The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 8 Review: Evolution

9.5 / 10. When it’s good, it’s great. Spooky atmosphere and an action packed mid-season cliffhanger *SPOILERS*

Michonne and Carol converse at Hilltop and there is now a rift between the different communities. A lovelorn Henry meets with a group of teenagers to go drinking at a secret hang-out out, where they have an unusual pastime.

The mid-season finale did not disappoint, moving at a quicker pace, it ramped up the eeriness and Daryl, Jesus, and Aaron find a cowering Eugene who has some startling news and suggests the Walkers may have evolved into more intelligent foes.

The episode had a sense of dread throughout and played out in a dense fog and darkness which created a spooky atmosphere, like a classic zombie film, in an ill fated cat and mouse chase with the new enemy.

The last 10-15 minutes of the episode at the cemetery were excellent. The tension had been built well over the episode, and it was filmed in such a way that you still couldn’t really see what was going on, keeping the viewer as much in the dark as the group. The brief shots of zombies running with knives in the fog, Michonne’s realisation at the normal looking blood on the katana, Daryl ripping of the zombie hood, it all worked brilliantly. An unexpected death after a brilliant and well choreographed fight scene left me shocked…

The whispering, building up all around them, and only just being able to make out certain words, panning out to an overhead shot, was creepily fantastic. Hope this momentum keeps up. Oh, and now Negan is out.

It never rains but it pours.