A few months ago I wrote a post about how The Walking Dead had lost it's stones and needed to man up and at the end of that post I said that I hoped to write a retraction following the sixth season finale. Due to my frustrations I didn't bother because it wasn't warranted but now I've watched the seventh season premiere I am ready.
The sixth season finale saw the introduction of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a character who had loomed over the entire group (and the audience) during the latter half of the season. Negan and his group had threatened and bullied existing colonies in the area to do their bidding but Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and his tribe weren't willing to give in to any sort of intimidation by him. Before their formal introduction Rick and his group, as well as the Hilltop Colony that we'd met earlier, decided to neutralise the threat by exterminating what they believed was the whole of Negan's crew while they slept. Unfortunately for them Negan is well organised and didn't leave all his eggs in one basket and he decided to let them know that he wasn't to be trifled with. He intercepted Rick's group as they were on their way to Hilltop to get medical care for a sickly Maggie (Lauren Cohan), the finale ending with a Negan speech and his bat (Lucille) getting acquainted with one of their skulls.
The audience didn't get to see who was killed by Negan in the finale, instead we've had to wait months to find out. We speculated, studied the actors IMDB pages, looked for rumours about who was on set, anything to satiate us until the show returned with hopes that it will give us answers the moment it returned. It did not. Not the very first moment anyway. The show decided to string it out just a little longer by skipping to moments after the dastardly deed with Rick being shocked and infuriated, threatening to kill Negan when the chance arose. Negan took his victim as a way to exert power over the group so clearly this would not do so he spent even more time trying to break Rick, if he gains control over Rick then he has the whole group.
I can't ever remember being so frustrated when watching the show, not even during all the Glenn "deaths", I was going completely insane. We had a third of the show with just Negan taunting him and Rick resisting and having the occasional fond memory of one of his friends as red herrings. With every one of these my heart sank further, and the writers were so cruel to have Negan refer to the killing as a joke. I dissected that, was him brutally killing a person a joke to him? Did he actually kill anyone or was he just freaking the group out? He must've killed someone right? Lucille is covered in blood! When will we get solid answers?!?! Then we did. Too many answers.
After all this time waiting we see that the victim from the season six finale was Abraham Ford (Michael Culditz) who was just getting his life back together after losing everything in the apocalypse. Abraham had been with us since season four and quickly became a fan favourite and a true asset to the group. He initially had his own goals but was a trusted ally to the group, even when they were incredibly guarded about letting strangers into their life he made it into the inner circle. He was always there as support for Rick and had a couple of romantic entanglements in the show so he will be a character that will be noticeably missed and his death will likely have lasting effects.
The moment I saw Abraham get hit with Lucille I was in a state of shock, awe and pride as he didn't go down easy. Then finally I got my relief. I cared about Abraham's character but the deaths of certain other characters would've been completely devastating for me, I would have hated to have said to goodbye to Daryl (Norman Reedus), Glenn (Steven Yuen), Michonne (Danari Gurira) or Maggie so although I was sad to see Abraham go I was glad it wasn't one of the characters that I felt like I had built an emotional bond with. Sure, I wanted The Walking Dead to get it's balls back in theory but I'm mostly talk, I wasn't ready for it. Unfortunately for me (and certain others) Negan wasn't done.
There was only supposed to be one death. One. My head cleared the moment Abraham had his head brutally bashed in, it was over. Only it wasn't. Negan had one more victim this episode and although we've seen his "death" before we also had to say goodbye to Glenn. Glenn, a character that we've been through since the beginning. A trusted friend and confidant to all. Courageous and willing to do anything for his group. A character who I can safely say is adored by the majority of people who watch the show. Seeing his skull get ripped apart and his brains getting pummelled, proving that he had no chance of survival, broke me. The loss of Abraham will be felt amongst everyone but I just can't see how they would be able to get past the demise of Glenn. Seeing the group at the end completely broken was an unseemly sight, they have always had the strength to go on but now they are at Negans mercy and they know it.
I apologise for saying The Walking Dead had relinquished control of their balls because they clearly haven't as they offed two characters, one of which they know has a large following. The only thing they could possibly have done that would be more devastating is to kill Daryl who is currently still at risk. Negan truly showed off his might in this episode and Jeffrey Dean Morgan displayed how terrific an actor he is because now I am absolutely petrified and repulsed by him. And Lucille. It hurts.
The Walking Dead is like a drug to me, I know it's bad for me but I just can't stop. There are no physical effects but there is a tonne of mental torment and for some reason I don't want it to end. I will miss Abraham and Glenn but I can't stop watching, I need to see how the group adapt to their new totalitarian existence with the loss of these people whom they care deeply about. I can't wait to see Maggie go batshit crazy on Negan even whilst she is unwell and pregnant. I can't wait till Rick gets to drive an axe through Negans head.
Bring. It. On.
Live Long and Blog!
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