The New World Order in The Walking Dead has Evolved

It's been 6 years and another reboot, and there has been presumably minimal incidents. Apart from shaking things up, changing some characterization, changing a few rules in all the communities, and what their principles are, very little has changed. Oh, also a new threat is coming, just as always. This time though, the walkers are evolving.

I'm going to cover episodes 6, 7, and 8. Rick ("Andrew Lincoln") used to lead this place during the old times. He was making sure everyone was capable of leading their place after the 18 month time jump in the start of The Old World Order. Since the death of Rick, it took 6 years for everyone to get over him. The Characterization has been changed, which are shown over the span of the first 2 episodes. Just as a reminder though, Rick is not officially dead. Rick was taken in a helicopter and he has signed on to return for 3 Walking Dead TV movies. It probably might occur over the span of 6 years, and maybe later.

On other news, "Lauren Cohan" (Maggie)  has "temporarily" exited the show. There is no clue as to when she might come back, or whether she will come back. Lauren Cohan got a deal with an ABC show as a main character, and took it instead. This was reflected in the show. Maggie suddenly disappears, and Jesus misses her while Michonne hates her. Something related to Negan or Rick must have happened during the 6 year time jump. The reason for her leaving wasn't made clear, but they just said Jesus was the elected leader and Maggie wanted to roam around with a character named "Georgie", leaving room for Maggie to return if she wants to.

Speaking of Michonne, she has risen up and become the leader of Alexandria. She becomes very careful about the decisions in Alexandria. Even though Alexandria has a council unlike Hilltop and The Kingdom, Michonne is the true leader. The Hilltop has Jesus as their leader as well, and The Kingdom has King Ezekiel and Queen Carol (unofficial adjectives for both). Michonne is not ready to send delegates to other colonies, while the others have. Meanwhile, unofficial delegates behind Michonne's back do go there, usually Aaron. Aaron is dating Jesus which is one of the reasons. We've seen some character development over the past 3 episodes. The most development I've seen are for Daryl and Michonne. A few characters such as Siddiq ("Avi Nash"), Teen Henry ("Matt Lintz"), and 11 year old Judith ("Cailey Fleming") have also been upgraded.

The whisperers are humans who survive among the roamers. The first people to encounter them were Rosita and Eugene. Rosita is unconscious and the folks take them to Hilltop, and she warns them when she wakes up. Daryl, his Dog, Aaron and Jesus, are trying to find Eugene and they notice irregular patterns and behaviors in the nearby walkers, and conclude that they are not following their regular pattern. When the group find Eugene, he says that the walkers have evolved and their brain patterns have changed. He said the walkers can think and maybe even act.

The Talking Dead, that's what this is. Or was it? Eugene and Rosita both said the walkers could talk to each other. Eugene was basing his theory of evolution on that fact, since they had never encountered talking walkers. They soon started hearing whispers when they were near the herd. After killing one, Daryl tells Michonne that it looks strange, even after killing it. He uses a knife to cut through its head but instead of finding a walker, he finds a human with a walker mask.

While the first 2 episodes were lacking in action, the last episode made up for it. With no action and no tension, it removed mystery and thriller elements from it, despite 10 seconds in the first 2 episodes, which were not thrilling. I think a few thriller elements of Episode 3 could have been moved to the previous episode. The first 2 episodes were focused heavily on character building and development, and spend a little too much time on it that it didn't have to give much room for the whisperers. So the disappointing thing is, there weren't any episodes given for the whisperers to strike fear, apart from Episode 3.

All the colonies have their own rules, especially on killing. I'm not sure how much it has changed over the 6 year time jump, and I'm not sure whether the 3 colonies abide killing humans, even strangers, but now would be a good time to rethink that. They have no clue whether they are killing walkers or humans. Especially since they killed Jesus.

This was the last episode of the character Jesus ("Tom Payne"). I wasn't expecting that, on top of The Whisperers revelation. Jesus made a last man standing fight against the walkers (which was revealed to be the whisperers soon). His character was growing in importance over the last 2 episodes, with his role as the leader of Hilltop, and his relationship with Aaron. He didn't want to be the leader, but he became one anyways. Also, with Maggie out of the picture, he got to rise up, so I didn't think he would be killed. Now I understand why he kept Tara to fill in as a leader, while he was gone.

1. Negan and Father Gabriel have a conversation in his cell, just like 6 years ago when Father Gabriel was in a cell instead
2. Negan got out of his detention cell at the end of Episode 3. He also gets a new look (bald).
3. Michonne is a bit cold because of Rick's death. She takes Judith in a a step-mom. Similarly, Carol weds Ezekiel and becomes the step-mom of Henry along with Ezekiel. Judith and Henry have both grown up and Michonne teaches Judith lessons for survival, while Carol teaches Henry the same, both in different ways.
4. Speaking about new looks, nearly everyone gets a new look. New look, new characterization.
5. A new group of friendly arrivals in Alexandria - Magna's group of 4. They are moved to Hilltop later.
6. I guess all the characters have been formally placed in their colonies. I wasn't sure where they were before. Still not sure about Daryl and his Dog though.
7. This is the first time "Andrew Lincoln" was off credits, and the first time since Season 2 in which "Lauren Cohan" was off credits. This makes "Norman Reedus" at the top of the credits.
8. The show just lost 3 of its main characters, and gained a few characters from the "6 year time jump" (Judith and Henry, along with others) along with 4 additional characters (Magna's group)