The Walking Dead Review: Rock in the Road (Season 7 Episode 9)

The Walking Dead is back, and it finally feels like all of this is actually going somewhere on the Season 7 midseason premiere.

After the first few episodes of Season 7, I found myself saying, “Well now that that’s out of the way, things can get moving.”

And then as the season went on, that became, “Well that was an hour of nothing really happening. When are things going to get moving?”

It took nine episodes, but things do start to pick up in The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 9, “Rock in the Road,” after a slow start to the season.

The episode brings a welcome change of pace. The threat of Negan and the Saviors is still present, but things don’t feel so dire, and the characters aren’t quite as on edge as they were in the first half of the season.

Part of that might be because Negan is only heard, not seen, in “Rock in the Road,” and he’s not really missed.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is fantastic, of course, but a little bit of Negan goes a long way, so keeping him out of sight for one episode isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Another reason is the main group has a mission. They’re not in a situation where they’re powerless and unable to fight back, or trying to escape. In the midseason premiere, they’re actually able to get some things done.

Talk to the Hilltop? Check. Talk to the Kingdom? Check. Steal some explosives? Check.

Not everything goes their way with the Hilltop and the Kingdom, but hey, at least moving forward, those storylines will hopefully be more closely intertwined. Even if everyone isn’t in the same place, they’re all kind of on the same page, which should help with the pacing in the second half of the season.

The midseason premiere is promising, but they still have to keep this up. We know some of the darker aspects of Season 7 will return. We’re going to have to see Negan again at some point, and we’re going to have to check in with Eugene, who was last seen getting taken by the Saviors.

But with Rick and everyone else’s newfound determination, it seems unlikely that the remainder of the season will be bogged down by the same problems that plagued the first 8 episodes.

Then again, the next episode appears to involve everyone at the mercy of the huge group that surrounded them at the end of the midseason premiere.

But… Rick’s response to that was a huge grin, so maybe things will work out after all.

What did you think of the midseason premiere? Share with us in the comments below!

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

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