The Walking Dead Season 10 returns with an aptly named midseason premiere set to reveal the fates of Alexandria and Hilltop heroes who fell victim to a trap sprung by Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton) in the midseason finale, “The World Before.” While Michonne (Danai Gurira) sets sail with desperate family man Virgil (Kevin Carroll) to retrieve weapons needed to end the survivors’ war against the Whisperers and their walker herd, Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), Aaron (Ross Marquand), Connie (Lauren Ridloff), Kelly (Angel Theory), Magna (Nadia Hilker) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) fight for their lives while trapped in a cave surrounded by thousands of Alpha’s clawing “guardians.”
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Season 10 episode 9 will be titled “Squeeze,” according to Showcase. The episode title could be referring to the tight squeeze Jerry finds himself in when TWD returns: as shown in the trailer for the back half of the season, we see the burly Jerry moving through a narrow tunnel before screaming when he’s gripped by walkers.
During a recent appearance at German Comic Con Dortmund, Andrews admitted the episode was the hardest he’s filmed:
“Physically, the next episodeโฆ yeah. Thatโฆ that was hard,” he said. “It’s darkโฆ and it’s hard to see in the dark as an actor. I can’t tell you any more than that. So, yeah, that’s all. Next episode.”
Beyond resolving the cave cliffhanger, the remaining half of the season will address Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) assimilation into the Whisperers while key players โ namely Alpha’s currently missing daughter Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and recently flipped Whisperer Gamma (Thora Birch) โ make game-changing decisions on both sides of the escalating conflict.
“We’ve trapped a bunch of people in a cave full of walkers, so we have to tell that story. So, that’s definitely going to be a big part of when we pick back up,” showrunner Angela Kang previously told EW. “Obviously, we have Negan embedded with the Whisperers, so we’ll continue to kind of tell the story that’s involved there. And then, not necessarily specific to the episode back, but just as a whole, at this point now some lines have been crossed, right? The border has been crossed by both sides. There have been these acts of war and so things are now escalating very, very fast. And we kind of get to the big conflict between the Whisperers and our people.”
The Walking Dead Season 10 returns with new episodes Feb. 23 on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.