Season six of AMC’s The Walking Dead premiere refreshed the audience using black and white scenes used for flashbacks, jumping back and forth to the present time with the group and residents of Alexandria surrounding a walker-crater. This season of The Walking Dead seems like it’s going to be impressive.
*spoiler alert*
Rick was all too eager to kill drunken Pete, Jessie’s abusive husband in the season five finale. Given that Pete had stolen Michonne’s katana sword and sliced Reg’s throat, killing him, Rick had been lusting after Jessie since she cut his hair for him. But with Deanna’s distraught blessing, Rick fired his shot right in Pete’s face, and right in front of Morgan (Lennie James).
Morgan went from psychotic to sensei since the last time Rick saw him. Using his walking stick as his go-to weapon, Morgan said his new skills and way-of-mind were taught by another.
The first episode of the new season, “First Time Again”, related to Rick going trigger-happy on Pete at the exact moment Aaron and Daryl brought back the cool and collected, Morgan into Alexandria. Morgan was the one who saved Rick in the first episode of the series and shared his knowledge of Atlanta’s “dead” status. Will Morgan be able to save Rick from his sadistic and “I don’t take chances anymore” attitude?
Rick has been the leader of his group since season one, but his emotional state has been all over the place. He was moral in season one, but didn’t share the CDC’s secret that everyone becomes a walker when they die. In season two, at the Greene farm, Rick had to kill his best friend Shane which started his fall. At the prison, Rick went from widowed survivor to happy farmer but when he was attacked by the Governor, Carl saw that as weakness, so ever since having to bite a biker’s neck to save Carl from being raped, Rick had become mad and slightly savage.
He was trying to revert back to a more humane state in order to have the Alexandrians follow his lead, but he can’t respect their nativity towards the walkers and outside threats. New character Carter (Ethan Embry) questioned Rick’s takeover of the town. The only reason the town had been safe for so long was because of the walker-crater-pit. Semi-trucks were placed to block the exit roads from the sink-hole and noises were made attract more walkers there. Rick’s plan were to herd the walkers west from the town using cars to block the sides, a color-coded balloon system for points of interest, and Daryl riding his classic motorcycle leading the walkers like a leader of the dead.
Carol was continuing her weak and innocent persona in the premiere but Morgan was catching on to her lie, asking her how long she had been with Rick and if she was even a cop because she watched everyone’s move and was ready.
The episode introduced comic-book character Heath (Corey Hawkins) as a supply runner who had been on a supply run for weeks and had missed all of the action. He asked Eugene how many people were in his group and he said 13, but corrected himself and said 12. Though he didn’t include Rick’s baby Judith in the count, this was a reminder that Noah was killed saving Glenn in the turnstile after coward, Nicholas pushed through to save himself.
Though the premiere was a scheduled 90 minutes with commercials included, the episode only tacked on about another 20 minutes worth of content. That aside, the season premiere gave fans the most walkers versus humans scenario in a long time and it will be terrifying and exciting to see which characters do or die by the end of the season. Will the walkers be the biggest threat to the group? Or will they finally meet the conniving Wolves who have strung up walker traps and marked their territory with W’s? Will Enid be revealed as a former or present member of the Wolves? But most importantly, Who blew that horn!?
Answers will soon be revealed in Robert Kirkman’s, The Walking Dead series that continues to impress and petrify.