I wish that I could give you all an excited and genuine "Welcome Back!" but after the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead, I'm just drained. When we last left our heroes, the newly empowered Alexandria group was realizing that they had no reason to celebrate. Their mission to destroy Negan and his group was a failed one and someone was just about to pay the price. Who, you ask? We are not spared any details as this cliffhanger resumes. Here's where we are after "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be."
The Show Must Go On
The episode opens with a closeup on Rick. He has someone else's blood on his face and a look of anguish that lets us know that Negan's eeny, meeny, miny, moe game is over. Rick looks up and says "I'm gonna kill you. Not today. Not tomorrow. But I'm gonna kill you." Negan looks to one of his followers and asks for a weapon. Simon offers a hatchet. Negan looks back at Rick and says "Simon's my right hand man. Having one of those is important. I mean, what do you have left without one?...You have one? Or did I?" He then shows us the very bloody Lucille and grabs the hatchet. Rick is still attempting to stare Negan down when Negan grabs him by the collar and throws him into the RV. Cue the opening music.
Negan leaves the hatchet hacked in the RV table as he starts the engine, pretty much daring Rick to try to kill him with it. Problem is...Negan has a gun so Rick's efforts remain fruitless. Negan beats him up a little and says "Think about what happened. Think about what can still happen." He stops the RV, throws the hatchet out into the foggy hoard of Walkers outside and tells Rick to go get it. He seriously wants to make Rick his bitch and he is succeeding. Rick is pushed outside and has to fend Walkers off him with his bare hands in his search for the hatchet. Throughout his struggle, we see Rick have flashbacks of his loved ones. Smokin' Hot Rosita is first, then Glenn, Sasha, Eugene, Aaron, Abraham, Maggie, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl. Rick finds the hatchet on top of the RV (how'd it get there?) and we go back to the moment Negan began his eeny, meeny, miny, moe song and dance.
Negan's bat points at everyone and the suspense is unreal. Ultimately...the "you are it" lands on Abraham. Shit. Sasha and Rosita begin to sob as Abraham continues to keep his emotions in check. Abraham takes one blow and comes right back up on his knees, saying "suck my nuts." Thank god for that. I needed to smile just for a second before the rest of the bloodshed. We see Negan beat the holy hell out of Abraham, smashing his head into a gooey mess. He walks over to Rosita and taunts her with the bloody bat. Daryl can't take it. He attacks Negan and I yell "what the #$%! are you doing?!?!" Negan already said he would cut out Carl's other eye and feed it to Rick if anyone moved. Daryl! You idiot! Negan is pissed. "That is a no no. Not one bit of that shit flies here." Negan's followers have Daryl pinned to the ground and that douchebag Dwight approaches with Daryl's crossbow. He is once again ready to kill Daryl with his own weapon but Negan stops him. "That's not how it works. I already told you people. First one is free...and then I told you I will shut that shit down! No exceptions....so back to it." He turns and bashes Glenn in the head twice. Glenn manages to sit up. His eyeball is popping out of his head. He mumbles "Maggie, I'll find you" just before Negan brings his bat down again. And again. And again until Glenn's head also becomes a gooey mess. Maggie's face is almost more difficult to watch than the beating.
Now we're back to the opening moments of the episode and switch over to Rick on top of the RV. He has just re-lived the whole thing in his mind and is laying on the roof, defeated. I'm still not 100% clear on how the hatchet ended up on the roof, but Negan fires some bullets in the RV ceiling and wakes Rick from his own personal hell. Rick makes his way back on the ground with the hatchet, Negan shoots the surrounding Walkers, and Rick uses the hatchet to kill the zombie stragglers and get back inside the RV.
Negan leaves the hatchet hacked in the RV table as he starts the engine, pretty much daring Rick to try to kill him with it. Problem is...Negan has a gun so Rick's efforts remain fruitless. Negan beats him up a little and says "Think about what happened. Think about what can still happen." He stops the RV, throws the hatchet out into the foggy hoard of Walkers outside and tells Rick to go get it. He seriously wants to make Rick his bitch and he is succeeding. Rick is pushed outside and has to fend Walkers off him with his bare hands in his search for the hatchet. Throughout his struggle, we see Rick have flashbacks of his loved ones. Smokin' Hot Rosita is first, then Glenn, Sasha, Eugene, Aaron, Abraham, Maggie, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl. Rick finds the hatchet on top of the RV (how'd it get there?) and we go back to the moment Negan began his eeny, meeny, miny, moe song and dance.Negan's bat points at everyone and the suspense is unreal. Ultimately...the "you are it" lands on Abraham. Shit. Sasha and Rosita begin to sob as Abraham continues to keep his emotions in check. Abraham takes one blow and comes right back up on his knees, saying "suck my nuts." Thank god for that. I needed to smile just for a second before the rest of the bloodshed. We see Negan beat the holy hell out of Abraham, smashing his head into a gooey mess. He walks over to Rosita and taunts her with the bloody bat. Daryl can't take it. He attacks Negan and I yell "what the #$%! are you doing?!?!" Negan already said he would cut out Carl's other eye and feed it to Rick if anyone moved. Daryl! You idiot! Negan is pissed. "That is a no no. Not one bit of that shit flies here." Negan's followers have Daryl pinned to the ground and that douchebag Dwight approaches with Daryl's crossbow. He is once again ready to kill Daryl with his own weapon but Negan stops him. "That's not how it works. I already told you people. First one is free...and then I told you I will shut that shit down! No exceptions....so back to it." He turns and bashes Glenn in the head twice. Glenn manages to sit up. His eyeball is popping out of his head. He mumbles "Maggie, I'll find you" just before Negan brings his bat down again. And again. And again until Glenn's head also becomes a gooey mess. Maggie's face is almost more difficult to watch than the beating.
