yea, lol, Beta and the guy she killed look nothing alike.


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## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

I'm one of those halfhearted watchers that has kinda given up. My hour went something like:

Boring...
Boring..
Meh..
Boring..
Boring..
Meh..

Ah... A line of heads as a property marker, most interesting thing in the entire episode. 
wait.. Those heads look familiar.. Like, weren't they alive last time I saw them? Ok, I guess I have to pay attention now...

So I guess I have to watch the next episode for real.


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## dbranco (Nov 20, 2003)

bryhamm said:


> I think it's another directv issue. My recording ended just as alpha sat down in the movie and put her finger to her lips for shhhhh. It was right at an hour.


Our Comcast recording ended in the same place. Thank goodness for Talking Dead... never would have known that we missed a hugely important half hour! Except of course, coming to this forum and seeing the first post


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## jamesbobo (Jun 18, 2000)

DUSlider said:


> No issues here with Verizon FiOS.


I have FIOS, too. It went as far as when Daryll and the others were surrounded by the walkers. It then went to commercial break and the recording ended.


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## jamesbobo (Jun 18, 2000)

tlc said:


> She spoke to Beta just before and he walked off, then this guy walked up. Maybe you blinked.


Here's how I remember it. Beta spoke to Alpha. Alpha said she needed some alone time. Beta walked away but then stopped and turned around. She beckoned him back and killed him. I never noticed they were two different people.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

jamesbobo said:


> Here's how I remember it. Beta spoke to Alpha. Alpha said she needed some alone time. Beta walked away but then stopped and turned around. She beckoned him back and killed him. I never noticed they were two different people.


Not only two different people, but Beta is about twice the size of the guy she killed...


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## markb (Jul 24, 2002)

I was waiting for the reveal of who was behind the mask.. oh well, a red shirt, I guess.

This episode really felt like it was Negan recycled (at least the part where Negan killed Glenn and Abraham). It's hard to care at this point.


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## jamesbobo (Jun 18, 2000)

I have Walking Dead as a series recording, new episodes only. Since the FIOS DVR screwed up the first recording, it decided on its own to try again by scheduling a recording of a repeat showing at about 1-2:30am eastern time. Maybe FIOS got an earful from angry Walking Dead fans.


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## jcondon (Jul 9, 2003)

jamesbobo said:


> I have Walking Dead as a series recording, new episodes only. Since the FIOS DVR screwed up the first recording, it decided on its own to try again by scheduling a recording of a repeat showing at about 1-2:30am eastern time. Maybe FIOS got an earful from angry Walking Dead fans.


We saw people commenting on the show running long and many DVRs not getting the ending. It was already after the original airing ended so was too late to do anything about it.

So I manually recorded both of the later back to back showings on my Tivo.

However the original airing was recorded properly on my Tivo so didn't need these two extra recordings.

So Tivo at least had the right guide data for this on Cablevision in NY.


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## jr461 (Jul 9, 2004)

jamesbobo said:


> I have FIOS, too. It went as far as when Daryll and the others were surrounded by the walkers. It then went to commercial break and the recording ended.


Fios here and same thing - ended when Alpha pointed the gun at Daryl and told him to go with her. They usually get it right so not sure what happened.


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

VegasVic said:


> How are some of you recording that you missed the last half hour? In my guide (Uverse) it showed as 1:28 minutes and that's what was recorded. TWC often goes beyond an hour. Sometimes by a few minutes, sometimes more.
> 
> This was a good ep, I agree with above, seemed like a good season ender so next week should be good. I don't watch previews





dbranco said:


> Our Comcast recording ended in the same place. Thank goodness for Talking Dead... never would have known that we missed a hugely important half hour! Except of course, coming to this forum and seeing the first post


Comcast here too.

