After a two-month holiday hiatus, The Walking Dead returned with the mid-season premiere Rock In the Road last night, to kick off this season's stretch of the final eight episodes. Shortly after the episode aired, AMC released a preview and clip from next week's episode, New Best Friends, along with a clip from Rock In the Road featuring last night's most talked-about scene. If you haven't watched last night's episode yet, there will be SPOILERS below, so read on at your own risk.
The sneak peek clip, which debuted on AMC's YouTube, is a continuation of the final scene from last night's episode, where Rick and his group is ambushed by a mysterious family of survivors. As this large group surrounds them in a junk yard, Rick actually cracks a huge smile as they circle in around him. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple has teased in the past that fans will be introduced to a new group of survivors, and it seems this is the group in question. Unlike the Hilltop and The Kingdom, though, this group seems more than willing to fight, which is perhaps why Rick is smiling in the final scene from last night.
The sneak peek clip shows Rick and his crew being lead into this new group's camp, which is hidden within what looks like part of a junkyard. There is no dialogue in the scene, but it's clear that this group's numbers are quite impressive. The 30-second preview features a brief scene where an unidentified member of this new group tells Rick that they own their lives, and asks if they'd like to buy them back. Rick responds by stating that The Saviors own all of their lives, and they will come looking for them, but there is a way out. This 'way out' is presumably to coax this group into helping in their impending war against the Saviors.
The new trailer features Richard (Karl Makinen) from The Kingdom engaged in a stand-off with members of The Saviors, along with another scene where Richard tells Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) that they both want the same things, and that he needs their help. During last night's episode, King Ezekiel agreed to grant asylum to Daryl, who had escaped from The Saviors' compound known as The Sanctuary, although both The Kingdom and the Hilltop Colony are still reluctant to fight back against The Saviors. We also see Richard and Daryl hitting the road together on some sort of mission, along with scenes where King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and his people comes to Carol's (Melissa McBride) house, seeking assistance of some sort. Most notably, Daryl has his crossbow back!
Along with these videos, we have two new photos from next week's episode of The Walking Dead, along with eight photos from last night's midseason premiere. It was recently confirmed that New Best Friends will be an extended episode, spanning 66 minutes when it debuts on February 19, airing from 9:00 PM to 10:06 PM ET. The currently untitled 11th episode of Season 7 will add an additional eight minutes for a 68 minute episode, airing on February 26. Take a look at the new videos and photos from next week's episode of The Walking Dead.
