'The Walking Dead': Is That Whisperer Leader Alpha?

The Walking Dead may have introduced its next big villain on Sunday night without actually showing her face.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9x08 follow. Major spoilers!

In the opening minutes of The Walking Dead's Mid-Season Nine finale, the AMC series may have shown Alpha for the first time. The character is set to be portrayed by Samantha Morten but has not yet been revealed on the AMC zombie show. The first look at her might have come in the earliest moments of 2018's final episode.

As Jesus, Aaron, Daryl, and Dog observed a herd of walkers which was acting strangely, one walker stood tall and looked back at them. Throughout the rest of the episode, this herd would harass and pursue the survivors unlike any herd before it. This is because this herd is filled with Whisperers.

Whether or not the Whisperer seen in the photo below from the beginning of Episode 9x08 is indeed Alpha is can be debunked given this particular Whisperer's fate before the episode comes to a close. Alpha won't be definitively introduced until 2019's back half of The Walking Dead Season Nine.

The Whisperers first appeared in The Walking Dead comics in issue #130. The issue was the fourth to follow the All Out War story, which saw a massive time jump carried out between issues #126 and #127. The group was first overheard whispering about members of Rick's group they had encountered, leading survivors to think they were either going crazy or that the walkers were evolving and starting to talk.

The walkers are not talking, however. The Whisperers wear the skin of the dead and walk among them, keeping their voices to a whisper as a means to blend in. This allows them to move freely through the world without fear of threat from the undead but also allows them to use the undead as weapons.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com's After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.