‘The Walking Dead’ Season 10 Premiere ‘Lines We Cross’ Review: Space Satellites, Forest Fires, & Canyon Staredowns

It’s a strong return for The Walking Dead as the threat of the Whisperers loom ever so close. Tonight’s hour-long Season 10 premiere, titled “Lines We Cross” takes us a bit off-brand with an ominous opening and a series of character changes that took place over the course of months. We’re not exactly sure about the span of its time jump, but we did leave our unsung heroes of the zombie apocalypse almost freezing to death in the season 9 finale.

Rick Grimes has been gone for years now (at least in The Walking Dead‘s official timeline), but his loss is still felt years after like it just happened moments ago. But that painful thought isn’t the only thing that plagues our communities. Michonne (Danai Gurira), Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol (Melissa McBride), Ezekiel (Khary Payton), and Aaron (Ross Marquand) are all still reeling from the violent loss of their loved ones at the hands of Alpha (Samantha Morton). Trauma is prevalent in their psyche. Despite that, “Lines We Cross” shows them in a slightly chipper mood, if not for one shocking incident that has never been seen in the world of the zombie apocalypse in more than a decade.

This week’s logline for the episode reads, “The group at Oceanside continue their training in case they encounter The Whisperers again; the heroes try to maintain their idea of civilization.”

The Walking Dead is back, and it’s stronger and more coherent than its redemptive season 9 arc.

Michonne Trains an Army of Zombie Assassins

As shown in the trailers, “Lines We Cross” opens with the Oceanside attack scene. It’s a thrilling sequence, and it effectively shows how serious the group has become since battling various foes—the Whisperers being the most ruthless enemies to date. The training comes complete with a real-life zombie simulation (courtesy of Ezekiel and Jerry [Cooper Andrews]) and an array of shield wielders led by Aaron and archers following Yumiko’s (Eleanor Matsuura) lead. The whole thing makes for a perfectly choreographed formation, but I doubt this one’s going to stick to this method when the Whisperer war comes.

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After the training, we head back to the Oceanside community premises, where it looks like Michonne and Daryl are holed up for training week. Our not-so-new group (Magna [Nadia Hilker], Luke [Dan Fogler], Yumiko, Kelly [Angel Theory], and Connie [Lauren Ridloff]) seem to have assimilated with the group pretty well as they’re now big assets to Michonne. Luke gets a small flirtatious bit with a woman named Jules (Alex Sgambati)—about fucking time!—and all seems well for them.

But just as Daryl wonders about whether or not they’re doing the right thing holing themselves at Oceanside for training, Judith (Cailey Fleming) and her brother RJ (Antony Azor) discover a Whisperer mask in their bucket of beach treasures. Uh-oh. Seems like they’re not as safe as they think they are, Alpha’s boundaries be damned.

Beware the Walking Skins!

Automatically, the discovery of the mask sends the community leaders in panic mode. Aaron radios into Alexandria to lock shit down, but Michonne doesn’t want to cause panic so she instructs Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) to be on high alert without letting anyone know. A search party is organized and it all comes to head when they discover a camp with a skinned body near it. Man, these Whisperer fuckers sure do know how to not respect boundaries. And since we’re on the subject of boundaries here, is Alpha the only one allowed to impose her border rule? What happens if the Whisperers cross over to the good guys’ side? Will we see heads pinned on spikes too?

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Aaron also expresses his doubt with Michonne following the recent loss of his friends. “Are we the good guys? ‘Cause surely we’re the bad guys in someone else’s story,” Aaron asks Michone in true r/showerthoughts fashion. The answer’s obvious, though. I mean, did ya’ll ever perform fucked up shit like dressing up as Walkers and terrorizing people?

“We have to choose to be the good guys, even when it’s hard,” Michonne says. “The minute we start to question that, we lose sight of it.” Okay, condescendingly glib remark, but okay.

Negan Offers Unsolicited Bird Wisdom (That Actually Makes Sense)

This is the only thing I’ve been waiting for. Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) character shift from brain-smashing psychopath to a Judith protector is everything that ever makes the Rick-less season of The Walking Dead worth my time. As Gabriel receives Aaron’s Whisperer threat report from the Oceanside, he’s immediately thrown in panic. It somehow unlocks that fearful side of him but he remains undeterred. Even as he organizes a meeting with Alexandria’s council, Negan (who’s been assigned the tomato picking inmate duty) knows that shit is about to go down. Of course, the fact that they wanted Lydia (Cassady McClincy) out of the room during their meeting was enough of a signal for Negan to figure things out.

