Do the Whisperers Have a Nuclear Weapon on ‘The Walking Dead’?

AMC

There’s one scene during The Walking Dead‘s Season 10 premiere on AMC when we hear that the Whisperers have a nuclear weapon. Is that true?

The Nuclear Weapon Is Symbolic, Not Literal

‌

The answer is yes and no. The characters were speaking symbolically when they talked about a nuclear weapon owned by The Whisperers. They don’t literally have a nuclear weapon. And no, the “bomb” that you see in the sky is not a nuclear weapon either. It’s a satellite falling back to Earth.

When they talk about a nuclear weapon, they’re just speaking symbolically about the Whisperers having a huge walker horde that might as well be a nuclear weapon. Remember, Alpha showed the horde to Daryl to show him what he was up against, and it was huge.

Some viewers don’t love that analogy though. On Reddit, one person wrote: “Herds of walkers are the stupidest things in this show. How many times have they been like ‘oh no there’s too many walkers’ and then they easily kill them all or lead them away.”

However, the Whisperers’ herd is a bit different, other viewers responded. Not only do they have a large herd at their disposal, but they also can wear the faces of walkers and walk like walkers, making them nearly indistinguishable from the zombies in the horde. This means that at any moment you could be killed by a person in the horde pretending to be a walker and have no idea it’s coming. That’s what happened to Jesus, for example, and it’s one of the reasons that the group is so careful about the horde. They don’t want to antagonize people who can hide so well and, thus, are tougher to fight. It’s kind of like a form of guerrilla warfare. Even if you have better weapons at your disposal, it can be tough to fight people who are strategic at hiding and surprising you.

And as viewers have noted too, that’s really the bottom line. No one has any idea which walkers are real and which are the Whisperers (at least until they kill them.) That can cause a huge strategic disadvantage in a fight.

The ‘Bomb’ in the Sky is a Satellite

And just to clarify: if you see a scene in the premiere that looks like a bomb is arcing through the sky, this is not a nuclear weapon belonging to the Whisperers. It’s the satellite that we saw in the first few minutes of The Walking Dead premiere.

AMC

No, the Whisperers aren’t shooting a bomb at anyone, and the satellite isn’t connected to CRM. It’s a satellite from the USSR whose orbit decayed and is now falling to the Earth.

AMC

There are several scenes in the premiere when you’ll see something burning in the sky and falling to the Earth. That’s the same scene shown from different perspectives. Some viewers mistakenly think it might be different bombs or multiple satellites falling. It’s the same satellite, just from different perspectives.

So while the Whisperers have strategy and a huge zombie horde at their disposal, they do not have a nuclear weapon.

READ NEXT: The Walking Dead Season 9 Finale Recap