‘The Walking Dead’: What Was That Mysterious Symbol?

The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang says answers surrounding a mysterious symbol glimpsed during Sunday’s new episode are soon to come.

“What I will say about it is, we will learn who is attached to that sign at some point soon,” Kang told EW. Though tight-lipped, Kang added answers will come “sooner rather than later.”

“But I won’t say exactly when. It does play into the season story is what I’ll say,” Kang teased.

The symbol, depicted through red spray paint graffiti on a street sign, went unnoticed by Carol (Melissa McBride), King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and their allies as they journeyed home to the Kingdom. But the camera lingered, indicating the symbol’s significance.

Audiences taking to social media are speculating the symbol marks the territory of Alpha (Samantha Morton) and the Whisperers, after Alpha issued a warning to Daryl (Norman Reedus) and the Hilltop declaring their people have already crossed into the Whisperers’ seemingly unmarked lands.

The symbol, analyzed by Skywriter, isn’t the Greek symbol for “Alpha” — as some have theorized — but is instead an astrological symbol called a Quincunx.

“Charles Jayne said that in this aspect, people are asked to reconcile the irreconcilable, and thus the quincunx requires a creative leap to blend the two sets of needs and traits,” reads an analysis from Skywriter. The site adds the symbol revolves around a disconnect, and that there’s “no natural point of contact” nor an “easy affinity or resonance.”

This analysis acknowledging “the irreconcilable” and Kang’s comments suggest the symbol could instead be tied to the mysterious person or persons that caused the matching ‘X’ scars spotted on Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Daryl (Norman Reedus).

Kang previously teased that still-unfolding mystery would be resolved in the back half of Season Nine, and answers are expected to come as soon as episode 914, titled ‘Scars.’

“We’ll definitely be telling the story of what happened there, and what’s kind of exciting about a six-year jump is that there is the opportunity to go back and tell some of those stories. So we’ll see some of what has happened,” Kang said in November.

“But it’s a deep, emotional story for Michonne, and for Daryl too. So I’m excited for people to experience that. It’s something that certainly has had an effect on Michonne in a deep and particular way. So that’s something that we wanna tell people what that’s about at some point.”

Michonne’s adverse reaction towards outsiders — first revealed in 906, ‘Who Are You Now?’ — and comments made by Reedus heavily hint at the introduction of strangers responsible for Michonne and Daryl’s mental and physical scarring.

“It is a backstory actually, but you’ll find out what happened with that is something that just happened between Michonne and Daryl,” Reedus recently revealed on Talking Dead.

“And the rest of the group don’t really know what that is yet, but something horrific happened right there and you’ll learn later, with the new people coming into the group, that there’s certain lines that you don’t cross but we crossed them. And just between she and I, that’s our little secret, but it’s a really dark, dark secret.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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