The Walking Dead Season 9 Episodes You Should Rewatch Before 'Find Me'
Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 10, episode 18 — "Find Me"
The second episode of The Walking Dead's six-episode season 10 extension, which is now available to stream on AMC+ ahead of its linear premiere on AMC, tells an intimate story about a relationship Daryl (Norman Reedus) had with a cantankerous woman named Leah (Lynn Collins) during the long period of time he was out in the wilderness looking for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) after Rick went missing.
"Find Me" follows future spin-off stars Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) as they go on a hunting trip in the woods outside Alexandria. They come upon the ruins of a shack that sends Daryl into a reverie, as he remembers the time he spent with Leah several years prior. The flashback-heavy episode marks the first time we've ever seen Daryl have an actual romantic relationship (his relationship with Connie [Lauren Ridloff] hasn't progressed beyond flirtation). And since Daryl is not in a relationship in the present timeline, you can assume that things with Leah ended badly.
"Find Me" is set in the six years that got skipped over in the season 9 time jump after Rick Grimes disappeared. There have been a number of episodes that have flashed back to this time, most notably "Scars," which explained why Michonne (Danai Gurira) abandoned Rick's ideal of inclusive community for a time. But those are not the best ones to watch before "Find Me."
Those would be the season 9 episodes "Who Are You Now?" and "Stradivarius," which take place during and right after the events in the flashbacks in "Find Me." Fans interested in seeing how the series handled the continuity can revisit those episodes to see the ways in which they match up.
'Who Are You Now?' shows the immediate aftermath of Rick's exit
Episode 6 of season 9 is the first one without Rick Grimes. It's set six years after the former sheriff blew up the bridge and got taken away by the Civil Republic Military to parts unknown. It formally introduces Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming), Henry (Matt Lintz), and the survivors from Magna (Nadia Hilker) and Yumiko's (Eleanor Matsuura) group. It also offers the terrifying first glimpse of the Whisperers.
The episode mostly follows Michonne as she tries to decide what to do with Magna's group, whom she doesn't trust, but there's a lot of Carol, too. In the episode, the newly long-haired survivor and her adopted son Henry hit the road to Hilltop. Along the way, they're attacked by remnants of the Saviors, former followers of the defeated Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Carol eliminates them with extreme prejudice, then links up with Daryl, who we find out has been living alone in the woods for a long time as he investigates what happened to Rick, who he doesn't think died.
If you watched "Who Are You Now?" right before "Find Me," it would catch you up on the context of what was going on back in Alexandria and the other communities while Daryl was out in the woods.
'Stradivarius' is the start of the current chapter of Daryl's story
The Michael Cudlitz-directed seventh episode of season 9 fills viewers in on what Daryl has been up to during the past six years, though in significantly less detail than in "Find Me." It introduces Dog, who we meet as a puppy in the new episode.
Picking up where episode 6 left off, "Stradivarius" finds Carol and Henry visiting Daryl's camp in the woods. Carol is worried about Daryl, who isn't eating much and seems to be forgetting how to be a person. He explains that he's grown accustomed to being on his own out here looking for Rick, and doesn't really want to come back to civilization. That changes, of course, once the Whisperers come into play, and Daryl is needed back home.
If you rewatch "Stradivarius," you should look to see if there are any hints or foreshadowing about Lynn. Daryl is accustomed to being alone, but he wasn't alone for the whole time he was out there, we now know. It would be interesting to see if there were indications from the writers that Daryl was going to get a love story before the pandemic necessitated small episodes like "Find Me," which has just three characters in it.