The Walking Dead easter eggs: Season 9 midseason premiere pays homage to pilot
By Shawn Lealos
Some Walking Dead easter eggs in the season 9 midseason premiere harkened back to the pilot episode — with a twist.
The first episode back from the winter break for The Walking Dead saw Daryl, Michonne and some others in a graveyard.
It was spooky as anything and they were not only battling walkers in a herd but some new villains — The Whisperers.
When the heroes fled the graveyard, they did what they were always taught — close the door behind them.
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In this situation, it was the gate to the graveyard, but the same rules apply. Think back to the pilot episode of The Walking Dead.
Rick Grimes woke up in a hospital bed after a stint in a coma after a traffic stop went bad. He left his room and wandered down the empty hospital corridor.
He finally saw a door that was chained closed. It read: “Don’t Open, Dead Inside.” It was a moment straight out of The Walking Dead comic books and showed that closed doors kept people safe from the undead.
As the Walking Dead easter egg in the season 9 midseason premiere showed — that is no longer the case.
Right after Michonne, Daryl and company ran and closed the gate behind them, the walkers approached the closed gate. Then, a hand reached through and unlatched it, letting the herd through.
Of course, this is the Whisperers, who are led by Alpha. They are a community of survivors who cut the faces off the undead and wear them as masks. Instead of hiding in their homes, they can walk among the undead safely — as one of them.
Closing and locking the doors — a rule since The Walking Dead pilot episode — no longer works to keep our heroes safe.
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The danger now comes from these masked survivors — a group that wants revenge for the deaths coming at the hands of our heroes, people who never knew that these specific walkers were still alive and human.
The Walking Dead airs every Sunday night at 9/8 CST on AMC.