‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘The Storm’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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Over the course of its illustrious nine-year run, The Walking Dead has provided its audience with plenty of incredible concepts to ponder upon. Because the journey that Rick Grimes started with all of us, has taken the fanbase to some supremely dark places, the kind that force the viewer to wonder, what they would do in that kind of situation, and whether or not they could be as bold as Rick and his friends when faced with insurmountable odds. If anything, this has always been a brilliant storytelling decision in my mind, simply due to the fact that it adds realism to this tale for the audience and it’s also allowed for the story to explore the human condition along the way, in both broad and intimate fashion.
 
For some of these moments, have explored mankind as a whole, diving into the sheer cruelty that we are capable of when we are unrestrained by rules or conscience, and the series has also explored the flip-side of that, by showing us the wonders we can accomplish when we band together in the face of a common cause. As for the more intimate moments this grand story has provided us with, well, it’s reminded us of the power of loss on a consistent basis since we can all agree that things aren’t always quite the same when a character leaves the show, as is the case when someone leaves us in real life and we’ve also been privy to countless moments of strife and beauty that each one of us relate to on some particular level and all of this on my mind today, simply due to the fact that last night’s season nine finale of the show, ‘The Storm’, combined all of those storytelling elements into this particular tale, making for one powerful and emotional ride.
 
In fact, the series wasted little time in reminding us of how sometimes, bad things come in bunches for us since we were immediately privy to a stunning turn of events in that, The Kingdom had fallen thanks to disrepair and some off screen fires that ravaged this once proud community and that meant with winter falling upon Ezekiel’s people, it was safer to leave this place behind and start anew at Hilltop. But the gravity of this decision was not lost upon the audience, for we saw how this nearly devastated both the king and his queen since this was another powerful blow to their respective psyches mere months after losing their darling son to Alpha’s devastating attack and the series continued its somber exploration upon the power of loss by focusing upon Carol and Ezekiel and Lydia’s collective pain.
 
For all of them were reeling from the loss of Henry, to the point where Lydia was turning suicidal, since she blamed herself for the death of her young love and felt as though her exit would somehow heal Carol’s pain and speaking of her, we once again found Carol at quite the crossroads. Because losing a second child in her lifetime was quite the cross to bear and she found herself on shaky ground, to the point where she felt as though she might be slipping into the abyss that nearly consumed her years ago, and she was unsure of how to proceed forward at this point since it seemed she had nothing left in life to hold on to. If anything, it appeared that this episode was about to slide into some supremely dark territory, for Alpha’s cruelty had clearly broken so many, accomplishing her mission to instill great fear in her enemies. 

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​But that’s when this episode took quite the unexpected turn. For as Alexandria and our caravan of refugees from the Kingdom hunkered down to survive a brutal and powerful blizzard that moved into Virginia quickly, something began to change. There was no longer a sense of defeat and despair, instead those dark emotions were replaced by a newfound sense of purpose, driven by the need to survive. For if the refugees and their saviors were to make it to tomorrow, they would need to leave the ‘lavish comfort’ of the Sanctuary and head to Hilltop on foot, and the fastest way there, was to cut through Whisperer territory and in inspiring fashion, everyone banded together and worked to fight through the blasting snow and half-frozen walkers to make their way to their destination.
 
As an added bonus, the uplifting nature of this tale didn’t end with that magnificent push, since we saw a sense of community return to Alexandria as well. For with their batteries depleted everyone was forced to hunker down in large homes and places with fireplaces, and I do mean everyone since Negan was released from his cell so he wouldn’t freeze to death. But when a problem with the fireplace forced Negan’s group to head toward Aaron’s place in order to keep warm from the sub-zero temperatures surrounding them, another magical moment came to pass. For when Judith ran off into the storm to save Daryl’s dog, Negan was the first and only man to chase after her and care for her, and he fought through injury and the cold to keep her safe and it was just incredible to see Negan redeem himself in such sudden and swift and fashion.
 
If anything, these elements made the back half of the episode incredibly engrossing to watch, especially when one considers that Lydia was brought back from the brink by an ailing Carol and that Michonne inspired Ezekiel and likely those at Hilltop to stick together and believe in the power of community since strength in numbers would aid them from any further infiltration down the line and well, this episode was a wonderful way to bring together all of the themes that season nine has been playing with and it was equally magnificent to see storytelling elements that are often used on this series in negative fashion be flipped into a positive light because I really did feel inspired watching this one and my spirits were definitely soaring at the end of this finale when a snowball fight served as the only real human conflict in this tale…
 
However, while that is quite the happy ending for this show, plenty of surprises were set up for season ten. After all, we saw that the Whisperers didn’t learn about the crossing since they’re someplace warm for the winter, but they are still preparing for war. And of course, there’s that mysterious radio signal at the end of the story that clued us into the fact that the world is about expand for our survivors once again. But in the here and the now, this really was quite the unique and awesome season finale when all is said and done. For we finally got to see what happens to the dead in the wintertime, and the trek to Hilltop provided us with some supremely chilling moments (pun half intended) and really, that is all one can ask for when it comes to this series, since this finale tried new things in every way imaginable and it really did end in uplifting fashion and well, this bold year of storytelling has me supremely excited to tune in next season to learn more about who is on the other end of that radio, and what kind of conflict awaits these newly unified communities when the Whisperers return home in the Spring. Until next year.  

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