The Storm" may not have given me exactly what I needed/wanted, regarding my asinine wish list for a Season 9 finale, but it did lift us up and out of the death toll-heaviness from last week's "The Calm Before." It's still technically aftermath, but we've skipped ahead a few months later. We're not dealing with instant ramifications of Alpha's brutal beheadings.

Sure, the end of "The Calm Before" established that a few days had gone by before the credits rolled, but getting an actual mini-jump this week helped the story immensely. And I really liked the staging of these final three Season 9 chapters: The flashback-heavy ep followed by the shocking body count (which would usually be a finale) followed by a totally different adventure/crucible altogether.

In fact, I think Season 9 has clicked so well for me, overall (sure, there were snags), because of the time hops, both big and small. They allowed the story to leave things in the dust when it needed to. We didn't have to wallow around inside mope-iness and morbidity if the saga worked better with some distance between events. And we're all surely smart enough to see the symbolic ties connecting the fall of The Kingdom to the lives that were lost last week. The Kingdom's been on the precipice of ruin and it's not like anyone's murder directly caused pipes to burst and mold to spread, but the overall cloud of defeat, and low morale, was enough to thread us into the Kingdom's last gasp. The fair was supposed to spark not only trade, but hope.

Now, speaking of time hops, let's talk about the new frontier "The Storm" presented us with, and why it's really only new to us now because of - ta da! - past jumps. Due to the show's shooting schedule, and just the actual pain-in-the-assery of having to deal with production in snowy conditions, The Walking Dead always skipped over the winter months. We'd pick things up, usually with a season premiere, a few months later, with Rick and the gang having survived a harsh winter. It was just easier for the series to not show us snow. And probably, thematically, more interesting not to showcase the lean months where everyone huddled together and scrounged for food.

So now, after nine seasons, we're getting our very first snow adventure. The funny thing is though, it also felt like all the characters' first foray into fighting zombies in the snow. Even though they should have squaring off against ice walkers for a full decade now. It's a bit of a hiccup, yes, but all in all it doesn't really drain the story of anything meaningful. We just had to watch Daryl, Carol, and the rest get surprised and taken aback by things like frozen-stiff walkers, monsters creeping out from the snow banks underneath them, and zombies trapped halfway in icy lakes. Oh, and Daryl killing a walker with an icicle. Which is a "snow battle" must and would have been used seasons ago if the show ever took us into a blizzard.

Another element I appreciated about "The Storm," with regards to the time jump, is that no one tried to retaliate against the Whisperers after the massacre. Not even Daryl, who would have been the most likely to enact such a plan, post-Rick (who would have definitely wanted to do it). Everyone just took the hit. Alpha said there'd be no more bloodshed and everyone kind of took her word for it. Maybe it helps that she and her band of bastards are pretty damn scary. Like, they're monsters. Maybe, you know, everyone also learned their lesson about delving in to all-out war. Either way, the restraint was notable.

The suspense mounted nicely this week, all throughout, because the Kingdom caravan could never tell if they were being watched, or if errant walkers on the periphery were actually Whisperers. And then all that tension helped the end of the episode a great deal when everyone made the choice to enter Whisperer territory so they wouldn't get trapped at the Sanctuary and Donner Party'd. With visibility so low, it was almost impossible to tell if they were being spied on.

Character-wise, "The Storm" focused on supremely necessary things with regards to Negan, Michonne, Daryl, Lydia, Carol, and Ezekiel. Poor Ezekiel. His dream has collapsed. And with it, his Queen. The entire life that Carol enveloped herself in - the family, the community - imploded and she found herself unable to rebuild. At first, Ezekiel seemed to be coming from a weird place of jealously when he asked Daryl if he could leave (the show should never dabble in a Daryl/Carol coupling, by the way), but by the end it felt less like Ezekiel was afraid Daryl was going to steal Carol away romantically and more that Daryl and Lydia just stood as stark reminders of what had happened. Since, you know, most everyone blames them. Or her, especially.

Then, with Carol, they had to regress her - but not too much. Just the fact that she told Daryl she could feel herself slipping away again was huge. She knows what she once was and how far she's come, so just the idea that she's actively fighting the slip is big. And Lydia is a big factor here. For whatever reason, I turned a big corner on Lydia a few weeks back. I think once I became sure she wasn't full of s***, and that she really did want to be a member of Henry and Daryl's life, she won me over. And yeah, I can't blame her because she was raised in a crazy zombie cult. So as long as she can be the type of teen who doesn't infuriate us every five seconds, while also being a focal point which allows Carol and Daryl to galvanize and heal, then I'm pro-Lydia.

It also helps that no one hates Lydia more than Lydia right now. Well, maybe Alden. He hates her big time. But if anything it's a tie. The scene where she's kneeling in front of the walker's mouth, on the frozen lake, sticking her arm ever closer, was a really stunning visual. It was also a nice Easter egg (lite) to have Carol be the one to inadvertently stop her. Not just because, in the past, Carol has executed children, but because in the comics Carol died long ago by committing suicide-by-walker.

To close things out here with Negan: He didn't get fully integrated into Alexandria by the end - but it was close. He got out of his cell, and then risked his life saving Judith (and Dog!), garnering the gratitude of Michonne - who even conversed with him in the hospital bed like a semi-real person. I don't know where the Season 10 premiere will drop us. As in, will we skip ahead several months and Negan's - like - in? Like, this is the only bridge we get? If it is, I'll still take it. It works. I can't imagine what else he needs to do to prove himself. Saving Judith was the zenith.

Grrrs and Arghs:

Maggie Update: They sent her a letter. She hasn't responded. Classic Mags.

Who was the third painting at Hilltop? There was Glenn, Hershel, and...some lady under Hershel's painting. Beth?

I guess Negan's been caught up on the Whisperers and their murderous antics, as he mentioned them while chatting with Michonne.

Alpha was able to walk among everyone at the fair because they didn't know each other anymore. That's a really good point!

Where did the Whisperers winter? Somewhere nice, I hope.

That radio transmission at the end (which the radio repair being a recurring thing all season) is most likely leading us into the "Commonwealth" storyline from the comics.

Verdict

The Walking Dead's ninth season ended on a somber, character-focused note with "The Storm," which nicely showed us a galvanized-but-shattered community uniting to brave the evil elements. The distance, time-wise, from the the Whisperer arc was appreciated, as it allowed the story to not only buck tradition, but also massage things so that Lydia and Negan could become more integrated into the ensemble. Sure, it's strange, this far into the series, to see (what feels like) everyone's first snow adventure, but the visuals really popped.