Caution: This post may contain spoilers from episode 9×07 of The Walking Dead entitled, “Stradivarious”

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead featured several characters we’ve been wondering about since the 6 year time jump after Rick’s swift exit.

We got to see a little bit of the Hilltop, including scenes between Tara and Jesus. We recently got to sit down with Alanna Masterson who plays Tara on the show, and who talked a little bit about the episode, getting to be directed by Michael Cudlitz, and what’s to come.

The Whisperers are full of mystery, but they are definitely not good. They’re now so close that Rosita almost didn’t get away from them, and now we don’t know if they’ve gotten Eugene. Masterson says that fans are going to be blown away once we see Samantha Morton as Alpha, the leader of the Whisperers.

Samantha Morton is a true badass. She’s so good and menacing and terrible and awful. People will not know what hit them when she comes on screen. We are beyond lucky to have her.

She also spoke about the changes that are making this season one that so many fans are loving, including how Angela Kang is making that happen.

When Andy was first leaving we were like how is this even gonna work? On set and storywise. What Angela’s done from episode 6-6- they’re really good. They’re really well written. The stories are really great. It’s one of the better seasons. How they’re shooting it, film stock is different. With a show going for so long you’ve gotta change it up . You can’t have the world feel and look the same. There’s so much more story to tell, and so much story to expand on.

She also talked a bit about the new crew, and what fans can expect from them.

The new crew bring a cool new dynamic to the group, and they’re all really great actors. What people aren’t expecting is for it to be good, and it’s actually so well written. You’ll be surprised at what happens.

When do you think we’ll see Alpha and The Whisperers come full throttle?

The Walking Dead airs its mid-season finale on Sunday at 9 PM ET on AMC and will return for the second half of season 9 in the new year.