The Walking Dead Season 9: 3 Ups & 1 Down From 'Chokepoint'

Downs...

1. Those Pesky Conveniences

While Chokepoint provides viewers with complex dilemmas, brilliant brawls, and decent pacing, the episode falls victim to one of The Walking Dead's most annoying - and frequent - issues. The plot conveniences are rife throughout, which unfortunately degrades the rather enthralling instalment.

In order to create conflict among The Kingdom-dwellers, the writers implemented a new threat in the form of The Highway Men, who are threatening to prevent the other communities from attending The Fair. But how did these new bad guys learn about The Fair exactly?

Well, we're not actually given a straight answer to this conundrum, so the writers have Jerry suggest that he may have said something about The Fair to one of his mates when he was last outside the gates, which The Highway Men must have overheard.

This explanation (or lack of) is sloppy at best. If someone outside the Kingdom learned about The Fair, then surely Carol or Ezekiel would be more suspicious - perhaps they'd even think someone was spying on them? Or perhaps they'd assume The Kingdom has a mole? After everything they went through with the Saviours, they'd ask more questions about where this outsider got his information.

In addition to this, the fact that Beta returns to his feet after a severe fall down an elevator shaft is similarly sigh-worthy. If the writers aren't prepared to kill Beta yet - and they shouldn't be, as he's a great character - then they should refrain from the contrived near-death experiences.

What did you make of Chokepoint? Tell us in the comment section below.