The Walking Dead is finally back on the airwaves for the second half of Season 8, and the midseason premiere indicated that the series could go in some new directions in the aftermath of Carl's death. Of course, just because Rick will likely be inspired by his son's belief that not all of their enemies need to die doesn't mean the Saviors will suddenly have a similar attitude. Actor Steven Ogg, who plays the Savior by the name of Simon, recently spoke with CinemaBlend, and he had this to say about what fans can expect in the second half of Season 8:
I think it's a little more straightforward. Honestly, I think the second half of the season almost could have been the first half. It does pick up in intensity and in shitting-pants time. The intensity and the pace of it does start to just [build and build]. It gets better and better. . . . There's definitely a lot of feather-ruffling, as these communities are at each other more and more. Some of it's feather-ruffling, and some of it is, in these communities, everyone getting a sense of what everyone else is up to. So there's a lot more. It's either feather-ruffling, or it's feather-exploring. It's feather-exploration.
Judging by Steven Ogg's comments, we can expect the tension between the various groups of survivors to continue to build in the rest of Season 8. The conflict between the Saviors and the Alexandria crew seemed to come to a head in the last couple of episodes, and Alexandria has been effectively destroyed. Still, the majority of the Alexandria survivors headed to Hilltop while Carl was dying, and we can bet that the combination of the destruction of their settlement combined with Carl's death will more than motivate them to find a new way to reorganize and fight back against the Saviors.
Even if Rick will be all about trying to fulfill Carl's dream of a more harmonious future, it's not going to happen without more death and bloodshed. In fact, going by the final scene of the midseason premiere, Rick himself is going to be pretty seriously injured sooner rather than later. There also may be some discord among the survivors once they regroup at Alexandria. Daryl and Tara in particular have been keen on revenge, and they may not be easily persuaded to change their minds now. That said, Daryl did show his gentler side by taking care of Judith in the midseason premiere; maybe he and Rick can be zombie apocalypse bros again.
The Saviors are in a stronger position than pretty much everybody else despite losses, but Steven Ogg went on in his chat with CinemaBlend to reveal that there will be growing discord among their ranks as well, saying this:
There's definitely different opinions. Which, in that boardroom meeting, start to see a little bit of Simon not necessarily agreeing with Negan, and Negan wondering why Simon is being such a pain in the ass. We're gonna see that, within this community, there's certainly difference of opinion as to how things are gonna be handled. So, you know, with that there could be some civil discourse, if you will. 'You think this, I think that. I don't agree with what you're doing.'
The sneak peek for the next episode (which you can watch here) points toward some serious disagreements between Simon and Negan. While the two haven't come to blows just yet, neither one is really inclined to back away from a fight. If Simon gets sick of Negan bossing him around, there could be some game-changing infighting going down at the Sanctuary.
We can only wait and see. New episodes of The Walking Dead air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For some non-zombie apocalypse viewing options, be sure to take a look at our midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule.
