With the midseason opener set to hit screens this Sunday (Feb 8), The Walking Dead’s Lauren Cohen – who plays Maggie on the hit zombie drama – has spoken up about what we can expect: loneliness and gore. Lots and lots of gore.

Lauren CohenLauren Cohen's Maggie has survived the zombie apocalypse so far

The first eight episodes were weirdly paced, but gathered momentum in the last two as The Governor executed his plan to revert back to his killing ways.

With the group scattered following that attack, Hershel dead and Judith – the ridiculously named baby daughter of Rick – missing, we resume on Walking Dead duties with our characters’ lives in disarray.

“We have no boundaries. We have no protection. We have little-to-no weaponry. We don’t even have places to sleep. It’s very dangerous. There are more walkers. There are people that you want to be able to trust but can’t out there. I won’t say anything about that,” explained Cohen, who is married to Glen in the show.

“Tonally, each episode goes into its own little wormhole. You don’t find out what happens to some of these characters for a few episodes at least and some characters much longer than that. It’s some of the best storytelling and writing that we’ve had on the show yet.”

Despite a dodgy start, Hershel – played by Scott Wilson) become an integral part of the group, often taking the burden of leadership from Rick’s heavy shoulders and surviving a walker bite and subsequent leg amputation to boot. His death, then, came as a huge blow for the show’s characters, fans and the cast alike.

“This was the worst one,” said Cohen of Hershel’s death. “Scott is like our sage. He is like our dad. Definitely a mentor. So that scene when we shot it, Emily and I were up at the fence, and the group was behind us, and down at the bottom of the field was Scott,” she added.

“But then when we did our coverage, Scott came up and stood just on the other side of the fence to us. And we’re beginning the scene, and right before it happens he says, “I love you girls” and he looked at us. It wasn’t Hershel saying anything. It was Scott Wilson telling me and Emily how much this had meant to him and we love him.” Emotional stuff.

Entertainment Weekly had the interview