The following contains spoilers about "The Walking Dead" midseason finale on Nov. 24.

(CNN) "The Walking Dead" has ambled through recent years like a punch-drunk zombie, which has turned the 10th season into something of a bounce-back campaign. That wasn't entirely true of Sunday's midseason finale, but it did feature a few arresting moments, before ending with the requisite cliffhanger to lure viewers back in 2020.

The ongoing conflict between the core players and the creepy contingent known as the Whisperers has dragged on and on, with no immediate end in sight. Still, the recent twists have carried more of a wallop, breathing some life into the show, if not bringing it back to its peak.

Specifically, the arc this season involving Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and his escape and solo adventures, has been a considerable highlight, including his interaction with what amounted to a Negan fanboy, forcing him to confront his own ruthless past.

Similarly, the tragic arc for Saddiq (Avi Nash) -- culminating with his brutal murder, in a scene that in some ways paralleled a moment in "Saving Private Ryan" -- marked a sobering loss of a regular character, in a way that the show's occasional casualties haven't in quite a while.

That sequence paid off powerfully -- if somewhat predictably, given the taunts about the community being too collectively soft -- in the latest episode, which saw Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) exact revenge against the killer, after the jarring image of seeing Saddiq's body rise as a walker.

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