The Walking Dead season 9 signed off for its midseason hiatus with a shocking main character death. Jesus, the reluctant leader of Hilltop, was killed during an encounter with a new kind of enemy: The Whisperers.

To figure out how one of the show's toughest fighters could have been taken out by a walker (or at least, something that looks like a walker), let's backtrack a little. In the midseason finale, "Evolution," Jesus went out on a rescue mission with Daryl and Aaron to find Eugene, who had been left to hide in a barn by Rosita after injuring his knee. While out on the search, the gang noticed a walker herd behaving strangely: milling around in a circle, rather than stumbling ever-onward in the usual manner.

Related: The Walking Dead: 9 Unanswered Questions From The Midseason Finale

When they caught up with Eugene, he revealed that the strange behavior wasn't isolated. Though he had been carefully stashed away in the barn, the walker herd hadn't moved on. Instead it had been combing the area over and over, searching for him, and Eugene said that both he and Rosita had heard the undead actually whispering to one another. In lieu of another explanation, Eugene theorized that the walkers had started to evolve and even recover some of their cognitive function, allowing them to communicate with one another and plot out strategies for hunting down humans. With the walkers catching up, the team came up with a new plan: Aaron and Jesus would go on with Eugene, while Daryl would stay behind to redirect the herd.

Ross Marquand as Aaron in The Walking Dead

Unfortunately, despite making a cacophany of noise (with a little help from Dog), Daryl was unable to distract this new, apparently evolved herd. The walkers continued their pursuit of the others, eventually chasing them towards an appropriately spooky graveyard, riddled with fog. A small hole in the wall served as a chokepoint, slowing the walkers down somewhat, but the team found themselves trapped in the graveyard when the gate refused to budge. As they worked to get it open, the walkers gathered around them... and horrifyingly, the whispering that Eugene had talked about started up again.

At first it seemed like the day was saved when Michonne, Magna and Yumiko arrived on the other side of the gate. While they worked to get it open, Jesus tried to hold off the walkers in the unusual way. However, when he went to take a swing at one of them, the walker dodged his attack with very human reflexes, grabbed Jesus, and stabbed him through the torso, pulling him in to whisper, "You are where you do not belong."

Jesus was the only character killed off in the midseason finale, but the others were left on a rather terrifying cliffhanger. Having gone in to the graveyard to retrieve Jesus, they found themselves surrounded on all sides by "walkers" (who we now know were actually living people wearing the skins of walkers to disguise themselves). The Walking Dead season 9 has so far been surprisingly light on deaths, but given this new development, things could get very bloody when the show returns next year.

The Walking Dead - Michonne in Stradivarius

Michonne and the new group of survivors hit the road in The Walking Dead season 9, episode 7, "Stradivarius," but despite some hiccups along the way there were no major deaths this week (unless you count Luke's violin). We did, however, get to see what became of Bernie, the sixth member of Magna's group, who was killed by the herd that initially attacked their rig.

Most of this episode was spent halfway between locations, with Michonne and the others making the trip to Hilltop, while Carol and Henry caught up with Daryl. The latter has been living by himself in the woods, apparently still searching for Rick's body, which was never found (for obvious reasons). Daryl has also acquired a dog, called Dog, so we're really hoping we don't have to announce Dog's death in the coming weeks.

Related: The Walking Dead: What The "X" Scars Could Mean

Dog does almost bite the dust when he gets caught in one of Daryl's snares and surrounded by a group of walkers. Daryl himself comes close to getting bitten when he goes in to rescue Dog, and is saved from a surprise walker attack only by some timely intervention from Henry. This ultimately sways Daryl - who had previously been stubborn about maintaining his hermit lifestyle in the woods - into coming with Carol and Henry to Hilltop.

The Walking Dead - Carol and Daryl in Stradivarius

Michonne, Siddiq, and Magna's group arrive at their supplies to find they've been ripped apart by a walker herd, and Luke hurries to gather up the musical instruments he has collected on the road. One of these instruments - an ultra-rare Stradivarius violin - almost gets him killed when Michonne wakes up in the night to find him fiddling with it, and mistakes it for a gun. Luke turns around suddenly with the violin and Michonne swings her sword... but fortunately the violin is the only victim of the incident.