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Back in his cell, he asks for Gabriel and gives his sage advice on the matter. “If you ask me, you gotta make them feel secure even if it’s just for show,” Negan says as Gabriel considers the possibility of him bashing the brains out of someone using a tomato. “At most, I’m talking about a little strategic omission; maybe minor misleading. Think of it as using the truth to manipulate. But hell, at the end of the day, if that’s what keeps people alive, what’s the harm?” But given Gabriel’s growing fear over a possible Whisperer attack, he goes after the latter choice which was to tell everyone to lock the gates and be on high alert, Welp, so much for that expert Negan advice.

Elsewhere, we’ve got Eugene (Josh McDermitt) doing all sorts of physical calculations to graph the growth and progress of Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Siddiq’s (Avi Nash) baby. We’re not sure how this going to be useful anytime soon, but you know how Eugene loves his calculations. We also see a brief sequence where Siddiq suffers from intense PTSD following the deadly massacre by Alpha. Damn, it sucks to have survived that bloody night and lived to tell the tale.

Carol the Fisherwoman

Carol has seen every character shift in the show since being a timid woman back in season 1. In season 9, she was out lady Legolas. Now, she’s taken to the high seas to become a fisherman. As she returns to the Oceanside with her spoils, we pick up two major things—that she and Ezekiel have officially broken up and that she’s now cozying up to Daryl (they’re not there yet but the way Daryl looks at her is indicative of an incoming and long-gestating romantic arc for the two remaining original Walking Dead characters). She’s happy at what she’s doing, but it looks like Carol wants to run away yet again—this time with Daryl in tow. Of course, Daryl doesn’t really want to leave his people now that he’s one of the main leaders, but who knows, maybe Carol’s pull is stronger this time.

Meanwhile, in an awesome spotlight for our two deaf-mute characters, we’ve got Kelly who’s apparently losing much of her hearing slowly. The noise of the beach and everyone’s blabbering voices appear to numb her hearing. As she cries it out to Connie, our resident expert stone-thrower offers a resonating encouragement. “It’s not a disability, it’s a damn superpower!” Connie signs. Seriously, she can give me pep talks throughout the day and I swear I’ll be invincible.

‘What the Fuck’ of the Week: Space Satellites & Forest Fires

So we opened the episode with a stunning view of a Russian space satellite about to make a collision to Earth. And of all the places it could crash, it chose the Virginia area to make its landing. Oceanside and Alexandria dwellers were shocked to see a meteor-like flare burst through the skies and collide at the nearby forest. In a panic, members of both communities pool their strengths together to kill the fire that the satellite just caused. But there’s a catch, though, the satellite landed within Alpha’s borders. But since this could eat up the entire place, Michonne and the other leaders chose to fuck it and go to war with the space fire. And as they were exterminating the massive fire, a big horde of Walkers also arrived. Naturally, we’d think that the Whisperers are also here, but luckily they weren’t. As soon as Michonne declared “fire out,” they all scurried back to their side of the border (with Eugene asking for a little time to pick up satellite scraps).

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But that’s not this week’s big “what the fuck” moment. As Daryl and Carol went to check Alpha’s Valley of Walkers, the former asks Carol to stay. As she mulls over the idea of staying, she looks on and sees Alpha emerge from the woods, seemingly enjoying the morning breeze. The two lock eyes—giving us the most thrilling staredown contest ever in Walking Dead history.

‘The Walking Dead: Lines We Cross’ Overall Verdict

“Lines We Cross” is a great opening to a season that I feel is going to be one of the bloodies since Negan Lucille-d the daylights out of Abraham and Glenn. It effectively sets up a bigger stage for the upcoming Whisperer War and makes us feel the gravity of crossing one’s borders. Written by showrunner Angela Kang herself, “Lines We Cross” has an entertaining dialogue and pace that makes it a thrill from start to finish. Seriously, who the hell actually thought of marrying the zombie apocalypse and space itself? Kang’s writing is pure genius. Of course, Greg Nicotero’s expert direction brings in more brevity and visual coherence to a season that teases us so many possibilities—and apparent losses along the way.

The Walking Dead continues next Sunday, October 13th, with “We Are the End of the World” at 9/8c on AMC.