The Walking Dead season 9, episode 10 recap: Omega

Fans of The Walking Dead, meet Alpha, and check out our recap of The Walking Dead season 9, episode 10, “Omega.”

The Walking Dead introduced us to this season’s Big Bad leader of the Whisperers–Alpha. Fans have been waiting for quite some time for her to make an appearance, especially if you’ve read the comics. This week was a bit different from past episodes of The Walking Dead because we got a flashback from the early days of the apocalypse. It is something this show hasn’t quite done, unlike its sister show, Fear The Walking Dead.

Lydia recalled the events of the 23rd day of the apocalypse as she spoke to Henry in the cell while Daryl listened from a distance outside. In these early days, Lydia was six years old trying to survive with her parents and the other group of strangers that found refuge in a basement from the outside world. When she looked back on those days, she remembered her father Frank as the horrible, abusive one, and her mom as the loving, caring one.

The flashbacks continued as Lydia got Henry to believe that she was being vulnerable and honest. And it did the trick because soon enough Henry started talking about the Kingdom, who lives there, and so on. How dumb can you be Henry?? Seriously. Luckily, Daryl was just outside listening in on their conversation and quickly put a stop to it when he took Henry out of the cell.

In other parts of The Walking Dead, the search for Luke and Alden was on but they weren’t having much luck. They only managed to come across their dead horses, and when deciding whether or not to split up, Tara made an executive decision not to. The plan was to go back and come up with a solid plan rather than just blindly heading out.

Of course, Lydia didn’t provide much help when Daryl questioned her about her people and her mother. She continued to be cryptic in her responses but we can pretty much assume her mother would kill if she wanted to, and that includes Luke and Alden.

During Lydia’s flashbacks, we soon came to realize that she had reversed memories of her parents. It was her father that was the kind one, and her mom that was vicious and relentless. She snapped a man’s neck when he began to freak out, while Frank took care of a frightened Lydia. It’s funny the tricks our mind plays on us, isn’t it?

There was a lot of friction between Yumiko and Magna as Yumiko wanted to go back out and look for Luke and Alden while Magna didn’t think crossing Tara and the group would be a good idea. But when the group held a vote, Magna did not win so the decision to go looking for the missing guys was in effect.

Daryl continued to fail on getting across to Lydia who was repeatedly regurgitating the words her mother had taught her. But what is with all this loyalty? Does she not see the scars on her arm that her own mother gave her? During another flashback, we see the first time Lydia and her group came across a walker (the man that her mother killed turned), and they were not ready for what was coming. In the process, her dad died trying to keep her safe, a fact that Lydia seems to look down on.

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She thinks his behavior was weak (uhh, seriously?) but Daryl chimes in to say that her father was only trying to protect her. But she doesn’t think that his actions were commendable because he should have known better than to be soft. And she feels Daryl is in the wrong place because he isn’t soft like the others in the community.

What happens next is a bit jarring but a very profound moment in this episode of The Walking Dead. While questioning Daryl about Lydia’s fate, he told him that he once heard Carol explain why she once had short hair. When she was with her abusive ex-husband, he used to pull her hair so she decided to chop it off so he couldn’t. After all this time, she finally felt safe with Ezekiel and that is why her hair is long once again. It was a very deep, emotional revelation, and one that will stick with us for a long time to come.

On the search for Luke and Alden, Kelly has a breakdown when the others start to falter in their hunt for them. She knows that when the situation has been reversed, Luke has gone above and beyond to save them, and she feels like they owe it to him to go searching for him. While the others left to go back to Hilltop, Connie stayed back with Kelly unaware that a Whisperer was watching from a distance.

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Back in love-struck Henry land, he went back in the night to let Lydia out of the cell for a little bit. While we are sitting here scratching our heads as to what the hell he is doing, it seems like Daryl wanted this to happen all along. It was probably the only way to gain Lydia’s trust. Lydia was taken aback at how much Hilltop had created and the type of community they have built despite the odds against them, she felt like it was all fake and that it shouldn’t even exist.

It wasn’t until she heard a baby cry that something in her snapped and brought her into the reality of her situation. She suddenly recalled a series of flashbacks where her mother was the aggressive, mean one and recalled the torture her mother had afflicted on her all these years. She asked Henry to take her back to the cell and asked for him to stay the night with her, which of course he did.

Daryl’s plan worked out in his favor after all, and the next morning Lydia began to reveal all kinds of things about her mother and their people. It turns out that her mother wouldn’t come looking for her because that’s just not what the Whisperers do, when you gone, you gone. Lydia thought that by learning about the Kingdom and Hilltop, she’d curry favor to return to the group.

Well, it appears Lydia was wrong about her mother coming to look for her because she did. As Yumiko spoke with Tara about running away, Connie and Kelly were being escorted back to Hilltop. From a distance we see them walking towards the gate and following not too far behind were a group of the Whisperers. Uh oh. Connie was straggling behind so had no option but to run into the cornfields to hide while the rest of them ran into the community.

And then something crazy happens, The Walking Dead fans–we meet Alpha, aka Lydia’s mother.

The Walking Dead airs every Sunday on AMC at 9 PM EST!