The Walking Dead Review: The Calm Before (Season 9 Episode 15)
Reunions and tragedy are monumental on The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 15, “The Calm Before.”
An element of “The Calm Before” worth delving into is its immense heart. The episode shows how much care and love everyone has for each other in a way previous episodes certainly portrayed, but here it is paramount to each person’s being.
The sense of community is so central to the episode and its characters, the coming together years in the making where issues are put aside for kindness, sharing, and the future.
The signing of the treaty breaks some cold barriers held for, in show time, six or more years. It’s a thawing of emotions that brings all of the communities together and allows all of the main cast to come together as one. It comes just in time, it turns out.
The fair, though, is where supporting characters are given a lot of attention. The conversation between Connie and her sister Kelly is especially effective, about the pained separation between the two and bad memories floating up. It’s a raw moment, one that proves impactful.
The episode finds a lot of success in the excitement and the joy on everyone’s face, to be able to unwind from the nightmare they normally face. The Walking Dead doesn’t usually get extended stretches of happiness like this, but it works wonderfully in growing characters and in giving them a brief (too brief) moment to breathe.
That moment to breathe is needed, as those who perish to the Whisperers is a heart-wrenching lead-up.
Before getting to that major scene, there is the question of why Alpha has a soft spot for Daryl. She appears to respect him as one alpha to another, those who do not belong to the promise of a normal life.
The scene they share on the edge of the massive horde is tense and ominous, with a hint of something deeply unresolved likely to return at some point down the road. Alpha, and in turn Beta, see something in Daryl in the way they both treat him with care since The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 13, “Chokepoint.”
The victims of the Whisperers remains the key moment of the episode, such a striking image in both its cruelty and brutality.
The easy way out is to pick characters who do not hold a lot of weight in consequence to their passing, and so it is both surprising and harrowing who is among the piked dead. Henry, especially, has the feeling of a character with plenty more to grow and develop.
A few are certainly supporting characters, while some come as a shock, Tara and Enid included. But while a surprise, they have been sidelined an awful lot this season in support of the new characters, like Magna’s group and Lydia.
The deaths are certainly shocking as a single blow, especially with the nastiness of its result (or, as Siddiq calls it, “evil”), and its way of intercutting those most affected by it before the death reveal is a smart way to deliver the impact.
Each community is affected by those lost, and the way writers Geraldine Inoa & Channing Powell, along with Laura Belsey’s direction, handle it and the lengthy celebration beforehand is expert juxtaposition done to make each loss land.
The road from here, especially when there is still the finale ahead, will be fascinating. Siddiq’s speech about how the deterrent of the deaths did the opposite and brings everyone together is an optimistic outlook, and the right one, and hopefully means that retaliation is in order.
But the threat of winter and the first snowfall leaves new territory for The Walking Dead to go down. Contending with the elements along with the enemy could bring even more fresh potential to the already revitalized show.
The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 15, “The Calm Before,” is one of the best episodes of the series because it delivers the good and the bad without compromising either. Each piece causes devastation through how easy it is that good is taken away. But the communities thrive, and so will its people.
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The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.