'The Walking Dead' Season 6 Return Is Worse For Remaining Characters; Episode 9 Airs Feb. 14

"The Walking Dead" season 6 return date is set on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day. While the day itself signifies love, there is no love spared for the characters still alive in the show.

The AMC show will pick up from where it left off in the mid-season finale for the ninth episode titled "Now Way Out." Accordingly, things will only get worse for them.

"We pick up right in that moment," writer and creator Robert Kirkman said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "Alexandria is overrun. Rick and the kids are all covered in guts trying to get through the crowd. Everyone is where we last saw them, and things get worse from there."

"The Walking Dead" season 6 episode 9 saw the introduction of comic book's notorious villain Negan. He was not in the scene but it was the first time his name was mentioned in the show. People who read the comic book where the show was based from know how psychotic and brutal Negan is. The new villain will be portrayed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Another thing fans can expect when "The Walking Dead" season 6 return date arrives is that the key characters will still be in Alexandria despite the presence of a huge wave of zombies.

"It comes back to those plans of rebuilding Alexandria," Kirkman added.

"Assuming some people survive, and it's a good bet that some do because they've already talked in the mid-season finale that they're not planning on leaving Alexandria. It's a bump in the road, but there's something special there, and they can turn this into an anchor that they can build upon."

He said, "They actually have a chance at surviving long term and building a safe place, not going from safety to safety to safety the way they have for the life of the show. This isn't the prison, and 'Oh, we gotta move on from here and find another place.' This is something different. And from there, there will be other things that expand their world in new and terrifying ways."

Although Negan is expected to be the one to carry out the terror against the group of Rick Grimes, do not expect him to be featured in the very first episode of "The Walking Dead" season 6 return.

The Hollywood Reporter said people will have a first glimpse of him in the season 6 finale.