Now we're back to the opening moments of the episode and switch over to Rick on top of the RV. He has just re-lived the whole thing in his mind and is laying on the roof, defeated. I'm still not 100% clear on how the hatchet ended up on the roof, but Negan fires some bullets in the RV ceiling and wakes Rick from his own personal hell. Rick makes his way back on the ground with the hatchet, Negan shoots the surrounding Walkers, and Rick uses the hatchet to kill the zombie stragglers and get back inside the RV.
Outside The Dawn Is Breaking
It's morning when Negan brings Rick back to the beating site. The rest of the group is still on their knees and I have no idea how Maggie is still thriving. She looked like death in the Season 6 finale and I thought she was losing the baby. Is she just in shock?
Negan has cleaned the hatchet and given it to Rick. He drags Rick to the center of the semi-circle of horror and tells the group that the excursion didn't work. Rick is still looking at him the same way he did at the opening of the episode. Negan asks his guys to point their guns at the remaining members of the Grimes gang. He asks Carl to join him in the center and for a moment all I can think is "I really hope he's going to give Carl a haircut. That shit is ridiculous." Instead, Negan takes his belt and tightens it around Carl's arm. He draws a line on Carl's forearm and pushes the kid on the ground. He instructs Rick to chop Carl's arm off at the line in order to save the rest of his people. OH MY GOD. Would they really do this to Carl? Don't get me wrong. I can't STAND Carl. But really? Take his eye and then part of his arm? And leave his hair? The people who run this show are cruel S.O.Bs. Rick is sobbing and begging. Carl whispers "just do it" and Rick raises the hatchet. I can't breathe. Just as he is about to bring the weapon down...Negan stops him. Whew. Rick is officially Negan's bitch and essentially says so.
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Negan lets the group know he is satisfied. "Today was a productive damn day. Now I hope for all of your sake that you 'get it' now...that you understand how things work. Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you is over now." He also lets the group know that he is taking Daryl. "He has guts. I like him. He's mine now." Negan and his crew leave the RV behind for the Grimes gang and head home.
Negan has cleaned the hatchet and given it to Rick. He drags Rick to the center of the semi-circle of horror and tells the group that the excursion didn't work. Rick is still looking at him the same way he did at the opening of the episode. Negan asks his guys to point their guns at the remaining members of the Grimes gang. He asks Carl to join him in the center and for a moment all I can think is "I really hope he's going to give Carl a haircut. That shit is ridiculous." Instead, Negan takes his belt and tightens it around Carl's arm. He draws a line on Carl's forearm and pushes the kid on the ground. He instructs Rick to chop Carl's arm off at the line in order to save the rest of his people. OH MY GOD. Would they really do this to Carl? Don't get me wrong. I can't STAND Carl. But really? Take his eye and then part of his arm? And leave his hair? The people who run this show are cruel S.O.Bs. Rick is sobbing and begging. Carl whispers "just do it" and Rick raises the hatchet. I can't breathe. Just as he is about to bring the weapon down...Negan stops him. Whew. Rick is officially Negan's bitch and essentially says so.
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Negan lets the group know he is satisfied. "Today was a productive damn day. Now I hope for all of your sake that you 'get it' now...that you understand how things work. Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you is over now." He also lets the group know that he is taking Daryl. "He has guts. I like him. He's mine now." Negan and his crew leave the RV behind for the Grimes gang and head home.
I Have To Find The Will To Carry On
The group does not get up right away. They don't look at each other. Finally Maggie stands and begins to walk and I'm still wondering how that's possible. She wants to fight Negan but she is alone. Given what everyone else has just seen, unconditional surrender seems like the better idea. Sasha then looks at Rosita and tearfully says "I'm taking him." I can't even imagine transporting those bodies home, vehicle or no vehicle. Maggie at this point is bent over Glenn's body and sobbing. Carl, Aaron, and Rick lift Glenn as Rosita, Sasha and Eugene lift Abraham. With everyone in the RV, Rick picks the hatchet up from the gravel and climbs into the driver's seat. In the rear view mirror he sees a hungry Walker eating the brains from Abraham and Glenn's blood piles.
The episode ends there and I truly, honestly, seriously have never felt as nauseous watching a TV show as I did tonight. I'll admit that I heard rumors that Abraham and Glenn would meet their end tonight and it was kind of brilliant of the show runners to choose both of them. In the comics Glenn has an epic death with Lucille, so loyal fans of the books probably would have been disappointed if that death completely went to someone else. On the flip side, Abraham was supposed to die with the arrow through the eyeball the way Denise did, so a good number of people were expecting his demise in the Season 6 finale. Answering the burning "which one is it!?!?" question people had all summer, the show runners said "both - gotcha!"
"The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" obviously focused just on the Negan semi-circle of terror, but next week we should expand and at least catch up with Morgan and Carol as they make their way to The Kingdom to meet Ezekiel. Will we follow Negan home and find out what happens to Daryl as well? Will Tara come back from her supply run with Heath and realize Denise is eyeball-less and lifeless? Will anyone even give a shit at that point given Abraham and Glenn's death by barbed wire bat? Will Sasha go all crazypants again like she did after Bob and Tyreese died? I'm beginning to think TWD might hate her more than Tara at this point. Now please excuse me while I go try to erase the images of bloody, headless Abraham and Glenn from my mind.
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