Omega

This episode was one of the best filler episodes thanks to the wonderful writing and acting, making the jail scenes work perfectly as Norman Reedus and Cassady McClincy had chemistry and just seeing Cassady portray Lydia in such a believable and true form as the character is truly broken, won't spoil anything more than she does an incredible performance. Letting the camera and story focus more with Magna's group is nice to see as more screen time means more development and that's a good thing for new viewers that haven't read the graphic novels. The focus on telling Lydia and Alpha's backstory was a good idea, I can't wait to see what Angela Kang and the film crew bring next to the remaining 6 episodes.

Samantha Morton was the highlight, seeing her act was interesting, strong acting. She doesn't really have the same body type as Alpha in the graphic novel but it looks natural and with her as woman makes Alpha even more terrifying. I'm glad she got the role, only good things can come from her as Alpha.

In Hilltop, Henry has a long conversation with the Whisperer Lydia about her life, unaware that Daryl, Enid and other leaders of Hilltop are listening to. They learn that Lydia-s mother is a cruel woman and leader of the Whisperers. Meanwhile, the newcomers Yumiko, Magna, Connie and Kelly join Tara in the unsuccessful search party for Alden and Luke. During the night, they disobey Tara and sneak out from Hilltop to search Luke and Aiden. When they return to Hilltop, they are followed by Alpha and her group.

"Omega" is a great sequel of "Adaptation" introducing Alpha, the leader of the dangerous Whisperers. The stupid Henry again jeopardizes his friends exposing not only Hilltop, but also The Kingdom to a dangerous stranger that is a member of a group that killed Jesus. The group of newcomers also does not follow Tara´s direct order and also jeopardize Hilltop. Maggie needs to return to Hilltop and to the show to control these irresponsible people. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Omega"

Really well acted tonight between Daryl and Lydia an interesting relationship with Daryl seeing himself in Lydia. The flash backs were used really effectively dropping through-out the episode making the whisperes feel more humanised. Really liking the slow and intense build up to the whisperes!

Character over plot, character over action. Those are the things I have been waiting this show to get back to after a few seasons (albeit good seasons) of more plot focused episodes, rather than keeping the focus on developing characters. Daryl got more to do in this episode emotionally than the past 3 or 4 seasons combined, sans his one episode at The Sanctuary right after Glenn died. If we need to have episodes that only give us scenes in one specific community, then they better be like tonight. We got a pretty decent backstory from Alpha & Lydia, shaping why they are the way they are today, and in turn gave us a glimpse into what Daryl's childhood may have been like being a survivor of child abuse himself. All coming to a head when Alpha comes knocking at the door of the Hilltop. Next week could either go the really bloody route, or the extremely intense throughout, only to have no blood shed at all. I would guess the latter.

8.4/10

TWD is back to storytelling again. It's what makes a good show great again, backstories in particular. It's where they went wrong with Negan, we never saw anythig about his past. Unlike the Governor's tremendous backstory, it's the reason we care for a character. Now we just need a good twist here and there like they used to be so very good at.