“The Walking Dead” returns from its mid-season finale on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014 at 9:00 PM ET/PT on AMC. The last episode saw Hershel get beheaded by the Governor, saw the Governor die, and witnessed the empty bloody carseat of baby Judith. And while the battle is seemingly over, the survivors are far from safe. “They’re definitely in the most dangerous position that they’ve been in yet, which is where all of the characters are coming out of this episode,” teased Robert Kirkman in a TVLine interview. “We do some really interesting changes in these characters as they’re put to the test and have to decide what they’re willing to do to survive and how they’re going to allow this new environment and new danger to affect them, which is what The Walking Dead is all about.” Here are 6 spoilers you need to know about the second half of “The Walking Dead”:
1. The Governor will be back. “Something happened to him. I feel like a shady politician where I can’t confirm and I can’t deny anything,” said actor David Morrissey, who plays the Governor, to the Press Association. “Certainly, bad things befell him at the end of the last episode but we just have to wait and see.” And while Morrissey’s cryptic response suggests that the Governor will be back, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd has confirmed that he’s dead. “That was a head shot! Lilly shot him.” Could the Governor be comatose? Or will he be back in one of the flashback episodes that executive producer Robert Kirkman made reference to in his interview with TVGuide?
2. Baby Judith is alive. This may not be a spoiler, but it’s an educated guess. While fans saw Rick and Carl discover a bloody carseat without Judith inside, there was no body confirming that Judith is, in fact, dead. And since Judith in the television series has lasted longer than the character in comic, the creative team of the show can really take her character’s life span in any direction. Adding to the ‘Judith is alive’ theory is the fact that the baby was exempt from the “Talking Dead” memorial reel. “There was a lot of blood in that car seat, I don’t know,” said Kirkman in an interview. “You’ll have to tune in.”
3. Rick will be traumatized. Rick has been through a lot and his mental state will be great when the show returns. “Not good is the short answer. There’s always a new low. Whenever I see someone say, “Oh, Rick is at his low!” I’m like, really? Just wait. He’s definitely in a bad place,” reveals Kirkman to Entertainment Weekly. “He and Carl are gonna be on their own for a bit. There’s some pretty dark stuff on the road ahead. They’re both in pretty bad shape. This will be the low for a while and then we’ll find a new one later on, hopefully.”
4. The survivors will hunt for a new home. The survivors will be looking for a new place to live after the battle at the prison. The creative team is notorious for not following the comics, so fans can’t necessarily know for sure exactly where the survivors will be going. “If you know the comic, there are a lot of differences from the comic that we do and a lot of differences that we have to do,” said showrunner Scott Gimple to The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s going to be a lot of familiar stuff, brand-new stuff and remixed stuff. There are some things where you will totally know them and hopefully be expecting them, and then there will be stuff that’s brand-new that you have no idea if it’s coming but it will circle around to moments from the comic. It’s very much like these eight. Comic fans once again will absolutely see a lot of iconic moments.”
5. Episode 9 will be identical to the comics. The cast and creative team of “The Walking Dead” have long hinted that there will be an episode that will be verbatim to the comics. The first episode back from the mid-season finale, episode 9, will be the episode. “Episode 9 will probably be the episode that’s closest to a direct adaptation from the comic book aside from the premiere episode,” said Kirkman. “It’s been a lot of fun for me working on them because I’m basically just rewriting something I’ve already written, which means I get to go back in and go, ‘Woah, what’d you do there? Let’s fix that.'” The episode will focus on Carl Grimes, who will save the day.
6. A major character will die. Comicbook.com reports that in the second half, a major character will die. “However, we’ve got a pretty good indication of which cast member will be dying, and let’s just say it will be a real shocker,” writes Comicbook.com. “If what we believe is correct, then one of the main cast members who has not been killed in the comic book series will die during Season 4.”
