Henry and Lydia get closer and slowly, Lydia opens up about her past. Meanwhile, Magna’s group head back out despite Tara’s orders.

There’s a lot going on in Omega and it’s all pretty surprising. To get Alpha’s origin before we actually see her on screen is a starling gear shift from a show, and comic, that was irritatingly coy about Negan for literally years before showing us what got him to where he is. Here we see it all, and Samantha Morton gives us a typically impressive descent into darkness.

Alpha, if Lydia is to be believed, grew out of the pragmatism of trauma. The belief that no one could do anything other than survive and through that the paradigm shattering horror of a single Walker. That last one is especially fascinating given that the Walker that kills Lydia’s father is only created because of her mother. Ignorance, under a hundred days into the outbreak, kills. Worse, it maims, and Alpha’s entire world view is a curdling of her love for her daughter and guilt at what she let happen. It’s heady, complex stuff and it gives us a real sense of her journey before we ‘meet’ her in the current timeline at the end. Smartly handled, chilling stuff.

Elsewhere, smaller surprises are also in store. Magna’s group, desperate to find the missing Luke, decide to break out knowing full well it may jeopardise their nascent standing at Hilltop. They realize it’s too dangerous, turn around and the following day Tara, gently but firmly, calls them on it. In earlier seasons this would have been an overlong angst-ridden mini arc. Here it’s used to remind us of the bond between Magna’s people, show us they’re aware just how lucky they are right now and reinforce Tara as a strong, compassionate and adaptable leader. That’s smart writing, and acting, however you cut it and it cleverly strengthens the bond between the newcomers and Tara, newly in charge of Hilltop in the wake of Jesus’ murder. And does all that just in time for Alpha and her people to announce themselves…

Verdict: It’s fashionable to bust on The Walking Dead in general and this post-Rick year in particular and that’s grossly unfair. This is a show that’s continued to evolve and leant into and industrialized the passage of time rather than simply deliver the same thing over and over. It’s clever, tight writing and direction buoyed still higher by fantastic performances from Samantha Morton as Alpha and Cassady McClincy as Lydia as well as some of the best work Norman Reedus has done in a long time. Another strong entry in an undeniably strong season. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart