[RECAP] Season 9, Episode 9 of The Walking Dead, "Adaptation"

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So after the shocking death of our beloved Jesus, we are back with the midseason premiere of The Walking Dead entitled “Adaptation”.  We pick up exactly where we left off which is in the cemetery, with our heroes trying to assess the danger around them.  This includes the scene where we see our crew surrounded by walkers and…others.  All of a sudden of these supposed walkers jumps out and tries to strike Michonne with a knife but Yumiko is fast enough to take them down with an arrow before that could happen.  The crew decides to get out of this area as soon as possible and so they quickly gather Jesus’ body and make their way out of the cemetery, shutting the gate as they leave…not realizing that a supposed walker has reached with their hand out and has unlocked the gate.  Cue the credits.

When we come back, we also pick up where we left off with Negan.  He has escaped from his jail cell after realizing that it had been left unlocked.  He has a shovel and heads over to Michonne’s home, clearly with the intention of killing her and…taking over?  We’ll never know however since he unintentionally enters Judith’s room instead and sees a child’s hand drawn picture posted on the wall entitled “My Family” and it shows likenesses of Michonne, Rick, Judith and even little RJ.  Negan sees this image and completely has a change of heart and instead, swipes Judith’s compass, changes into some civilian clothes (Rick’s old clothes?) and decides to just leave Alexandria.  In his attempt to scale the wall, he is stopped by little Judith who has a gun on him and threatens him about escaping.  Using the old Negan charm as well as the seemingly established relationship between the two, he’s able to convince her that there is nothing left for him here and rather than waste away in a cell, he’d rather take his chances out there (even though Judith warns him about there not being anything left out there for him).  Before leaving, Judith tells him that he can keep her compass and he assures her that he’ll never kill anyone again.  And with that, he’s off…but not before Judith tells him next time she sees him, she won’t hesitate to shoot.

Meanwhile our crew is on their way back to The Hilltop to return Jesus’ body for a proper burial as well as to bring Eugene in for medical treatment to his leg.  As a nod to the past, Michonne is thankful to Daryl for bringing back Jesus and for all the time and effort he put in to try and find Rick’s body (obviously to no avail).

As they continue on their journey, they come across a bridge that seems to have a handful of walkers stumbling toward them…or are they?  In light of what they just went through in the cemetery, Daryl very cleverly raises his crossbow and shoots at one walker through the leg.  No reaction of course.  He then shoots another “walker” through the leg and this time the walker screams in pain and falls to the ground proving that this was yet another human dressed in zombie skins.  His screams immediately attract the ACTUAL walkers and he is devoured while in the meantime, another “walker” pulls out a knife and attempts to attack Michonne.  This is all for naught of course, since Michonne kills him fairly quickly with her katana.  The last remaining “walker” surrounds on her knees immediately and when Daryl pulls off the face mask, we see that it is a young woman, clearly terrified.  Daryl and Michonne instantly start asking her questions as to how many more of her people are there, which she lies about (of course).  Daryl states that she should be taken in as their hostage for further questioning.  Michonne is not crazy about this but agrees to allow it. 

At the Hilltop, a proper burial is had for Jesus and the interrogation of the captive young girl begins.  Unfortunately, all the threats and intimidation do nothing to pursue here therefore, they leave her to stew in her cell until they figure out the next steps.  Young Henry happens to be in the cell next to her and they start to develop a “friendship” which Daryl is VERY well aware, as he is seen eavesdropping outside the cell window.

And speaking of eavesdropping, Eugene eavesdrops on Siddiq and Rosita’s conversation and finds out she’s pregnant with his baby!  Talk about drama…

Meanwhile, Negan is off on his own journey, with nothing other than the clothes on his back on a knapsack full of food, liquids, and supplies.  It’s not entirely clear how much time goes by while he’s out there, but we get to a point where he has run out of food and water and is struggling to find resources.  He attempts to drink from a lake or stream, only to end up having an adverse reaction to it.

FUN FACT: Did you pick up that the clearing where Negan was throwing up on his knees was the same clearing where the original line up happened and he killed Abraham and Glenn?

After a quick visit to a department store where he gets another leather jacket (and narrowly escapes some feral dogs) he eventually he arrives at The Sanctuary, home sweet home…or so he thinks.  Upon arrival, he’s greeted to a gutted, waterlogged space, devoid of any humans.  He does the old Savior whistle to no avail.  It definitely begs the question as to what in the WORLD happened during the 6 year time jump that caused The Sanctuary’s ultimate demise and why is Negan not shocked at what he sees.  How much does he know about what occurred and how much was he INVOLVED in what occurred.  He was borderline suicidal before the time jump and afterward he was in much better spirits and groomed.  Does what happened here have anything to do with that? 

In any case, he takes a lay of the land and even tries arranging some leftover furniture but it’s all pointless.  Everyone is gone with the exception of a few walker Saviors one of whom (Big Richie) he comments was loyal until the very end.  He tries to lock himself in and avoid having to kill or hurt anyone but he can’t escape it anymore and ultimately ends up killing the walkers outside, as well as loyal Big Richie walker.  He DOES however, manage to find a motorcycle that appears to have been hidden within the Sanctuary, as an emergency vehicle.  With his leather jacket and bike, he leaves the Sanctuary and is driving down the road…when he is promptly shot off his bike by Judith (truthfully, she shot at the wheel not at him it seems).  She tells him that there are people searching for him and she told him there was nothing for him out there.  He agrees and after a hilarious exchange (“Language!  I’m a kid asshole!”), he voluntarily agrees to come back to Alexandria with her. 

Finally, we come to find out Luke and Alden went out to try and find Jesus and team (completely unaware that they have already returned to Hilltop with Jesus’ body in tow).  As they revisit where our team was, they follow a trail of arrows, since Luke insists that those are Yumiko’s arrows and she left them as a direction or “sign”.  They keep following the trail until they come across a terrifying moment of a walker standing in the middle of woods…you simply stands there, staring at them.  At that point, they realize they are surrounded by supposed walkers until finally one female masked walker pulls a gun on them and simply says, “Trail Ends Here”. 

Yikes. So are Luke and Alden done for?  And who are these masked walker people?

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