The first half of the current season of The Walking Dead will conclude next weekend and after that, we will have to wait about three months for the next episode. But I do not want to talk about the end of the first half yet as this week, we finally get some insight on how Alpha slain the victims. Here is my review and recap of “Open Your Eyes.”
We first see a flashback to the barn where Alpha is about to slay the pike victims and then Siddiq wakes up and gives Sheryl water. Cheryl is getting more sicker as the time goes by and Siddiq also gives water to everyone at the infarmy. He also sees Alpha outside the door as an hallucination. At night, he was writing on his notebook and he fell asleep. He also has a dream of being chocked. We will get back to this.
In the morning, Daryl tells Lydia to get out of the cell so that way, they can place the one Whisperer in the cell that Carol captured the previous night. Carol asks Lydia if she seen him before and she told her that he watches over the mega herd which means that Lydia does know him. Gabriel thinks that it is a bad idea to have him in the cell as it will put everyone at risk. But Daryl and Caryl told him that Alpha’s herd needed to be found. Carol also thanked Daryl for having her back in that situation. Daryl takes off his shirt and many scars are visible on him including from the previous season. Dog runs up to him to greet him. Carol is on her investigative mode as she asks Lydia more about The Whisperers. Lydia says that she hates them and that her mom twists people to make them obey her because they have no choice but to do it. Dante and Siddiq checks on the Whisperer since he also has a stab wound. The Whisperer also says that he knows Siddiq indicating that he was there when he seen the pike victims got killed. Gabriel tells Siddiq to go and told him that Dante will watch over him. When Siddiq looks at the top of the gate that resembles the pikes, he has another flashback of Alpha decapitating DJ of The Highwaymen. At one of Alpha’s borders, Gamma and Aaron talk and she asked how do they have bread every day and he told her that they have a lot of flour. Aaron shows Gamma a piece of paper that has a drawing that his daughter made (I believe it is the one that he adopted during season 8). He asked her if she had any brothers or sisters or a family and Gamma told him that she is the only child.
At the cell, Carol, Daryl, and Siddiq begin their interrogation of that Whisperer. She brings a steel sheet covered and we are lead to believe that it is sharp objects, but it is bread with different types of jam and peanut butter. She asks him what does he prefer and he says “all of it.” He wanted to talk about what does she want and she says that they are having fish for lunch. After he took a bite of the sandwhich, she asks if it was good and then, he spits the food out right at her face and said “no.” Siddiq and Rosita talk about Eugene as she does not want Eugene to think that she is dissing him. She also did not think that she would be a mom, but they are proud parents. Right when they were about to kiss, she coughs and Siddiq gives her more water. Back at the cell, Carol asks him about the herd and placed the knife on his wound. He does not give an answer and then, she puts on her wedding ring and started to punch him. Daryl told her to stop, and then the Whisperer told them that they are all weak. Daryl then took out his knife and threatened to cut out his fingers and ears. He then displays his loyalty to Alpha and The Whisperer life as he is not going to say a word. He even thinks that Lydia is dead. Daryl and Carol then have a debate about using Lydia to get to him but Daryl is against this. Back to Gamma and Aaron as he lets her look at the drawing his daughter dew and he told a story about his brother. He does this to try to get her to open up but she walks away from him. The Whisperer at the cell is heating up and then he was bleeding from the mouth and died moments later. Daryl, Siddiq, Dante, and Gabriel tried to save him however, but Siddiq asked Dante how did this happen and Dante told Siddiq that he packed the hemlock which was the wrong medicine.
Gamma is by herself and she killed an approaching walker. Alpha is also there and she asked Gamma about the intel she gathered from Aaron. After Gamma told Alpha that he has a daughter, Alpha told her to remove her mask and she did that along with opening her sleeve. Alpha proceeded to whip her wrist with a small branch and Alpha told her to not lose her focus and to not give in to what Aaron is telling her. Alpha told Gamma that she believes in her. Carol and Lydia are on a horse and here is where you think that Carol did not listen to Daryl. Daryl and stabbed the Whisperer at the head so that way, he would not turn. Gabriel thinks that Alpha will find out, but Daryl assures him that she won’t. Siddiq enters Cheryl’s room to see that she is gone and he then goes outside to see that Dante is burying her dead body. Siddiq then had another barn flashback and he ran to jump in the water. Rosita saved him and they talk about what he is going through. Siddiq told Rosita that he misses Enid and that he blames himself for not stopping what Alpha did. He also says that many people died in front of him then and it still continues now. Rosita told him to not blame himself and that he is the smartest person she knows. Siddiq asked her why is everyone sick even when they do not live with each other. He realizes that it is the water that is making everyone sick.
He checks the plumbing and notices that they are all switched to undrinkable. He then has a breakdown (poor Siddiq). At night, Gamma told Aaron to never come near her ever again. She then holds him hostage until Carol and Lydia show up. Gamma sees Lydia and runs away and Lydia not only argued with Carol about her being used, but also hits her with the stick. Lydia crosses over Alpha’s border. Siddiq is looking through the window and Dante walks in and apologizes to Siddiq about earlier. He says that he is a friend to him, but Siddiq does not want to hear it. Dante then said something that triggered Siddiq’s barn flashback and this is where we find out that not only that Dante is a Whisperer that has been planted there, but he also was there at the barn slayings and also made Siddiq watch the slayings. Siddiq realizes this and had a scuffle with Dante. Dante proceeded to choke him out until he dies as the episode ends.
The pacing of this episode was all over the place and there are a few dialogue choices that I have mixed feelings about. The Carol and Lydia dynamic does not fit for me as the Daryl and Lydia dynamic. It seems like she was the reverse Alpha in this episode in some ways and it just did not work. That is my only harsh criticism of the episode. I like the plot twist of Dante being a Whisperer as I did not see it coming at all since he was a completely different character in the comic book series. Avi Nash stole the entire show in this episode as this is the best episode of the series that I have seen him play as Siddiq. My only thing is that how will they explain how he got to Alexandria and when did he tell Alpha that they crossed the border during the winter (since Alpha planted him there). Hopefully, this will be explained in another episode. Also, being that I used to watch 24, the interrogation scene at the cell was great and once that Whisperer spit her food at Carol, it was all over for him. Another solid episode!
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