Beta said that if they gave him the girl, no one else had to die. As I started viewing this episode a few minutes in, the recording stopped and dropped me out to what I had been watching before. It seemed like a good place to end the episode (cliff hanger). I just watched a couple other shows until Talking Dead mentioned that people missed the last 25 minutes. I also realized a co-worker's text about the episode made no sense to me. So I setup a manual recording for the next 2 showings and finished it the next day.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

Donbadabon said:


> Ozzy (Highwaymen)
> Alex (Highwaymen)
> Frankie (formerly under Negan)
> DJ (formerly under Negan)
> ...


Thanks for compiling this list. I'm bad with faces, and didn't recognize any of them other than Henry.

Sad to see the Highwaymen go. I thought they added some flavor to this season. The rest of them, meh.



Donbadabon said:


> The repercussions from Carol and Daryl should be epic.


Yeah, but how damn long is it going to take to get there. It took forever to take down Negan.

Furthermore, I don't think Carol and Daryl are up to the task. This is what Negan is being saved for.

My Tivo on Comcast had no trouble recording the full episode. I did catch a spoiler from Talking Dead during Badlands, something about "the most cast members killed in one episode". Fortunately I stopped it before any more was spoiled, but I spent the whole episode waiting for the big scene. I thought it was going to be the theater. A lot of people in the theater. When the big scene finally came, it was a big underwhelming.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

tlc said:


> Wow.
> 
> Another wow. *I never realized that was her*.
> 
> ...


Opie? Like in Ronny Howard, or am I missing another Opie?

As to (bolded by me) Brett Butler, and although I haven't watched this episode yet, I'm really bummed to lose her. I've always liked Brett Butler and it was nice seeing her on tv again. Oh well - easy come easy go I guess.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

sharkster said:


> Opie? Like in Ronny Howard, or am I missing another Opie?


Opie from Sons of Anarchy.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Opie from Sons of Anarchy.


D'oh! Sorry. I didn't watch SoA.

I thought it seemed odd that Ronny Howard would do this gig. LMAO @ self.


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## bryhamm (Jun 30, 2004)

sharkster said:


> D'oh! Sorry. I didn't watch SoA.
> 
> I thought it seemed odd that Ronny Howard would do this gig. LMAO @ self.


Was also in the movie Remember the Titans. He was one of the 2 defensive guys who were were trying to get the groups together and ended up being friends.

Spoiler in case you haven't seen the movie:


Spoiler



He's the one who got in the car accident and got paralyzed.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

markz said:


> Comcast here too.
> 
> Beta said that if they gave him the girl, no one else had to die. As I started viewing this episode a few minutes in, the recording stopped and dropped me out to what I had been watching before. It seemed like a good place to end the episode (cliff hanger). I just watched a couple other shows until Talking Dead mentioned that people missed the last 25 minutes. I also realized a co-worker's text about the episode made no sense to me. So I setup a manual recording for the next 2 showings and finished it the next day.


I'm on FiOS and a "new" recording showed up yesterday. Recorded sometime around 1am. Mine ended during the movie theater. I then watched the rest on the AMC app on my ATV. It had no ads...for now...


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> Opie from Sons of Anarchy.





bryhamm said:


> Was also in the movie Remember the Titans. He was one of the 2 defensive guys who were were trying to get the groups together and ended up being friends.
> 
> Spoiler in case you haven't seen the movie:
> 
> ...


He was also the neighbor in the last season of Bates Motel.


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## MikeMar (Jan 7, 2005)

gossamer88 said:


> I'm on FiOS and a "new" recording showed up yesterday. Recorded sometime around 1am. Mine ended during the movie theater. I then watched the rest on the AMC app on my ATV. It had no ads...for now...


Same, I bet they got a TON of flack for what happened so they flipped the flag for a new episode and put it on for DVRs to pickup


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

dbranco said:


> Our Comcast recording ended in the same place. Thank goodness for Talking Dead... never would have known that we missed a hugely important half hour! Except of course, coming to this forum and seeing the first post


Recorded fine here on our Roamio Pro with Comcast (thank goodness!).

Scott


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