As many of you have heard by now: Andrew Lincoln (Rick) and Lauren Cohan (Maggie) are only scheduled for 6 episodes of Season 9, which consists of 16 total episodes. They seem to not want to return for Season 10. This is a very interesting development, and let me explain why.
Firstly, being in 6 of the 16 episodes for Season 9 is a huge reduction for Andrew Lincoln who was in 15 episodes in Season 8 (14 with lines, 1 with no lines). Lauren Cohan was in 10 episodes in Season 8, again, now being reduced to 6 for Season 9.
AMC's The Walking Dead structures its 16-episode season with a Season A and a Season B. This means episodes 1-8 will be in A, and 9-16 will be in B. Usually, episode 8 has a monumental development that either leaves the audience wanting more or has a big comic book moment. In Season 8, Carl was revealed to be bitten; in Season 7, Negan brutally asserted his rule over Alexandria by killing more citizens; in Season 6, walkers had invaded Alexandria and engulfed everything; etc.
Rick Grimes and Maggie Rhee have a very big presence on the show, and for them to maybe do 4 episodes in Season 9A then 2 episodes in Season 9B would look weird. People would notice that Rick and Maggie were missing. It would be a poor way to explain that both actors no longer are on the show. Thus, there has to be a send-off episode for both of them.
What better episode to do it than 9x08? As stated above, this is usually a big moment for the audience and characters. Now, they can't just have Maggie and Rick kill each other without it seeming contrived. The two characters cannot also walk off into the sunset and leave all the communities for good -- that doesn't work either. Rick and Maggie have no good reason to not be a huge part of the communities and help them grow ... unless ... they die.
Maggie Rhee and Rick Grimes both will have very young children during Season 9, meaning they cannot leave them to walk off on another adventure and leave all our communities behind. We also cannot follow the characters who will stay for future seasons onto the road, as that is an enormous waste of money for AMC. They paid for a windmill to be placed in Alexandria for 3 years. The network will want to continue using the sets for the communities for a long time.
The only option is to kill off Rick and Maggie. Nothing else works -- not them leaving the communities for the road, not the future characters of the show leaving Maggie and Rick behind at the communities. These two huge protagonists need a send-off episode, and it has to be a death episode. A very big and unsuspecting death moment in the comics is when Alpha, the leader of the Whisperers, kills Rosita and Ezekiel by decapitation. Their heads, among others, are placed on spikes at a border between the communities and Whisperer country. This would be the perfect moment for Maggie and Rick's deaths.
Considering Carl has died, his storyline with Alpha's daughter Lydia will no longer happen. This allows the showrunner and producers to remix the introduction of the Whisperers. They will appear perhaps around 9x05 and instill nervousness in the Hilltop, Kingdom, Sanctuary, Oceanside, and Alexandria. The horrific fear will not be actualized until 9x08 when maybe Daryl, Carol, Michonne, and Jesus find Rick and Maggie's heads on spikes. This way, the story of Rick Grimes and Maggie Rhee comes to a powerful, and not contrived ending, and the actors are in only 6 episodes.
The aftermath is the sad part. What will most likely happen is Daryl will become a father figure to Hershel Rhee and Judith Grimes, as their parents are dead. Negan will be let out of his cell in order to help defeat the Whisperers. Negan will be redeemed by leaps and bounds in Season 9. He cared about Rick and, to an extent, Maggie. You will see him slowly become part of the main group and accepted by the characters in Season 9B. The audience will hate Alpha far more than they ever hated Negan. Oh, Negan killed Glenn and Abraham? Alpha killed Rick and Maggie! You heard it here first. This is the pathway the show will be going. I promise you.
Submitted May 30, 2018 at 02:13AM by ChiefWamsutta https://ift.tt/2JaqQUX
