Season 10, Episode 11
- Hilltop braces for the beginning of the Whisperer War as Alpha’s horde closes in.
Beta and the Whisperers begin gathering sacs full of tree sap. Meanwhile, Negan reluctantly partakes in whipping Alpha and allowing her to whip him. He later suggests to Alpha that instead of wiping out the communities, she force them to kneel before her and join her. Alpha seems interested in the idea. Eventually, the time comes, and the Whisperer march begins. Beta marches at the back of the pack, fuming as he sees Negan, now wearing a Whisperer mask, marching alongside Alpha, who orders her pack to "take them all."
Ezekiel finds Carol sulking in the woods and comforts her, asking her to come back to Hilltop with him. Aaron's group arrives at Hilltop as well, and Aaron explains to Earl that Mary has defected from the Whisperers and wishes to see Adam, her nephew. Earl is enraged at the prospect of a former member of the group who murdered his adoptive mother Tammy seeing his own adoptive son and refuses, and is backed up by Alden.
Eugene is on the radio with Stephanie, having gotten much more comfortable with her and she him, as he searches for an Iron Maiden vinyl. She mentions having seen the recent satellite crash, and Eugene pieces together that they are within a few hundred miles of each other. Eugene suggests that they meet up, and Stephanie hesitates, but eventually agrees to talk to her community about setting up a meeting. However, she asks that he not allow anyone else on the radio with her or she will cut contact, and Eugene agrees.
Daryl and Lydia arrive, and warn the community that they've witnessed the Whisperer horde on the march. The community is rattled by the incoming invasion and discusses what to do. Earl insists they stay and fight, but Aaron and the others opine they couldn't possibly hold out against the horde's numbers. Even when Earl demands they face the end fighting, Daryl refuses, and decides to order an evacuation to Oceanside; but first, they must evacuate the children. Judith, RJ, and the other children are rounded up into a wagon with Daryl and Diane, but they find their path blocked by a fallen tree and some hung walkers that were Hilltop members. Daryl recognizes this as a Savior scare tactic and that Negan has joined the Whisperers.
With no choice as the other roads are surely blocked the same way, Daryl leads a retreat back to Hilltop and announces there's no way for them to form a mass evacuation, let alone of the children. With Alexandria and Oceanside both too far away, no reinforcements will be coming. Though the community is distressed, Earl orders everyone to get it together since they knew this war was inevitable. With no other choice, preparations for battle get underway.
With Eugene having stepped away, Rosita makes her way to the attic to talk to him, and happens upon Stephanie. She tries to talk to her, but Stephanie immediately hangs up as she promised. Eugene runs in and lashes out at Rosita for scaring Stephanie away. Meanwhile, Mary has a chance to see Adam and does so, but is caught by Alden who viciously rips into her for coming near him. Carol goes to Ezekiel's room to talk, and discovers his lump and realizes what it means. The ex-husband and wife sleep together, and when Ezekiel asks if Carol would've done this if they weren't about to die, she changes the subject, but comforts him. Carol later meets with Lydia, who assures her she doesn't hate her and forgives her.
Yumiko, Luke, and Kelly work on the barricade being formed outside the walls, and Yumiko insists to Kelly that they'll find Connie and Magna. A swarm of rats emerges from the treeline, and Yumiko realizes the horde is closing in. Eugene works on an electrical contraption when Rosita arrives and asks about Stephanie. Eugene is despondent and apologizes, but is sure that he's lost his connection with Stephanie. Rosita puts two and two together - Stephanie must like him if she spent days on end talking to him, and tells Eugene to go after her. She then surprises him by offering him the chance to kiss her, and Eugene closes in... but can't bring himself to do so, admitting he wants to kiss Stephanie instead. Eugene and Rosita are delighted with what this means, and Rosita declares that even in the face of death, they won't bend down to the Whisperers. Eugene gives her a platonic kiss on the cheek and returns to the attic, and sings "As the Cold Wind Blows" as a desperate attempt to reach out to Stephanie. It works, and Stephanie sings back to him, and they reconcile as Eugene explains she heard from Rosita, his best friend. Stephanie seizes the moment and invites him to meet her in a week's time in West Virginia.
The citizens of Hilltop and the Kingdom brace themselves as night begins to fall. Daryl meets with Ezekiel and apologizes noticing his lump, but tells the former king that he's grateful to have him with them and so are other people. Ezekiel says it means a lot, and the two men promise each other that if something happens to one of them, the other will evacuate the children. Daryl finds Judith and orders her to stay out of the fight, and Judith agrees as she fears for RJ's safety. She presents him with a repaired and repainted vest, which he loves. Finally, Daryl pays one last visit to Glenn and Abraham's graves where Carol approaches him to try to apologize again. But Daryl has none of it, and insists he will never hate her.
Come nightfall, the allied citizens gather at the walls and in the garden outside, ready for this last stand.
The Whisperer horde arrives and walks into an electrical trap left by Eugene, though it only briefly slows them down. The horde splits into two groups, and Aaron leads the charge as the survivors clash with the horde at the barricade. Countless walkers are felled, but soon the Whisperers prepare their true attack. Beta commands a group of Whisperers to use slingshots to launch the sacs of tree sap at the Hilltop defenders, dousing them in the sticky substance. Then the Whisperers prepare to open fire on the group with flaming arrows.
