Last time we talked about The Walking Dead, it was a question about what happened to Daryl.  As The Walking Dead goes to its mid-season finale with Episode 8, "Coda", Daryl still has a lot to worry about. 

"Coda" will begin with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) still in the situation of hostile negotiations as Beth (Emily Kinney) and Carol (Melissa McBride) are hostages.  Rick wanted to enter the situation and handle it with extreme prejudice, but it was Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) with the help of Daryl (Norman Reedus) who convinced Rick that taking hostages in exchange for their comrades was a...less violent solution to the problem. 

Dawn (Christine Woods), the antagonist holding Beth and Carol, might not go for this trade.  It would appear that an all-out war could be the ending of this episode, which never ends well. 

Meanwhile, there might be more in store for Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) as they take care of baby Judith.  Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) left the church without them noticing.  Yet Father Gilliam had no weapons and is quite ill-prepared for the world of the walkers.  What is to become of him?

As we discussed in a previous article, the plotline with Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) has not had much resolution since the last time.  There needs to be some kind of resolution between Abraham, Glenn (Steven Yeun), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Rosita (Christian Serratos), and Tara (Alanna Masterson). 

If the show is going to follow some semblance of the plot from its graphic novel source material, these characters are eventually going to have all join together once more and start heading to Washington.  This could happen once Rick resolves the situation with Beth and Carol, which is probably going to end with the Dawn of the Dead.  That is, Dawn will be dead, along with her accomplices. 

From there, it is possible that Carl, Judith, and Michonne could join up with Rick, Daryl, and Tyreese.  Maybe they will find Father Gabriel in the process, and then all of them meet up to join Abraham and the others, and continue on until Washington, which could easily eat-up the other half of Season 5.  There is so much more they could meet on the road to D.C. besides just a bunch of walkers. 

There is one more wildcard that could be drawn from The Walking Dead deck.  Some viewers might remember seeing Morgan (Lennie James) at the end of episode 1 of season 5, but why?  Morgan is a recurring character first seen in Season 1, who sadly lost his wife to the walkers.  In Season 3, Rick revisited his hometown to discover Morgan had lost his son, and had gone very crazy.  Since he decided not to join Rick's group, it is not known what is fate was. 

Chris Hardwick, the host of "Talking Dead" teased viewers that a midseason finale episode of the talk show would feature a mystery guest from The Walking Dead.  According to the International Business Times, the mystery guests often go hand and hand with surprising plot twists on the show. 

ABC's The Walking Dead mid-season finale "Coda" airs on November 30, 2014 at 9/8C. You can watch the live stream on AMC website, cable subscribers can watch the show online for free. If you cannot watch it on TV, you can watch it on AMC website the day after the episode airs. You can also download the show on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Xbox.