In The Walking Dead Season 10, set months after the devastating events of the penultimate episode of Season 9, Daryl (Norman Reedus), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Carol (Melissa McBride) and other survivors are struggling to adapt to the rule of law imposed by Alpha (Samantha Morton) and the neighboring Whisperers, who threaten war should the survivors cross into their territory. Michonne and Daryl are respecting those rules through gritted teeth, but some survivors have other ideas for best handling the threat of the Whisperers — a point of tension that is “definitely a big part of the story” in Season 10, says showrunner Angela Kang.
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“I think it’s been true for centuries that people get into conflicts over borders. And who decides what the border is, where it is, do you respect it or not? In some ways, borders are sort of arbitrary, right?” Kang told EW. “It’s like just people decide like this is the border. And it leads to tension between our people and questions about what is the tactic? When is the timeline to take care of the problem? How do we take care of the problem? And people kind of land on different sides of it as is true just in life when it comes to anything having to do with life and death and war and neighboring groups.”
We’ll see different reactions to the Whisperers play out among the paranoid and traumatized survivors left mentally scarred by Alpha’s attack on the communities that left ten dead, including Tara (Alanna Masterson), Enid (Katelyn Nacon) and Henry (Matt Lintz).
“So, we find that there’s people who are taking a more measured response. You see people who are much more hawkish, you see people who are just confused about what to do,” Kang said. “And I think that that’s part of the interesting human landscape that’s happening as everything starts to play out, and as just paranoia starts to grip these communities, and as there are war moves being made on both sides.”
Adding to these tensions is the currently unidentified hooded figure seen spray painting anti-Whisperer propaganda throughout Alexandria, urging the survivors to “silence the Whisperers.” This is especially problematic for Michonne, who worries the fear impacting the survivors is enough to drive the communities apart.
And it’s that paranoia caused by the Whisperers — nicknamed the “terrorists of the apocalypse” by Siddiq star Avi Nash — that acts as the biggest threat to our survivors in Season 10.
“There’s a much more tense, kind of crackling feel to the way they’re interacting with each other as tensions continue to mount,” Kang recently told TVLine of the survivors this season. “And there are lots of plot twists and turns within that tension as it amps up over time.”
The Walking Dead Season 10 premieres Sunday, Oct. 6 at 9/8c on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.