The next day, the group are forced to fight off a group of walkers. Among them is Bernie, the recently-deceased friend whom Magna was particularly attached to. Michonne recognizes him by the hideous paisley shirt that was described earlier in the episode, and puts him down as gently as possible while his friends look at his disembowelled zombie form in horror.

It's worth noting that a question mark remains over Eugene's fate. We last saw him buried in mud at the end of last week's episode, and "Stradivarius" begins with Rosita running through the woods, disoriented and terrified by the whispering walkers. She says that she left Eugene in a barn, so at the end of the episode a search party heads out to try and find him. Will they be able to rescue him, or will there be a repeat of the search for Sophia?

The Walking Dead - Daryl in Who Are You Now

Despite a major jump forward in time after last week's episode, almost all of the good guys are still around in The Walking Dead season 9, episode 6, "Who Are You Now?" The major exception to this is Maggie, who has departed for pastures new in the interim years, but is still (as far as we know) alive. That said, "Who Are You Now" wasn't entirely without casualties, as Jed, Regina, and a group of other Saviors ended up getting barbecued by Carol in an act of revenge.

Before we get to that, however, let's backtrack. Six years have passed since Rick "died" on the bridge, and the bridge still has not been prepared. Rather than being united, the communities have drifted apart and the Saviors in particular have been cut off and left to run wild. It's heavily implied that Michonne and the others have been through a lot in those six years, as Michonne has a mysterious scar on her back and seems more suspicious of strangers than ever before.

Related: Andrew Lincoln Will Never Return To The Walking Dead TV Show

Unfortunately for Michonne, strangers have arrived anyway. The new group of people who were rescued by Judith in last week's final scene are Magna, Luke, Yumiko, Connie and Kelly, and while most of them seem friendly enough, Magna has perhaps even bigger trust issues than Michonne. When Magna is discovered to have been hiding a knife in her belt buckle, after the group were told to surrender their weapons, Michonne's distrust of the group solidifies and she says that they can't be allowed to stay in Alexandria.

Walking Dead Season 9 Time Jump Magna Luke Connie Kelly

Elsewhere, in the Kingdom, Carol is now Ezekiel's Queen (with extremely long hair), and the two of them have adopted Henry as their son, making him a Prince. Carol decides to take Henry to Hilltop so that he can be apprenticed to the blacksmith there, but the roads are no longer safe. While they are travelling, Henry hears a woman calling out for help and runs into a Savior trap before Carol can stop him. Their leader, the ever-punchable Jed, graciously decides to let them live, but takes all of their supplies and Carol's wedding ring - and leaves Henry with a few bruises.

Someone probably should have warned Jed that kids are a sore spot for Carol. She shows up later, when all of the Saviors are sleeping, and douses them in gasoline. Jed wakes up too late, to Carol standing over him with a match. She tells him that she shouldn't have hurt Henry and then drops the match into the pooled gasoline, eliminating Jed, Regina, and the other Saviors in a fiery blaze.

That might eliminate one threat, but there are more on the way, if the talking walkers are anything to go by...

The Walking Dead What Comes After

There were plenty of ghosts in The Walking Dead season 9's fifth episode, "What Comes After," but no major character deaths - not even Rick Grimes! Though many had anticipated that the long-standing hero of the series would go to his grave, Rick's much-touted final episode wasn't actually the end of actor Andrew Lincoln's time with the franchise. Instead, Rick will return in three feature-length Walking Dead movies produced by AMC.

Let's recap. At the start of the episode, Rick is in what looks like an impossible situation - impaled on a piece of rebar, with two walker herds converging on him. With great effort, however, Rick manages to pull himself off the rebar and escape, with a terrible wound in his side. As Rick manages to get back onto his horse and keep ahead of the herd, but as he loses blood he also repeatedly loses consciousness, and has visions of characters who have died on the show: Shane, Hershel, and Sasha. They, along with Rick' own past self, keep imploring him to "wake up."

