This is actually NOT SPOILERS - More of a guideline for season 2. No deaths, no major events, nothing given away as far as that goes. This is more of the structured list of second-half episodes... no spoiler, but please, don't read if you don't want to know anything about the layout of the season.
10 Things to Look Forward to After Mid-Season Finale-
1. Cliffhanger Resolution
Um, yeah! Try cliffhangers plural. On the mid-season finale, all of our survivors fled the prison in about five different directions. Episode 9 is going to have to pick up with at least a few of them, mainly Rick and Carl.
2. Carl Owns Episode 9
Normally we wouldn’t be too pumped for a Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) episode, but we’ll take whatever Team Prison content we can get. A while back, TVLine shared a spoiler on the 2014 mid-season premiere. According to Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), it’s a big showcase for Carl. “[Carl] does something this season…. Man,” Andy teased, laughing. “Episode 9 is his episode. It’s so cool.”
3. Lots of Comic Book Stuff in Episode 9
Robert Kirkman, who wrote the comic books and executive produces the AMC show, wrote Episode 9, and a while back he told AMC, “Episode 9 will probably be the episode that’s closest to a direct adaptation from the comic book aside from the premiere episode. It’s been a lot of fun for me working on them because I’m basically just rewriting something I’ve already written, which means I get to go back in and go, ‘Woah, what’d you do there? Let’s fix that.’” Maybe he’s referencing the aftermath of the big Team Prison vs. Team Governor battle?
4. Eugene/Rosita/Abraham Are Coming
We’re expecting three potentially major characters to arrive in Episode 10: Sgt. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), Rosita Espinosa (Christian Serratos), and Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt). The Episode 10 prediction is from a casting call over the summer and so far those castings calls — although using different names — have been pretty spot on. In the comics, our group meets Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene back at Hershel’s farm, where the group returns before heading back out on the road. If the TV farm is kaput from the Season 2 fire, we may just meet this trio a different way. Showrunner Scott Gimple has said they’ll tell a “version” of this group’s story, so expect some changes. In the comics, Team Prison joins them on their travels to Washington, D.C., since Eugene says he’s a big-time scientist with answers on how this zombie thing went down and he needs to connect with government and military people in D.C.
5. Some Odd Couplings
Will Team Prison end up separated after the big prison battle? Tricia Brock, who directed Episode 10, told Columbia Daily Tribune that Episode 10 will feature four different storylines and "some of the oddest couplings of groups you've seen" on the show. "There was violence, difficulty in dealing with one another, terror,” she added. “It's a very intimate episode. We see how these very odd groups were thrown together and how they deal with that." Maybe it’s a mixture of Team Prison, “good” people from The Governor’s camp (like Tara, or Lilly) and the new trio.
6. The Return of Morgan
Over the summer, Scott Gimple said Morgan Jones (Lennie James) would return this season. We don’t know how or when, but in the comics, Rick, Carl, and Abraham run into Morgan when they return to Rick’s hometown. Maybe we go back there when Team Prison is out on the road, and maybe Morgan joins the group this time.
7. The Arrival of Gareth
Gareth is finally coming! It’s about time, right? Yeah, we don’t know who he is either. All we know is that he’s a remix of an unidentified character from the comic books, he’ll be played by Andrew J. West, he’ll show up in the second half of the season, and his “guest star” role will have an important presence with the option to possibly make him a series regular in Season 5. Or he could just die by the end of the season, who knows.
8. The Hunters?
No idea if The Hunters are coming this season or not, but they’ll probably be mentioned or featured at some point … right? The Hunters are a group of survivors featured in the comic books; they are cannibals who hunt people, and they get into a tussle with Rick’s group on the road to Washington, D.C.
9. The Sanctuary?
We haven’t forgotten about that radio message. It would be very annoying to not figure out the source. It’s possibly connected to The Hunters, to lure people, but it could be connected to a different kind of sanctuary, like Fort Benning or maybe a place featured in the comics, the Alexandria Safe-Zone. Do you think we’ll see the Safe-Zone by the end of this season or is that something they might save for Season 5? It feels way too early for Negan and The Saviors to show up as the new villains, but maybe they will also arrive in Season 5.
10. An “Ambitious” Season Finale
Season 4 just recently wrapped production. While they were filming the season finale, Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) told Vulture, "It's a very ambitious episode; they went big with it.” At this point, AMC has yet to reveal episode titles or dates for the back half of the season, but if Episode 9 airs on Sunday, February 9, then maybe this Season 4 finale, Episode 16, would air on Sunday, March 30. Then we’ll have to wait all over again for Season 5 to premiere, probably in mid-October 2014. The cycle continues!
