REVIEW: The Walking Dead, S9 Ep13 – Chokepoint

This week’s The Walking Dead sees an intense fight between Daryl and Beta while Carol and Ezekiel deal with some new troublemakers. Picking up from the end of last week’s episode, Daryl, Connie, Henry, and Lydia flee the wrath of the Whisperers. Connie suggests a plan to trap their pursuers and eliminate them one by one, a plan that proves to be quite effective.

Back in the Kingdom, Carol and Ezekiel receive a note from a new group calling themselves the Highwaymen, demanding a steep price for safety. It was strange to introduce yet another faction and potential threat when the Whisperers are already the big bad of The Walking Dead this season, as another reviewer notes. But it turns out, the confrontation between the Kingdom and the Highwaymen led to a rare moment of levity. Carol and Ezekiel refused their demands but offered them a deal – a chance to watch a movie. And they get on board, luckily, and even help out Tara and her people. It’s amazing how the promise of a movie in the midst the apocalypse can bring people together. I just hope that Ezekiel and his team have some fun films in store for their captive audience.

The real meat of this episode was Daryl and his group’s daring escape. They’ve only been working together for a few episodes but it’s clear that Daryl and Connie make a great team. Both capable fighters and quick to think on their feet, they are the reason annoying Henry has survived this long. Their plan works like a charm and Daryl gets to face off with the only Whisperer (other than Alpha) who matters.

It’s an epic fight and one with a truly scary opponent but Daryl wins in the end. But Beta somehow survived his fall and so we’ll be seeing him again, probably when everything blows up between the Whisperers and the other communities.

There was some icky teenage romance between Henry and Lydia which, I suppose was inevitable. But I’m glad Daryl interrupted their make-out session and reminded them of their priorities. While I’m still a bit on the fence about Lydia’s trustworthiness, she doesn’t seem to be that much of a threat anymore and it’s Daryl and Connie’s sympathy for her situation that has kept her from harm.

Everything seems to be going well in the Kingdom and the preparations for the big trade fair are underway. Again, one can’t but feel apprehensive when characters are safe and happy on The Walking Dead because this tends to be a calm before the storm situation. And with only a few episodes left before the end and with the Whisperers hell bent on destruction, things are going going to get ugly.