Related: New Walking Dead Trailer Teases The Post-Rick Grimes Future

Another character who seemed in danger of being killed off in "What Comes After," but wasn't, is Negan. Maggie, having decided that she could no longer stand the thought of her husband's killer being left alive, arrives at Alexandria with a crowbar, ready to beat him to death in the same way that Negan had killed Glenn. After a passionate exchange, Michonne reluctantly hands over the keys to Negan's cell. Once Maggie gets inside, even Negan seems to be onboard with the plan - goading her about how he'd killed Glenn, and imploring her to kill him. As Negan begins to emotionally break down, however, Maggie realizes that she'd actually be doing him a favor by putting him out of his misery, and decides to let him live.

Walking Dead Rick Grimes Pistol

Rick's journey comes to a climax at the bridge, which is still under construction. Rick leads the walkers onto the bridge, hoping it will collapse under their weight, but to his dismay it holds. The rest of the gang arrive on the scene, but Rick tells them to stay back. After a walker knocks a crate of dynamite over, Rick sees his opening. He shoots at the dynamite, triggering a massive explosion that blows both the walker herd and him into the river.

At first it seems like Rick really is gone for good - and his friends certainly seem to think so - but at the end of the episode we see Jadis, about to be evacuated by the mysterious helicopter. Seeing Rick, wounded but alive, on the river bank, Jadis makes a call over the radio to say that she doesn't have an "A," but she has a "B" who needs help. Rick is airlifted away in the helicopter to receive medical treatment, and in the final scene we meet a new set of survivors - and it's revealed that The Walking Dead has jumped forward drastically in time, with Judith Grimes now 8 or 9 years old and shooting and fighting with the best of them.

How long will these new survivors last? Well, we'll have to wait and see.

The Walking Dead - Rick and Daryl in The Obliged

The Walking Dead is heading towards a huge landmark in the show's history - the final episode featuring Andrew Lincoln's stalwart leader Rick Grimes. However, Rick's time hasn't come yet, and there are no major deaths in season 9, episode 4, "The Obliged."

That's not to say, of course that the episode doesn't feature its fair share of gore. "The Obliged" opens with Michonne going through her now routine life, which involves parenting Judith and trying to keep the peace in Alexandria during the day, and going out to slay walkers at night. As Michonne later reveals during a reluctant heart-to-heart, raising Judith has brought the trauma of Michonne losing her son, Andre, back to the surface. Meanwhile, Negan is tormented by the loss of his wife, Lucille, and the knowledge that his beloved bat (also called Lucille) was left outside to rot after he was captured.

Related: The Walking Dead May Have Just Shown How Rick Dies

Speaking of Negan, "The Obliged" sees Maggie teeing up to murder the former gang leader - heading out to Alexandria, with Daryl helpfully getting Rick out of the way to keep Maggie's path clear. Unfortunately, Daryl's approach to getting Rick out of the way ends with both of them stuck down a random enormous pit. We get some more walker deaths at this point, as the undead fall into the pit while Rick and Daryl try to get out of it, but neither of our heroes bites the dust... at least, not yet.

The Walking Dead - Anne in The Obliged

Yes, as set-up for Rick Grimes' final episode, "The Obliged" ends with Rick attempting to lead the herd away, but then getting impaled on a piece of rebar after his horse rears up and dismounts him. It's an injury that could well prove to be fatal if Rick doesn't get medical attention, and the promo for next week's episode shows Rick wandering around with his injury for a long time, which can't help. Given that deceased characters like Shane and Sasha are expected to return in next week's episode, we may see a death sequence reminiscent of Tyreese's hallucinations before death in season 5.

Then again, Rick's injury could also be a fake-out. Another development in "The Obliged" was Anne/Jadis making the decision to leave - and leave Father Gabriel behind - which only deepens the mystery of the helicopter. Is it possible that Rick will be saved by Anne's mysterious contacts and whisked away via helicopter, making his future return possible? Or will next week find us reporting the biggest death in The Walking Dead's history?

