Definitely one of the best mid-season finales in the show's history, and the fact that it leaned so strongly into its horror elements more than it usually does only added to that, even if it did involve losing another one of the show's best actors.

It's completely shocking... and exactly the sort of change-up that Angela Kang continues to inject into season 9 of the series, revitalizing it creatively and turning in the best season of The Walking Dead at least since season 6.

The Walking Dead has always been its own worst enemy when it comes to the immediate horror of its setting, desensitising its audience to the fear factor of the zombies with inevitable oversaturation.

This week, [Nicotero] delivered, not just by infusing more blood, guts, and jeopardy than normal, but also by embracing horror movie tropes...

I think refocusing on characters - how they deal with tragedy and new experiences, and what binds them together - has made it feel revitalized and less like the struggling comic book adaptation it had become.

Now, I could not be more pleased with how excited I am about the show again.

The longer "The Walking Dead" keeps operating on what amounts to life support, the higher the chance that the series, like its latest death, will go out less with a shout than a whisper.

As The Walking Dead continues to rebuild, this death is a timely reminder of the rotten soil upon which its new foundation still lies.

"Evolution" was exactly the episode that The Walking Dead needed going into its hiatus, as it pushed the series into uncharted territory with a hefty -- and shocking -- reveal of the series' newest threat.

What I do have a problem with is that even after revealing its next big villains, TWD STILL doesn't bother to key us in on all of the most basic information the audience is still missing after the six-year time skip.

It's a clever enough wrinkle, and even if it again creates the standard Walking Dead scenario of us-vs.-them struggles, it's at least closer to garbage-people weirdness than a new crew of Saviors.

The mid-season cliffhanger isn't much of one, and the new conflict on the horizon seems like yet another "our side versus a pack of psychopaths" story that the show has so thoroughly covered before.

The midseason finale felt like one of the stronger episodes of this new show that miraculously sprang up in the middle of season 9.

Between this new threat and an old one, it's a solid cliffhanger that raises the stakes for the final eight episodes.

Happily, the mid-season finale kept up the streak by including a few shockers, an excellent cliffhanger, and only a few instances where you want to punch someone through your screen.

Jesus' death fits in the storyline... Thanks Tom Payne! Jesus was fun to watch. RIP Paul Rovia.

Season 9 has not only accomplished an incredibly ambitious reset of the show without its anchor character, it's also shifted back to its roots in horror and fear. And the midseason finale, "Evolution," is a shining example of that achievement.

Unruly teens aside, The Walking Dead's midseason finale, "Evolution," was a solid, streamlined chapter that took us into a shadowy graveyard for a creepy moonlit introduction to the Whisperers.

In any case, the Season 9 midseason finale was an excellent episode from start to finish, wrapping up the best half-season this show has had in ages -- maybe ever.

While not every episode of The Walking Dead season 9 has been a five-star classic, the first eight have been some of the most solid work in the program's recent history.