The Whisperers were established to be a truly formidable threat in the season 9 midseason finale. Are they the most dangerous enemies to date on the show?

Warning: Spoilers will follow for the season 9 midseason finale episode “Evolution” of The Walking Dead.

The core group of survivors on The Walking Dead have faced an array of foes over the years, from the zombies/walkers themselves, to ruthless humans like the Governor or Negan and his Saviors. All the villains have managed to slay and at times even decimate the core group of survivors. Fans are still shaken by the Governor’s attack on the prison in the season 4 midseason finale in which he brutally ended the beloved Hershel’s life, and by what Negan did to Glenn and Abraham in the season 7 premiere.

A new enemy is here now in the form of the Whisperers. As readers of the comics already know, the Whisperers are humans wearing tanned walker skins, a chilling disguise that enables them to remain hidden from both walkers and human enemies.

Before this episode, the Whisperers were being slowly introduced and hadn’t done much other than terrify Rosita and Eugene with the whispers and force them to flee. That all changed in “Evolution” as the Whisperers killed Jesus, one of the most skilled and seasoned survivors.

The moment where a seemingly normal zombie fatally stabbed Jesus is one of the creepiest and arguably terrifying things to happen in a long time on The Walking Dead. The Whisperers are unlike anything the people of Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom have ever faced before. They’ve learned to survive by figuring out how to defeat walkers, something they’ve been quite good at for a long time. Fighting humans is a different matter entirely. That is part of the threat presented by the Whisperers as it often won’t be clear to the survivors at first whether they’re facing walkers or the Whisperers, at least not until it’s too late like in the case of Jesus.

What’s also frightening about the Whisperers is how unified they seem as a group. It’s surely no small feat to get everyone to wear the walker skins and move convincingly like a herd for such long periods of time. That sort of unity and teamwork was rarely found in past enemies. Obviously, real walkers had no strategy of working together. There was frequently dissent among the followers of human antagonists like Negan and the Governor. From what audiences have seen so far, it seems like the Whisperers may have the strongest leadership, organization, and unity of any foe yet. That alone makes them infinitely more dangerous, not to mention the other aforementioned factors.

Much more will be revealed about the Whisperers after the hiatus, especially when the leader Alpha and second-in-command Beta are introduced, and their real motives are unveiled. For now, both the main characters and audiences have plenty of reason to fear the Whisperers, possibly more than any previous enemy on The Walking Dead.