The Walking Dead - Maggie in Warning Signs

The third episode of The Walking Dead season 9, "Warning Signs," uncovers the mystery of where the Saviors have been disappearing to - and it turns out they're definitely dead, not just missing. In addition to numerous Savior deaths, this episode confirmed that Justin did indeed meet his end after the attack at the end of last week's episode. By the end of the episode, eh's also joined by fellow Savior Arat, as Oceansider Cyndie takes revenge for the death of her kid brother.

Rick has been making efforts to keep the peace between all of the communities - Sanctuary included - but the Saviors haven't been making it easy. Justin's disappearance and the discovery of his body almost leads to yet another all-out war, with Jed stepping into Justin' shoes as the biggest troublemaker, gradually escalating things until by the end of the episode he's holding a knife to Carol's throat. In another season that probably would have been the last thing he ever did, but Rick and Carol decide to spare him as part of their "every life counts" policy.

Related: The Walking Dead Reveals Why The Saviors Have Been Disappearing

Justin's death is confirmed right at the start of the episode, in a ghoulishly effective sequence that shows walkers feasting on his recently-dead body, only to lose interest. As they shamble away, the body reanimates and walker-Justin wanders off with them. Later in the episode he gets put down permanently, and it's revealed that he was killed via an arrow in the back. It's a shame that Zach McGowan didn't last longer on the show, especially since Justin was a lot of fun to hate.

Walking Dead - Zach McGowan as Justin

Arat bites the bust towards the end of the episode, after search parties have been sent out to try and find the missing Saviors (and placate the remaining ones). Maggie and Daryl come across Beatrice, Cyndie, and a small group of other disgruntled survivors, who have been secretly taking out the Saviors who killed their loved ones - since Rick's rules don't allow for open revenge. After Cyndie explains exactly why she wants to kill Arat, Maggie and Daryl make the decision to walk away and let it happen. As they leave, we see Cyndie stab Arat in the head with her spear.

The violence is surely far from over. Cyndie explained that she and the others had been inspired to do a little killing of their own after Maggie executed Gregory, and the killing of the Saviors can only beget more violence. With Maggie and Daryl seemingly on the verge of a coup, planning to take out Negan whether Rick likes it or not, we could see the long-standing friendship group start to break apart under the pressure.

The Walking Dead – The Bridge

Who Died in The Walking Dead Season 9, Episode 2, "The Bridge"

As The Walking Dead season 9 continues, Rick is still trying to build peace and cooperation between the various settlements, but neither the Saviors nor Maggie are making it easy. The relative stability means that the number of deaths is currently low, and there are no major characters killed off in episode 2, "The Bridge." However, tensions are stirring and someone out there is making Saviors disappear, so it may not be much longer before the bodies start piling up.

In "The Bridge," Rick is literally bridge-building - overseeing repairs on a bridge that was revealed to have collapsed in the season premiere. However, this process is complicated by a herd of walkers that are accidentally steered right into a lumber crew, resulting in the biggest casualty of the episode: Aaron's arm!

Related: Here's How Much Time Has Really Passed In The Walking Dead

A cleverly designed method of steering a walker herd away from the settlements and the people are work on the bridge falls apart when Savior and resident musclehead douchebag Justin fails to set off the siren that he's in charge of. Instead of being steered away from the laborers, the herd of walkers heads straight towards the area where Daryl, Aaron, and a group of Saviors are cutting down trees to create planks for the bridge. One of the Saviors, Jed, panics upon seeing the approaching walkers and lets go of the rope holding up the fallen tree that he's been pulling up onto the pile. The log falls, pinning Aaron to the ground and crushing his arm.

The Walking Dead - Aaron in The Bridge

Aaron is very nearly a goner, but Daryl refuses to leave him to his fate and fights off the oncoming walkers, then works together with the others to lever the log off Aaron's arm. His life is saved but, unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done to save his arm. Enid gets to try out her very green doctoring skills with an amputation, and for now it looks like Aaron is going to be OK.

