The Whisperers has dug under the skin of each community and we are starting to see some of the members taking it out on other members. Lydia is also getting the worst treatment from some of the members, but she is not letting them get the best of her at all. Meanwhile, there is a bad situation going on over at Hiltop and I will go over it all on my recap of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead titled “Silence The Whisperers.”

The episode opens with music as Michonne has dinner with Judith, RJ, and Daryl. Daryl even left food for Carol, but she is getting a new bandage from Dante. We also see Magna and Yumiko together in a heavy love scene too. As soon as Ezekiel gets up from his bed, he goes outside and then a giant tree falls down and breaks one of the side walls of The Hiltop as walkers are also approaching. Alden and Earl come up with a plan to get rid of the tree and Connie and Kelly talked about it too. Earl thinks that The Whisperers did it since he believes that they are in war with them now. At Alexandria, Aaron is training members of Alexandria on how to fight with a knife and then Gage, Margo, and Alfred makes fun of Lydia by putting on a mask and making a joke towards her. Michonne and Judith and a few others are heading to Hiltop and on their way, Judith told Michonne that she looks worried and also mentioned Carol’s bandages. Michonne asserted her that she is okay and Judith told her that she will be her fresh eyes and ears. Michonne also talks about what happened at Alpha’s border and Judith believes that Alpha wants to have the entire group fight until they are tired. Michonne suddenly stops to see Ezekiel with himself.

When she searched for him deeper in the woods, she noticed that he was by himself at the edge of a high point. Michonne talked Ezekiel into not jumping and he listened. After that, he kissed her and said that he was sorry. Lydia then finds a worm and Negan approached her and they talked about the people that bullied her earlier that day. While Negan was still giving her advice, Daryl interrupted and told her to get away from Negan. Negan told Daryl that she was just trying to fit in with everyone else there and Daryl told him that she cannot do that while he is around her. After Daryl walked away from Negan, he and Lydia talk and then, a “Silence The Whisperers” grafitti was seen by the both of them. Ezekiel and Michonne talk about what just happened and they both even admitted that they would never work as a couple, but maybe in another universe. He talks about everything and everyone that he lost that includes The Kingdom, Benjamin, Henry, Shiva, and even Carol as they divorced. He even says that he does not know how to talk to Carol anymore too and he was not sure what he was going to do when he came out there. Michonne relates to him and tells him about her dark past and that it felt like she was wearing a mask at that time and could not face reality. She also misses Rick Grimes too and she also said that he is not a bad kisser. Ezekiel made sure that he will not make the same mistake again.

Members of The Hiltop are trying to barricade the wall so that way, walkers would not break through. At Alexandria, they are eating dinner and Lydia cuts open a squirrel in front of Margo, Gage, and Alfred and when the blood splattered on Gage, he was disgusted. Daryl questioned if she wanted to live there and they also talked about the grafitti on the doors too. At night, Lydia walks outside of the house and Margo, Gage, and Alfred circle around her. Lydia told them that she was not there the night Alpha made the pikes. They all assualt her and Negan saved her life and not only stopped the fight, but accidentally killed Margo too. Members of Alexandria finds this out and Daryl told Brandon to take Negan back to his cell and helped Lydia get up. Also, Siddiq has another PTSD moment and ran away from everyone and washed his face and dumped his head in the sink water to calm down. Dante is doing his best to heal Lydia’s wounds and Daryl checks in on her. She talks about her dad for a few moments as he protected her. Daryl asked her about what happened and she told him that Negan saved her life.

Daryl then visits Negan at the cell and Negan first asked about Lydia, and then he told Daryl his side of what happened and why Margo was killed as she should have not beaten Lydia up. Daryl told him that he has never been in the same room as him and that since Rick is not here, everyone wants him dead. Negan pokes fun at Daryl for not killing him when they had the chance and questions why he is still alive following their rules. Daryl leaves the cell and speaks to Carol as she mentioned to him that it is the same cycle again as everyone is talking about Negan and not focusing on The Whisperers. Back at Hiltop, everyone is clearing the incoming walkers outside of the wall and it got to a point where they were starting to get overwhelmed. Magna wanted to stay out and finish, but Yumiko told her that there were too many and that they should go behind the gate. They did that, and another part of the wall falls down as walkers started to arrive on that side. Michonne, Judith, Ezekiel and the rest arrived in time to help and we got a cool walker kill sequence with everyone including at one point with Michonne and Judith doing this together.

Michonne and Daryl speak over the radio about what is going on at Alexandria and why they think that Alpha did not kill them at the border and it is all because Lydia is alive and Daryl needs to protect her. Michonne told Daryl to be her proxy when it comes to the vote at the council meeting. At the meeting, they bring up whether if Negan should be alive or not and Siddiq told them that The Whisperers should be the main focus, but Gabriel told him that this meeting is not a discussion about them. Daryl told them that his vote is to not kill Negan since Lydia told him that he saved her life. The vote is now at a stalemate as Gabriel told everyone to rethink their votes in the morning. In the morning, Michonne, Eugene, Yumiko, Luke, and the rest have a meeting at Hiltop about fixing the wall. Eugene told Michonne that he will stay to fix it, Michonne will leave with Judith. After the meeting, Magna tells Yumiko to not watch over her anymore because of what happened last night and Yumiko told her that she could have died if she continued with those walkers the previous night. At Alexandria, Gabriel goes to Negan’s cell to see that he is gone. He alerted Daryl and Aaron and Lydia told Gabriel and Aaron that she let him out while she was walking herself into the cell. Daryl does not believe that she did it, but she told him that she did. She also told him that Alpha was right about what she told her about Alexandria puts on masks to make things seem like they are okay, but it is not. The episode ends as the same song from the opening plays again while we get a montage of both communities getting their things ready to leave while some stay back. Also, the “Silence The Whisperers” grafitti is everywhere now in Alexandria.

This episode is fantastic and I have to give high praise to Khary Payton and Danai for their performance. That conversation was very dark and and it also exposes the mentality of what people go through when they are in that dark mode. I also like how some of the scenes of the comic series was remixed to fit the overall narrative of the scene with Negan saving Lydia. I also like the walker kill sequence at Hiltop and I am curious to know why the tree fell in the first place. Plus, double points for Daryl and Michonne talking about RJ over the radio.

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