The Walking Dead: Season 9 Episode 1 Explained
What happened in TWD's premiere, A New Beginning, and what does it mean?
The Walking Dead is back, baby!
After an eventful spring/summer break, during which time it was announced that Angela Kang would be replacing Scott Gimple as showrunner, and that Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan would be leaving the show (the former permanently, the latter TBC), the show has returned for its ninth season on the back of a seriously declining viewership and critical acclaim at a low-point.
A New Beginning, then, aims to get the series back on track by offering up a fresh start. There's a new credits sequence, just to help hammer the point home, and an 18-month time jump to ensure the remnants of All Out War are left in the dust.
We're venturing into a brave new world for The Walking Dead, albeit one that might be arriving too late. The premiere episode does fall victim to a few familiar problems, not least of all pacing (yet again it proves TWD should NEVER have an hour-long episode), but there's also a lot to like, and plenty of intriguing setup for the future, but what does it all mean?
Contains spoilers.