So, that Walking Dead season finale [spoilers]

Just saw it. Yikes. Brutal.

And man, that cliffhanger - it's been a long time since a cliffhanger actually hung my cliff, as it were. I actually felt the dread mount throughout the last 10 minutes, which is a rare accomplishment for a TV show.

15 episodes of crap with the promise of one head being reduced to pulp. There was lots of hype and publicity about that. Sort of. The network didn't deliver and just wants ratings next season. Lame. The WD hasn't been relevent in a long time and this season's just confirms that.

It was pretty intense - but Negan made a fatal mistake in not killing everyone in that group.

Not showing who got Lucille upside the head reeked of "stunt" to me.

And for a 90-minute episode, very little actually happened. The group drives the motor home to a barrier, backs up, goes elsewhere; repeat ad nauseum until finally the group gets caught. I don't really see why this couldn't have been a normal hour-long episode.

Also disappointing: Daryl, Michonne, Glenn, and Rosita have virtually no screen time and no lines -- Glenn gets to scream in terror and fear when Negan threatens Maggie, but that's about it. Likewise, Maggie had little to do except lie there helplessly the whole episode. At least Morgan caught up to Carol and that story line seems to be going somewhere interesting, with the armor-clad horsemen being a new group we haven't seen before.

Incidentally, had I been one of Negan's men assigned to one of the blockades, I'd have been in "pee-pee pants" territory a bit myself there, since by now the Saviors should know that Rick's group potentially has a bazooka and isn't afraid to use it. (We the viewers know that it's out of ammo, but Negan's men shouldn't know that.)

And I'll throw in my guess as to Lucille's victim: Eugene. He's gone from timid, fearful victim to a guy who gets ticked off if you kill the walker he already called "dibs" on, so he's already had a bit of character progression. And any need for his continued existence was virtually wiped away when he handed the "Bullet-Making 101" recipe to Rick; now the group can make bullets without Eugene needing to be there.

Johnathan

We know it's not Rick or Carl, as Negan threatened to cut Carl's eye out and feed it to Rick if anybody moved while the head bashing took place.

It's someone brave; they got up again after the first hit. For that reason I'm guessing not Eugene.

Could be any of the others.

Well, by the lines Negan delivers, we know Rick and Carl aren't dead. If Negan is half as smart a BBEG as he seems to be, the most logical/obvious choices would be Abraham, Michonne, or Daryl.

goldomark said:

15 episodes of crap with the promise of one head being reduced to pulp. There was lots of hype and publicity about that. Sort of. The network didn't deliver and just wants ratings next season. Lame. The WD hasn't been relevent in a long time and this season's just confirms that.

Click to expand...

I have to completely disagree. I friggin' loved this season, and that finale rocked. Harry Dean Morgan was charismatic and terrifying, and the tension build-up at the end of the episode worked great (at our house, anyway). I already knew what happens to whom from the comic (not spoilering for those who don't know), and though I'd hate to see it I know it kinda needs to happen for the story.

I appreciate what Scott Gimple said about all the internet fanboy rage:

“I ask people to give us the benefit of the doubt that it’s all part of a plan, all part of a story. I truly hope that people see [the season 7 premiere] and they feel it justifies the way we’ve decided to tell the story. That is the way it is in our minds. I know what [the season 7 premiere] is and I feel that it delivers on what [the season 6 finale] sets up.”

Click to expand...

Yep, they cliffhangered us again. It was a terrific cliffhanger, because it's damn near all fans have been talking about today. And I expect they'll keep talking for the next six months. Myself, I find it hilarious that so many of us are so worked up about a crazy cliffhanger. This wasn't done as an insult to the show's fans. It was done to set up something Awesome for next season. Myself, I'm gonna wait and see if it pays off before I start getting worked up about it. They've done a pretty bang-up job so far, in my opinion, and I'm totally willing to see where it goes next.

[spoilers]? How can this be a spoiler thread? There's literally nothing to spoil.

We knew going into this episode that the group would meet up with Negan (either from previews or common sense). We knew that someone would get hurt, but we still don't know who that is, so we can't spoil it. No one else died. The only character development that happened was that Morgan shot someone. I guess that's a spoiler. Everything else was a 90 minute commercial for the next season premiere.

Funny thing is, just last week I was reviewing this season and told people how I really appreciated that things actually happened at a reasonable pace. The herd incident, the Wolves, the Hilltop colony, and the Negan plot all moved along quite well. It was a really nice change of pace after season five, where I skipped about half of the episodes and didn't miss anything.

I found it dumb, they were dumb, it needed Ackbar screaming it's a TRAP! The places they were stopped at screamed ambush, dumb.

Last week with the end of the blood slap on the camera and this weeks cliff hanger were cheap theatrics. Disappointing.

I enjoyed this season more than I have since season 2 or 3. Sure, it had flaws, but they were outweighed by the good.