The Walking Dead had properly introduced the Whisperers in the midseason finale. Eugene was adamant that the walkers were evolving after he and Rosita heard them talking amongst themselves with one another. However, they were not evolving because they were human.
Showrunner Angela Kang wanted to get it out there who exactly were the Whisperers. She says, “yeah, we established this little mystery of, are the walkers evolving? And I felt that we really needed the answer by the end of the midseason. So we wanted to at least set the table and have our characters find that there is a human factor at play, but a very strange human factor that’s unlike any that we’ve encountered so far. The masks are really creepy and strange and coming off of the shocking death of Jesus in the moment, it’s something that our characters are just trying to process so much at the end of the season.”
We had been long teased about seeing the Whisperers. Their introduction came at the end of the episode where one kills Jesus. “We’ll really get to dive into what that philosophy of the Whisperers is, the way that they go about things,” says Kang. “They’re not really a group that is big talk and no action. They stick to what they believe in, to sort of terrifying ends. So it’s a really interesting time for our characters, having to come up against a group that just does not think or behave anything like any other group they have ever come across before.
The episode also showed Negan’s escape from his home – his cell. Where he goes from there will show viewers whether Negan has changed. Kang says, “he gets his jail-break, and he goes out there in the world. So I think there’s some really cool stuff coming up with Jeffrey as Negan in the next episode as well as just in that main story having to do with the Whisperers and that unfolding narrative that happens.” Negan’s character is one of the most interesting to watch because of his unpredictability.
The Walking Dead will return on February 10.