Until now, we’ve yet to get a sense of how big of a potential threat that The Whisperers pose.

Even then, with the release of The Walking Dead #138: “Confrontation,” we learn a bit more about the size and standards of this group.  Even then, Robert Kirkman has only given us a taste of this new group.

However, we have two storylines to contend with, and Kirkman chose to jump right in and pick up with Gregory poisoning Maggie…or, his attempt to poison Maggie, who owes many thanks to Jesus.  Now it remains to be seen just how affected Maggie was by whatever Gregory did to her, but, for now, it looks like she’s going to survive.  Great on Maggie for being a trooper, but I do hope she seeks proper medical attention to find out just what happened to her.

Maggie is a real trooper and fit to be the leader of The Hilltop, but what does this say about Gregory when he’s so inept that he can’t even poison someone properly?  Maggie already knew that Gregory wanted to be in charge again, but now she knows that Gregory’s gunning for her.  She has every reason to lock him up and hopefully this gets the citizens of The Hilltop back on her side.

We also get some interesting developments with Carl and Lydia’s quick relationship and learn about some of what Lydia has had to endure.  For Lydia, the sex with Carl was a taste of the normalcy that the folks in Alexandria often take for granted.  It’s a relief to her compared to what The Whisperers do.  I gotta say, I was a bit stunned when Lydia came right out and essentially said that she’s raped by members of her group.

She doesn’t use the word, but it’s pretty clear.  Plus, she admits to not wanting to do it.  For Lydia to say that The Whisperers don’t recognize the word ‘rape’ is odd.  They want to separate themselves from animals, but animals do travel in packs.  I don’t know if they wear the skin of their enemies, though.  The Whisperers want to separate themselves from animals, but their actions are still barbaric.  We’ve seen what the roamer outbreak has done to people.  Hell, Carl even mentioned to Lydia what folks like The Hunters were capable of.

But, as we knew, Lydia wouldn’t be staying here forever.  There had to be an exchange, and we finally got a look at the leader of The Whisperers.  Because of the way Charlie Adlard drew Alpha, it’s easy to mistake her for a man, but she appears to be the real deal and Lydia’s mother.  Whether she’s the birth mother or just established as the mother due to The Whisperers’ system is another matter, but I’m happy that the exchange went as peaceful as it did.

Robert Kirkman still only gives us bits and pieces of information about The Whisperers without revealing too much.  They apparently have territory, but we have no idea of the size or scale.  For Alpha to tell Maggie to stay out of her territory is sure to be confusing when there don’t appear to be any established territorial markings.  But the group does appear to still be a potential threat with Ken and Dante saying that the group could number in the thousands.  The Saviors wish they had those numbers.

With Lydia back among The Whisperers, the issue of how to contend with them is already driving a wedge between Carl and Maggie.  Maggie has to think about the community as a whole when most of the people want her removed from power.  She still doesn’t know everything about The Whisperers, but she’s taking precautions to protect everyone.  The trade could have gone sour if Carl chose to get involved, but Maggie had nothing to lose by trading Lydia in exchange for Ken and Dante.

Carl, however, did have someone to lose, but let’s be real.  Maggie had a point: Carl barely knows Lydia and doesn’t know if she’s telling the truth about everything.  Lydia’s feelings for him appear to be genuine, but even still, Carl hasn’t known Lydia for that long.  More than that, he just had sex with her.  I’m sure that he wants to keep her safe, but he’s also thinking with his cock.  He can’t just overlook a potential threat just because he and Lydia had sex.  Plus, Lydia admitted what The Whisperers did to her.  Do you still want to have sex with her again, Carl?  You don’t know where that vagina has been!

I mean, Carl acts like he and Lydia have been together for ages, when all he did was spend a bit of time inside of her.  Hardly enough time to establish a long-lasting relationship.  Is Lydia a victim now that she’s back amongst The Whisperers?  We don’t know yet, but Carl is making a lot of assumptions based off of a few conversations.  This would make sense if he had more time to talk with Lydia, but their bond isn’t deep enough.  Though, Lydia says she misses her family, her facial expressions say otherwise.

At the end of the day, Carl doesn’t look like he can let Lydia go, so he’s venturing into dangerous territory.  He looks to be taking on The Whisperers by himself without Maggie knowing, which would be a problem for her and Rick, whenever he finds out.  But this issue did help add to the mystery that is The Whisperers.  They’re large, but we don’t know how big.  They have territory, but we haven’t seen any established boundaries.  They try to separate themselves from animals, but show some primal behavior to each other.  Does Carl really want to try and tackle this group on his own?