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The Walking Dead season 9 episode 9: Who is Lydia? Mysterious new Whisperer explained

*Spoilers follow for season 9 episode 9*

Jacob Stolworthy
Sunday 10 February 2019 23:33 EST
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The Walking Dead Season 9: Episode 9's opening scene

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The Walking Dead just introduced a brand new character that fans of the graphic novels will be very familiar with.

Returning from its mid-season break, the AMC series picked up where the previous episode left off: with Jesus (Tom Payne) dead at the hands of the Whisperers, a new group of villains who walk away in stitched-up walker masks pretending to be the undead.

Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) catch one of them and bring them back to the Hilltop as their prisoner, where they preceded to question her.

She doesn’t reveal much, but after Henry (Matt Lintz) – the adopted son of Carol and Ezekiel – prevents Daryl from unveiling her to the wider group, we learn her name: Lydia.

*Spoilers follow for those who don’t want to know what happens in the graphic novels*

Lydia (Cassady McClincy) is a major player in the world of The Walking Dead. She is the daughter of Alpha, the Whisperers’s leader introduced at the end of the episode played by Samantha Morton.

Now, Lydia’s introduction also highlights the fact that Henry will be handed the arc of Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs), who died in season seven. In the comics, Carl becomes Lydia’s boyfriend and wants to “save” her from her walker skin-wearing family.

It’s this that fuels the tension between Alpha and Rick, but obviously Rick’s out the picture too, so it seems like Daryl will take that role as Henry’s Hilltop guardian.

The Walking Dead airs in the UK on Mondays at 9pm on FOX, which is available via Sky and NOW TV.

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