The Walking Dead season 9 premiere review: Is this New Beginning really any better?

Callan McAuliffe as Alden, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC

Later that night, Maggie takes a walk with Hershel in his stroller, and Gregory tells Maggie that someone sabotaged Glenn’s grave site knowing well that she would head in the direction of the cemetery instead of waiting for morning. Maggie is intercepted by a hooded person who attacks her and knocks Hershel right out of his stroller. Enid comes running to help but is knocked out the way. Two other Hilltop residents finally get their hands on the hooded figure, and Maggie removes his hood and sees that its Earl.

Suddenly, Gregory’s conversation before the attack makes sense and Maggie goes to his house to confront him. It doesn’t take long for Gregory to break and admit that he’s bitter that Maggie won the election after he was the one that built Hilltop. Gregory was willing to have someone else kill Maggie for him to get back his precious position at Hilltop but there’s no real surprise there. He attacks Maggie with a knife with the promise that he will claim self-defense once he kills her but Maggie overcomes him.

The next day Rick arrives at Hilltop with the contract and ideas about building the bridge in mind. Maggie isn’t so easy about volunteering her services to the Saviors cause anymore. She tells Rick that she will supply food but that she expects the Saviors to put in the labor at the bridge on her behalf and she wants some of that corn fuel. The Sanctuary is barely holding on with the few supplies that they have, I mean, the fuel is made from dead crops so how much lousy corn could they possibly have? Rick may have a problem convincing them to trade in exchange, and that may increase the Saviors that are silently wishing for Negan.

Maggie also tells Rick that he didn’t follow her as promised but she understands because she wasn’t a leader. I’m guessing she means that now she is. Maggie asks the town to put the kids to sleep in time for an execution. Instead of killing Earl, who had been the one to attack Maggie in the first place, Maggie places Gregory in a noose. Maggie has Daryl set the hanging in motion in front of Rick, Michonne, Hilltop, and Tammy Rose and Earl. Some small children, unfortunately, run out and witness the hanging, causing Michonne to cry out for Maggie to stop, but Maggie stubbornly continues.

Gregory is dead, and Maggie got to show Rick that Hilltop takes justice into their hands, but at what cost? Those kids surely have to be traumatized if walkers haven’t done it already. And have Tammy Rose and Earl put their issues to rest or do they see Maggie as the murderer of two people now? But the first person that is going to have words to say about the callous fashion of this hanging will be Rick, and Maggie will more than likely circle back to the fact that Rick didn’t kill Negan.

Undead Afterthoughts:

• Negan does not appear in the episode once. It will be interesting to see what he thinks is happening outside the walls of his room.
• At the museum, Siddiq almost gets bitten by a walker that had spiders coming out from the eyes and mouth. As promised by the showrunners, The Walking Dead resembles the first few seasons of the show. The scene brought back memories of how the creative walkers of yesteryear would gross us out.
• Hershel is the cutest baby ever
• Maggie has not visited Alexandria since Negan was taken as a prisoner. What are the chances that she will visit this year with the intention to release and kill him?

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