Watch The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 9 Online | The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 9

Entertainment Weekly did a series of interviews with Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira and Andrew Lincoln that discuss where Season 4 picks up in episode 9, "After." Here are some spoilery teases from the interview:

Secondary characters will come to the forefront. "I think there's a different tone to the back eight, and I think you're going to see a lot of characters that you haven't seen under the microscope as much all have their chance to shine," Lincoln says. "Because they're apart from each other you realize that without each other their family is dying. It's almost like vignettes; it's like character studies in all of the characters. The underpinning of all of this is the great hope they can find each other again."

Daryl assumes the worst. "Whether [Beth and Daryl] stay together is yet to be seen. Everything is gone. Everyone is on the run," Reedus teases. "Everything has just come crashing to a halt. He assumes everyone is dead. He's got to start over. Everyone is in a really bad place right now."

Michonne will take Hershel's death very hard. "The loss is pretty extreme. So the question is, how does she metabolize this? How does she handle it?" Gurira teases.

Some of the characters who meet up will be fun pairings. "There are some very witty pairings is what I will say," Lincoln says. "Really, really witty."

These next eight episodes are Reedus' favorite. "I will say that the back eight are in my opinion are our best eight episodes yet. The storylines, the acting, and the directing, and the writing are top of our food chain," he teases. "I'm so excited for people to see these episodes. You get an understanding of why certain characters are who they are, why they fight for what they fight for, or why they don't fight. You really get an in-depth look at characters like you've never seen before."