The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 3 Review: Ghosts
Paul Dailly
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That was tense from start to finish.
Although The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 3 was titled "Ghosts," it was clearer than ever that the Whisperers are smarter than we've been giving them credit.
They know everything the survivors are doing, from their trips across the border into Whisperer territory to all of the conflicts plaguing them.
It made perfect sense that they messed with Carol. She's hooked on amphetamines, and who can blame her? To her, they may be like coffee, but she's struggling to cope without them.
If you watch The Walking Dead online, you know that Carol has had a horrible life. She started this journey as a domestic assault victim, but the end of the world changed her.
She became one of the most badass characters on all of television. She continued to suffer loss post-apocalypse to the point that she thought she would never find happiness.
Negan: Did you just trip me? What are you, 12? What the hell is wrong with you? I've been putting my neck on a block for your people all god damn day.
Aaron: You don't give a damn about us. If you gave a shit, you'd leave. That's what everyone needs.
Negan: I did what I had to do back then.
Aaron: What did you say? No no-no. Open that up. Tell me why the love of my life had to die?
Negan: Okay. One simple fact. One truth kept my people going. If you don't protect what belongs to you, then sooner or later, it belongs to someone else. That goes for your land, your wallet, your home, your country. Everything. It is your job as a man to protect it. It's the story of America, the story of the whole god damn world, and ain't nothing changing it. Not you, not me, nobody.
Aaron: Are you saying that Eric's death was my fault? Well, if I failed Eric, then you failed your wife. Yeah, she uh died hating you. And you will never see her again. You want to say something?
Negan: Yeah, behind you.
At the beginning of The Walking Dead Season 9, she was a Queen who was getting engaged, as well as a mother again. She had a new sense of purpose, one that didn't involve her being a cutthroat survivor in the new world.
But she's back to square one, and it's all thanks to Alpha. It may be a controversial opinion, but the similarities between Carol and Alpha are striking. They would both go to deadly lengths to keep their own safe.
They were both changed by the apocalypse, and that had to influence Alpha when she spared Carol's life -- even after Carol tried to shoot her during the meeting.
People are starting to believe that Carol's word isn't worth a dime because of her erratic behavior on "Ghosts."
If only they knew that she wasn't lying about the Whisperers following them to their side of the border.
Aaron: What did I say?
Negan: I had to. Did you not see this... you want me to hang myself?
Aaron: Tie up, I'm taking you back.
Negan: You're taking me back? That is the best fricken news I've had all day, but I am not tying up like some POW.
Aaron: Yes you are.
Negan: Or what cowboy. Ah, you know what I see? I see someone that's pretending. Come on, man, let's go.
It's easy to say that Carol is hallucinating, mostly because she was suffering from hallucinations on several occasions throughout "Ghosts."
Carol trying to shoot Alpha was a ballsy move, and Melissa McBride was phenomenal when she was calling BS on Alpha's plan to take more land from our heroes.
Carol doesn't mince words, and she feels like the only way she can move on with her life is by taking down the villain to prevent her from killing anyone else.
But what Carol fails to realize is that Beta is just as cutthroat as the leader of the Whisperers, and the only way to get rid of these villains is to wipe them all out.
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It's certainly helps knowing that Carol was right about the Whisperers traveling across the border. It means Alpha is not holding up her end of the deal and that she's going to continue causing problems.
Michonne: I apologize for my friend. We have not slept, and you know what she lost.
Alpha: I forgive you, mother to mother. This is my land now, you better run.
Another issue for everyone on this particular installment was that they hadn't slept in almost two days. Lydia was too naive to think that Alpha wouldn't have a hand in bringing hordes of zombies to Alexandria.
It was a strategic move from Alpha so that whenever the meet up occurred, they would be half asleep and unlikely to fight back.
For now, there's no telling what Alpha will do, but there's going to be trouble if one of the Whisperers realizes that Lydia is alive and working with the Alexandrians.
For some reason, the surviving members of the highwaymen vowing to attend the meet with Alpha and dole out some revenge fell utterly flat.
That particular group was barely on the show before most of them were butchered by the Whisperers. Additionally, they haven't been spoken of since.
That's not good.
But this also makes me question how Alpha knows the characters crossed into her land on The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 16.
Alpha: You should fear me.
Carol: I don't. I look at you and I feel nothing at all.
Alpha: Is that right? The blonde boy, he screamed your name just before we took his head.
For all intents and purposes, the Whisperers moved away to hibernate thanks to the blizzard. If someone is feeding information to the Whisperers, Lydia will probably get the blame.
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How do we know Siddiq didn't survive the carnival massacre because he agreed to feed information to the villains?
With Whisperers seemingly everywhere, it's perfectly plausible that he's meeting them to give intel.
It's a stretch. A very big one, at that, but wouldn't it be the ultimate revelation if we learned that he was closer to the Whisperers than we first thought?
He appeared out of nowhere on The Walking Dead Season 8, so it's plausible. His current breakdown could be the result of feeling awful about the way things have played out.
Alas, time will tell.
Alpha: There is one rule between our people. One law: Stay where you are. Yet, you disobey.
Daryl: That fire would have destroyed your land.
Alpha: Fire is nature to burn. We have no conflict with nature.
Michonne: It would have wiped out one of our communities. We were not gonna sit back and let that happen. You can understand that. We crossed one time.
Alpha: Three times. During the fire, you walked my land. And during the winter storm, you walked my land. During your search along the river, you and the man with the metal arm walked my land. That's three times. We are always watching. What did I tell you about crossing my border? You have to be punished. But I consider context, there will be no bloodshed this time.
Michonne: So, what do you want?
Alpha: Land. The creek that winds into the valley, that is your new southern border. We will mark the new border to the North.
Carol: That will cut off our hunting grounds. We don't have to stand here and listen to this--
Michonne: Carol.
Alpha: To this what?
Carol: To this bullshit.
Daryl: That's it, come on. We're done. Let's go.
Alpha: We're not ... not until this one lowers her eyes to my feet.
Aaron is quickly becomng a favorite character. He's filled with hate and angst and wants to make sure everyone is doing the right things to stay alive.
His treatment of Negan is warranted. We need to remember that Negan was partly responsible for taking the love of his life away from him.
Why should Aaron just forget that because Negan is the path to redemption? Like Aaron, it's difficult to rule Negan one of the good guys when everything he did as the leader of the Saviors is still so fresh.
Little acts of good will can go a long way to changing the perception of a character, but Negan still has a lot of work to do to get in good standing.
He could have bailed and left Aaron to die, but he wants to prove that he's not the same man he was. But it certainly makes me wonder whether he would still be acting like this if any of the Saviors wanted him to be their leader again.
Would he want to slip back into that role? That's the bigger question.
Which brings me to Eugene and Rosita. Eugene has been hopelessly in love with Rosita for years, and she had to tell him they would never be more than friends.
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Eugene was always hanging on to hope, despite it being painfully obvious that their relationship would never graduate from the platonic stage.
Angela Kang and her team of writers and producers are really bringing this show back from the brink. The paranoia that echoes through the episodes is edge-of-your-seat entertainment.
The show is going back to its horror roots, and it is about time.
What did you think of the latest? Will Carol find evidence to prove her theory? Is Siddiq a villain?
Hit the comments below.
The Walking Dead continues Sundays on AMC.
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Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
