Summary
The Whisperer War was triggered by the tragic deaths at the fair on
The Walking Dead
in season 9.
The Saviors’ chapter closed after Andrew Lincoln’s departure led to a six-year time jump on the show.
The Whisperers’ brutal attack at the inter-community fair led to 10 key character deaths on
The Walking Dead
.
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Ten people died during The Walking Dead’s fair in the season 9 episode, “The Calm Before”, and it will eventually become the impetus for the Whisperer War. After Andrew Lincoln exited The Walking Dead as Rick Grimes, the Saviors’ story and role as the series’ villains had come to an end. And in order to really show that The Walking Dead had moved on, a six-year time jump occurred that set every character and every community on a new path.
Part of that new path meant coming in contact with another adversarial group — the Whisperers, who were led by the sadistic and psychotic Alpha. After the Whisperers’ first altercation with The Walking Dead’s core characters in the season 9 midseason finale, a string of events — namely Lydia’s capture, release, and escape — culminated in the Whisperers secretly attacking the Kingdom during the first-ever inter-community fair. And that, unfortunately, led to several major deaths in The Walking Dead season 9 episode, “The Calm Before”.
The Walking Dead
is available to stream on Netflix.
Related The Walking Dead Series Finale Ending Explained (In Detail) The Walking Dead series finale is packed with twists, turns and tragedies, plus a few familiar faces. Here’s The Walking Dead’s ending explained.
Everyone Who Died In “The Calm Before”
The Whisperers Killed 10 TWD Characters – Including Some Major Ones
In The Walking Dead fair, during season 9’s, “The Calm Before”, 10 characters were killed off, including multiple big names that have been a part of the show for many years. The 10 characters killed by Alpha and the Whisperers are:
Ozzy (Highwaymen) Alek (Highwaymen) D.J. (Alexandria) Frankie (Alexandria) Tammy Rose (Hilltop) Adeline (Hilltop) Rodney (Hilltop) Tara (Hilltop) Enid (Hilltop) Henry (Kingdom).
While more than 10 characters from The Walking Dead died throughout the episode (namely the people from Hilltop attending the fair), Alpha and her Whisperers ensured the key 10 mentioned above were the most shocking. Not only did Alpha and the Whisperers kill them, but they decapitated them too and placed their reanimated heads on pikes to send a message to the other communities. Plus, in order to retain the shock-factor, instead of killing off Ezekiel (which was teased when Alpha/Debra found him at the fair), fan-favorite Henry was killed off instead.
Related The Walking Dead Characters With The Highest Kill Counts These are The Walking Dead characters with the highest kill counts after season 11 — including characters with 20 or more kills!
Did Any Other Walking Dead Episode Kill Off So Many Characters?
The Midseason Finale Of Season 9 Remains The Most Decimating To The Cast List
“The Calm Before” remains one of the most brutal and heartbreaking episodes of The Walking Dead to date, and with 10 characters killed by the Whisperers, it also remains one with the highest total deaths. As far as the deaths of named characters goes, it remains the most deadly, as no other episode in the show killed off as many known names in a single sitting. However, there were many episodes of The Walking Dead where far more unnamed background characters were killed to drive the storyline.
While “The Calm Before” was far from the most deadly event in the post-apocalyptic world of
The Walking Dead,
the episode was unbeaten when it came to the number of named characters being killed off in one go,
There are also many events that took place prior to the start of The Walking Dead timeline as seen on-screen, and these reveal that — as strange as it seems — the characters in the show got off quite lucky. In the season 2 episode “Nebraska”, for example, it’s mentioned that when Fort Benning was overrun during the initial outbreak over 119,000 people were consumed by a herd of walkers. There’s also the case of the Vatos gang, who appeared in season 1 and consisted of over 40 people, later confirmed to have all been killed off-screen (likely by The Governor).
So, while “The Calm Before” was far from the most deadly event in the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead, the episode was unbeaten when it came to the number of named characters being killed off in one go. Their deaths were also among the most shocking on the show, especially due to Alpha’s defilement of their bodies by sticking them on spikes.
The Walking Dead
Based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, AMC’s The Walking Dead captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series, developed for television by Frank Darabont, follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead. The Walking Dead lasted for eleven seasons and spawned several spinoff shows, such as Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.
Cast Steven Yeun , Andrew Lincoln , Chandler Riggs , Laurie Holden , Jeffrey DeMunn , Sarah Wayne Callies , Melissa McBride , Norman Reedus , Jon Bernthal , Iron E. Singleton
Release Date October 31, 2010
Seasons 11
Streaming Service(s) Netflix , AMC Plus
Franchise(s) The Walking Dead
Showrunner Frank Darabont , Angela Kang , Scott M. Gimple , Glen Mazzara