There are hints that some people may have died in "The Bridge," as it's noted that several Saviors have gone missing: those who were supposed to be delivering fuel to Hilltop, and those who abandoned the bridge project and headed back to Sanctuary. At the very end of the episode Justin is approached by someone and briefly startled, before he recognizes them. He relaxes and scolds them for creeping up on him, but then the mysterious person attacks. While it might seem like this is the end of Justin, we're probably not going to get rid of him that easily. Actor Zach McGowan is credited as appearing in a few more episodes this season, and it would honestly be a waste to cast him in the show (McGowan has previously been a season regular in The 100, Black Sails, and Shameless) only to kill him off after two episodes. So, while the Saviors have been disappearing... they're not necessarily dead.

Walking Dead season 9 premiere - Rick Judith and Michonne

Who Died In The Walking Dead Season 9 Premiere?

The Walking Dead has returned, with the season 9 premiere "A New Beginning" picking up two years after the season 8 finale. The war with Negan is long since over and Rick has managed to put together the framework for a new civilization across the various settlements. However, peace is always fragile in the world of The Walking Dead, and despite a relatively quiet season opener there were still a couple of major deaths.

As you may remember from season 8, Rick and co. have obtained a book called A Key To A Future that contains blueprints for all sorts of basic tools, machines and structures that can be used to start rebuilding society. Because of the lack of high-tech resources, the survivors have to focus on rudimentary technology, so in the season 9 premiere Rick leads a group of people to Washington, D.C. so that they can go shopping for seeds and farming tools at a museum. They manage to obtain a horse-drawn wagon, a canoe, and a plough, and aside from a minor incident with Ezekiel falling through a glass floor into a basement full of zombies, they make it out of the city unscathed.

Related: Here's How Much Time Has Really Passed In The Walking Dead

As Rick and the others venture back from the city, however, things start to go wrong. First they discover that an important bridge has collapsed and needs to be repaired - something that will require a lot of labor. Then, things go from bad to worse, and we get our first death of the episode.

Ken

The Walking Dead Ken Death

From the moment this fresh-faced nice young man appeared on the screen, it was pretty clear that he was doomed. The son of Hilltop's blacksmith, Ken was a new character for season 9 and also the first character to die. While on the road back from Washington D.C., the group ran into several problems, culminating in the wagon getting stuck in the mud as a group of walkers approached. They were ultimately forced to back away from the wagon as the walkers caught up, but Ken didn't want to leave the wagon's remaining horse to its fate.

He ran back and cut the horse loose, but suddenly a walker appeared behind him and bit him in the arm. Then, in a very poor show of gratitude, the horse he had just freed kicked him in the chest. Siddiq prepared to cut his arm off in an attempt to save his life, but there wasn't anything he could do about the injury from the horse. Ken died with the other Hilltop survivors gathered helplessly around him, and his death created a domino effect that ultimately led to the second death of "A New Beginning."

Gregory

The Walking Dead Gregory Death

Hilltop's former leader and resident slimeball Gregory was still smarting from being beaten by Maggie in an election, and looking for ways to oust her and regain his place at the top of the food chain. When Ken's parents reacted to news of their son's death by lashing out at Maggie, Gregory saw an opportunity to take her out... in the most cowardly way possible. After sunset, Gregory crossed paths with Maggie and told her that someone had defaced Glenn's grave, knowing that she would want to go and see the damage for herself right away. When she got to the graveyard, Ken's father was there waiting and attempted to kill her, but Maggie fought him off and was soon joined by others who helped expose the attempted murderer.

Knowing full well that Gregory was the brains behind the attack, Maggie went to confront him and the two got into a heated discussion. Gregory attempted to kill Maggie himself, explaining that he could write it off as self-defense, but Maggie managed to overpower him. In order to remove Gregory as a threat and send a message that attempted murder would not be tolerated in Hilltop, Maggie ordered an execution by hanging. Gregory was sat upon a horse with a noose around his neck (the second time in the episode that a horse served as an instrument of death), and upon Maggie's instruction, Daryl sent the horse running and Gregory was left dangling. In a speech to the onlookers, Maggie said that this was intended not to be the start of something, but to be the end of it. We'll see...

More: Biggest Questions Left By The Walking Dead Season 9 Premiere

The Walking Dead airs Sunday at 9/8c on AMC.