Negan questions Alpha since she said she'd let them join her, but Alpha reveals they'll only join them as part of the horde. Negan takes part in the volley of arrows, and the survivors realize they're doused in flammable sap. They're forced to retreat from the barricade, only to be stuck as the gates of Hilltop are set ablaze as well.
- Adaptation Distillation: The Whisperers’ assault on Hilltop is adapted from issue #160 of the comics, though as noted below, Alpha was not present for the attack.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Alpha has set out to wipe out the allied communities, starting with Hilltop.
- Call-Back:
- Aaron’s tactics with the shields and breaking ranks into two call back to the training at Oceanside in the season premiere “Lines We Cross”.
- In “Silence the Whisperers”, Alden and Earl suggested to Yumiko that they build catapults and other heavy weapons using the tree that fell on Hilltop’s gate. They have since gone ahead with their idea as shown by the opening of the episode.
- Eugene began speaking to the woman over the radio, Stephanie, back in “Bonds”.
- Cliffhanger: The Hilltop defenders are caught between the advancing horde and a fire the Whisperers have set to the gates of the community.
- Cliffhanger Copout: The third-to-last commercial break cliffhanger is Yumiko announcing to Hilltop that the horde is close based on the swarm of rats fleeing the tree line. The horde doesn't actually arrive until the dead of night, several hours later, though the fact that rats are already fleeing the horde several hours in advance sells just how massive they are in numbers.
- Continuity Nod:
- Adam was left by Frances back in Season 9’s “Bounty”, with Earl being left as his father in “The Calm Before” after Tammy’s murder.
- Negan tries to convince Alpha to have the communities surrender to her control as opposed to massacring them. In his time as leader of the Saviors, he always championed letting his vassal states live to serve him as opposed to killing them all.
- When Daryl, Diane, and Lydia’s group encounter the roadblock and the hanged scouts, Daryl recognizes it as Negan’s handiwork, and the scratchy Savior leitmotif returns. Such a roadblock and hanged victims first appeared as part of Simon’s blockades back in Season 6’s “Last Day On Earth”.
- When Ezekiel insists his lump is nothing, Carol tells him “never bullshit a bullshitter”, calling back to their first meeting in Season 7’s “The Well”.
- Carol takes a look at the portraits of Glenn, Hershel, and Beth on Maggie’s wall that Anne painted sometime between Seasons 8 and 9.
- In Season 9’s “Guardians”, Lydia opined that Hilltop would not be able to withstand an assault from even half of the Whisperers’ numbers. This episode seems to confirm her belief, as even when Hilltop has been joined by the refugees from the Kingdom, they simply don’t have the numbers to stand against the Whisperers, let alone their massive horde.
- Everyone Has Standards: Negan is pretty freaked out at having to whip Alpha, and naturally isn’t too hot about getting whipped himself.
- Exact Words: Alpha agreed with Negan’s proposition that they have the communities join their ranks... but as Alpha reveals towards the end of the episode, she wants them to join her as part of her horde, not via subjugation like Negan believed.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Judith adds a new angel wing to Daryl's jacket, only it's blue unlike the original.
- Foreboding Fleeing Flock: When Yumiko, Kelly, and Luke witness a horde of rats fleeing from the woods, they realize the horde is approaching.
- Kill It with Fire: The Whisperers use fire as a critical part of their attack strategy. Beta harvests numerous tree saps to douse the survivors with, and then the Whisperers launch a volley of flaming arrows at them to burn them to death. At least one Red Shirt ultimately dies this way before the group retreats.
- Leave No Survivors:Whisperers: We take them all.
- Mythology Gag: Rosita gives Eugene a chance to kiss her, a nod to their comic relationship.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Through no fault of her own, Rosita picks up the radio while Stephanie is on, potentially causing her to cease all contact with Eugene.
- Now or Never Kiss:
- Carol has sex with Ezekiel, but when Ezekiel questions if it’s this trope in play, Carol denies it.
- Rosita offers Eugene a chance to kiss her, but he ultimately settles for kissing her on the cheek, his heart set on Stephanie.
- Papa Wolf: Earl is very against letting Mary see her nephew, and his new son.
- Pre-Climax Climax: Carol and Ezekiel briefly reconnect before the start of the battle.Ezekiel: That was fun.
Carol: That was never our problem. - Shirtless Scene: Ezekiel after having sex with Carol.
- Ship Sinking: Eugene moves past his love for Rosita, having become interested in Stephanie, and calls her his best friend.
- Ship Tease: Eugene has become close to Stephanie and the pair really want to meet.
- Spared by the Adaptation: As of this episode, Alpha. In the comics, Negan killed her which caused Beta to take command of the Whisperers and officially begin the war. Here, she is the one who declares and begins waging the Whisperer War.
- Villain Has a Point: Alpha recognizes that Negan jokes to hide his fear.
- Wham Shot: Negan’s first appearance wearing a Whisperer mask.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Eugene laments that he thinks he’s failed with women for the millionth time, Rosita tells him to not worry about how others think and that he clearly has game if he’s talked to Stephanie this much.
- Zerg Rush: Downplayed. The Whisperer strategy seems to boil down to throwing their horde at Hilltop, but it’s soon made clear they only sent in a small chunk of their horde first to tire out the defenders, while they prepare to personally attack themselves.
