“When we were fighting the Saviors, you told me that soon you’d be the one following me. But you didn’t. Cause I wasn’t someone to follow. That changes now.” – Maggie to Rick
New seasons always provide television shows with the opportunity for fresh starts, and “The Walking Dead” sure has needed one for a while. Now in its ninth season, AMC’s hit zombie series has been injected with a dose of freshness at least behind the scenes, with longtime writer, story editor and producer Angela Kang taking over to provide a new perspective as showrunner; she replaces Scott Gimple, who ran the show from Seasons 4-8.
How does that behind the scenes change impact what we’ll be seeing on our television screens when “The Walking Dead” returns on Sunday, October 7? We’ve watched the first three episodes of Season 9 thus far, and while we wouldn’t exactly say that the show feels fresh enough to encourage tired viewers to tune back in, one thing is immediately clear and quite interesting about the ninth season. Not only are more women in power behind the scenes – in addition to Kang, there’s a welcome influx of female writers and directors this season – but women are also in power in the show itself. And it’s about time.
The Season 9 premiere, titled ‘A New Beginning,’ was penned by Kang, and more than anything else, it’s a document of Maggie Rhee’s evolution and rise to power. One and a half years have passed since the events of Season 8, and in that time Maggie was nominated leader of the Hilltop by the community’s citizens. The parallels to the real-life 2016 presidential election cannot be missed, whether intended or not, but in this vision of the world, it’s the female candidate (Maggie) who has emerged victorious over the male candidate (Gregory).
The major catalyst for the episode’s core storyline is the death of an ancillary Hilltop character, which many blame new leader Maggie for. After all, it was Maggie’s decision to take that character along on a dangerous mission to a history museum (a fresh setting for the show that’s home to an incredibly intense sequence that plays out atop a glass floor, as well as what may be the show’s most unsettling zombie to date), and the burden of the tragic loss falls entirely on her shoulders. We’re of course not at liberty to spoil any major plot details ahead of the episode’s premiere, but Maggie is forced to make some pretty tough decisions in ‘A New Beginning’; one big decision, in particular, threatens to make or break her as a leader.
Everyone will be talking about the final scene come Monday, let’s just leave it at that.
But it’s not just Maggie who finds herself in a position of power in Season 9 of “The Walking Dead,” as subsequent episodes put Carol in charge of the Sanctuary and sure seem to be setting up Michonne to take over from Rick as the new world’s true leader when Andrew Lincoln departs the series later in the season. Michonne isn’t presented merely as Rick’s right-hand-woman but rather the brains behind, in her supremely confident own words, “creating the foundations of a new civilization.” Throughout the first three episodes, Michonne is hard at work on essentially drafting up a constitution for the new world – when she’s not handily beheading zombies like it’s going out of style, of course.
Even Jadis has her own major storyline in Season 9, as do the women of Oceanside, but we’ll keep our mouths shut on all that for now. As for Carol, longtime fans of the character will be happy to hear that she’s finally found happiness with a good man by her side.
The main thrust of Season 9’s first half is the turmoil within our group of heroes that was teased at the very end of Season 8: Maggie is not at all happy about Rick’s decision to spare Negan’s life, and Daryl is finding himself aligning more with Maggie than Rick on that one. In many ways, Maggie has become *us* in Season 9, a viewing audience who’s grown tired of Rick’s repeatedly dumb decisions that have repeatedly put our favorite characters in jeopardy. Season 9 feels like it’s finally pushing back against Rick and questioning his leadership in a world that’s probably best led by a figure who’s a little bit Rick and a little bit Negan, and Maggie looks to be stepping up to fill that role. In doing so, she’s fast becoming the show’s most interesting character in Season 9, a Shane Walsh-like figure who’s benevolent when it’s important to be but downright vicious when she needs to be.
Mind you, strong female characters are of course nothing new on “The Walking Dead,” a show that has long excelled in that department. But we’ve never quite seen a character like Season 9’s Maggie before; she’s not just a “badass woman,” she’s a woman firmly in charge of the whole damn ship. There’s an interesting scene in the Season 9 premiere wherein Rick practically begs Maggie to open up more of Hilltop’s resources to the Sanctuary, and it perfectly highlights the power shift that has taken place in between this season and the previous one. With Hilltop being the leading provider of food, Maggie has essentially become the most powerful character out of the whole group, and that shift in power and inner turmoil among the group promises to be Season 9’s most compelling thread.
While the men puff their chests and settle their differences with schoolyard fist fights in the first few episodes of Season 9, Maggie, Michonne and Carol confidently and calmly lead the new world down what may very well be a better path. After so many years of male leaders making poor decisions, maybe it’s time for the women to call the shots.
On “The Walking Dead,” the future is most definitely female.
