AMC’s The Walking Dead
Season 10, Episode 4: “Silence the Whisperers”
Directed by Michael Cudlitz
Written by Geraldine Inoa

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Ghosts” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “What Is Always Is” – click here
The song that appears throughout this episode is “Heaven I Know” by Gordi

Daryl and Michonne sit down to dinner together with the kids. He leaves food upstairs at a locked door for Carol. She’s taking lots of time to herself. Siddiq continues doing everything he can to keep his mind off the PTSD from his encounter with the Whisperers. Ezekiel seems troubled, up at night thinking. Probably a good thing because he sees chaos erupt outside. Everybody’s up now. Many believe they’re at war with the Whisperers again. A bunch of people are injured after a big tree fell over through the barn’s roof, and the community’s trying to come together. Many walkers are trying to get through their walls.

On the road, Michonne’s worried and Judith notices, asking what’s going on. The girl trusts her mom. She offers being a pair of “friendly ears” if mom needs to talk. This prompts Michonne into telling her girl the truth about the Whisperers. “Maybe the rules are changing,” Judith says. Mom uses this as a way to tell her about how, sometimes, you can be patient, but sometimes you also have to fight, too. Judith actually has a good mind for strategy— no way the daughter of Rick Grimes couldn’t.

Ezekiel appears on the road out of nowhere. Michonne rides off to meet him, going on foot through the trees where she finds him standing at the edge of a long fall. There’s something scary in his eyes. She refuses to leave him alone there. They embrace. And that turns into a short kiss unexpectedly. Afterwards they talk about “another universe” where they might’ve been together, as well as all the things the King’s lost. He’s lost in general. Michonne knows what that’s like, telling him of her similar “dark place.”

“I lost my kingdom”

In Alexandria, Negan gets more help in the garden from Lydia, who’s been getting treated like shit by other people there. He advises her not to give them the satisfaction of seeing her angry. Their talk’s interrupted when Daryl shows up, pissed to see the man who killed his friends talking with the girl. Lydia fucks with the people giving her a hard time after she sees SILENCE THE WHISPERERS written on the door at home. That night, she’s jumped by the three dickheads.
And the only one who comes to her rescue? Negan.
He kills the woman by accident, stirring up a new hornet’s nest. People are angry. Siddiq goes into shock and has to run off before falling apart. He’s so close to a meltdown. Lydia tries to keep people from a lynch mob. “Negan saved my life,” she tells Daryl. He goes down to see the prisoner. They’re two vastly different men. At least Daryl’s one for proper justice, opting for a democratic process rather than just putting Negan down.

At the Hilltop, the struggle is REAL!
Nadia and others stand off against the zombies near the beat up wall. So many are coming out of the woods. They keep fighting. Nadia soon calls them all back to get inside once the horde is too overwhelming, though reluctantly. And none of it stops part of the wall from falling over. Walkers shuffle through the huge opening, as Ezekiel and Michonne arrive together, along with Judith and the rest of their caravan. The little girl and her mama fight side by side with their swords.

Eventually things are fine. Except for the trouble back in Alexandria with Negan’s situation. Father Gabriel and the council question the two douchebags whose friend got killed, attempting to suss out what happened. Daryl and Michonne talk over the radio— she tells him to look out for Lydia, for the sake of them all, because she suspects Alpha’s feelings for her daughter will help them, if only a little. She wants him to be her vote by-proxy when the council votes on their decision later, too.
Gabriel doesn’t like the “pitchforks and torches” going on with Negan. He and the council are at odds. Some agree, some don’t, and Daryl puts his vote in for Michonne as not wanting to take this out on Negan. For now, they leave things as is, and the priest will take the night to figure out his final vote.
There are things happening in Oceanside, as well. This has Michonne wondering if the Whisperers are planning a larger attack. So a group will head off there to check on things. Eugene will hopefully help repair the wall at Hilltop. Back at Alexandria, Gabriel goes looking to see Negan and finds the prisoner gone. He rushes to find Daryl. Keys are missing, so they assume whoever stole them let the man go. Lydia comes to Gabriel and Aaron, admitting to them: “I did it.”
But Daryl claims he was watching all night. She didn’t go anywhere. She’s merely getting to the point— she’s the scapegoat for people at Alexandria. The girl feels guilt for all kinds of things that have happened. Regardless of what Daryl tries to tell her, he knows there are feelings of resentment.
There are also feelings of terror, as everybody worries when the Whisperers will return.
Good episode. It’ll be more compelling to see Negan again, where he’s ended up, why, and also to see the Whisperers again. We’re going to see the two of them come across one another eventually, so that’s something to look forward to coming up.

“What Is Always Is” is next.