So, who stepped up to ‘bat’? ‘The Walking Dead‘ finally answers the biggest question since ‘Who shot JR?‘ revealing the victim of Negan’s assault. But was it all worth the wait? *SPOILERS*
Well, that was pretty intense, wasn’t it?
There was much gnashing of teeth at the end of The Walking Dead‘s sixth season finale. Quite rightly, viewers felt robbed of the climactic moment promised, where very big bad Negan killed one of our heroes with his barb-wire baseball bat ‘Lucille’. Oh, the violent tragic event happened, to be sure, but we only saw it from the perspective of the victim and the credits rolled before the identity of the fallen was known. An audible groan went up from fans, cheated of the pay-off to an otherwise well-orchestrated publicity campaign, one that had already teased the death for over six months. Mightily miffed, plenty of people claimed that the show had jumped the shark and that such a bait-and-switch finale meant they’d given up on the show.
That being said, there’s a very strong case to presume each and every one of those refusniks, despite the indignation, turned up for Sunday night’s opener of the show’s seventh run and… finally got the answer to the question on who had picked a fine time to leave us via Lucille. Though they still made us wait a bit.
*Spoilers from here on in*
The opener gives us Rick’s dazed and understandably PTSD reaction to the murderous events a few moments before as he’s dragged off to the RV, with Negan holding an axe and talking about ‘right hand’ men. Anyone familiar with the comics knows this may not bode well for our flawed hero. But despite confrontations with Negan and a mist-shrouded herd of zombies out for a morning brunch, Rick survives…. Negan actually has no intention of killing him… he’s simply going to wear him down and pinch out any shred of rebellion Rick may be considering. Over a rentless episode, it seems to work: Rick going from “I’m going to kill you!’ to a gibbering wreck pleading for his life and those of his friends and swearing loyalty. It may be a pragmatic way to stay alive, but one look into Andrew Lincoln’s bloodshot eyes shows how well he’s selling it and how beaten Rick feels.
And then The Walking Dead flashes back to the kneeling about-to-be-dead. So far we’d seen several ‘flashes’. Deadly blows to Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), Carl (Chandler Riggs), Glenn (Steven Yuen), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Aaron (Ross Marquand) ,Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), Michonne (Danai Gurira) and…. *gasp* Norman Reedus’ Daryl. (“We ride!“). Fear the Walking Dead ye not as some of these were Rick’s mind worrying about what might yet happen. Those viewers who did their rewinds and geometry between the seasons and watched the recent teaser (which formed the show’s opening three minutes) were probably patting themselves on the back. It’s the mighty-moustach’d of Abraham that bites the dust, along with what’s left of his head. It’s shot in a way to get past the censors, but one presumes those censors will regret having their lunches. Those thinking the show would follow the comics continuity more closely breathed a sigh of relief that Glenn was not the one to die. But when Daryl charges Negan in a fit of rage, Negan decides yet another example must be made to show his dominance and raises Lucille once again… and pummels Glenn. It’s a slow death, Glenn’s eyes bulging as he tries to tell his wife he loves her and will ‘find her’ and then Negan finishes the job. By this time, those censors are likely to be in therapy.
The entire episode is a power-play by Negan, a whittling down of any resistance and his ruthless way to show his captives that he is far, far more dangerous than any zombie and therein lies the episode’s greatest strength and weakness. The Walking Dead has been criticised in the past for its periods of hopelessness, where things feel so negative that viewers almost want to turn over to the election cycles and real-life war coverage for their light relief. That now all seems like a walk in the park. ‘The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be‘ shreds hope and leaves our heroes broken. It’s the most nihilistic episode of television in quite some time, giving matrimonial massacres in Game of Thrones a run for their money. It’s as dark as anything we were promised and perhaps – just perhaps – the powers-that-be knew what they were doing when they decided not to leave fans with a summer of mourning.
That being said, the performances are universally terrific. Jeffrey Dean Morgan chews the scenery in a way that tiptoes right up to the borders of being camp and then comes out swinging in just the way the source material demands. Negan is a brutal sociopath but it’s like watching a car-crash you can’t look a car crash from which you can’t turn away. An utter control freak, he’s the ultimate bully but owns the room. Andrew Lincoln leads the reactive charge as a man who knows he’s led his friends to defeat and can now only offer his own life to save them. The cast have spoken about the emotional toll of filming the episode (particularly Steven Yuen) and its hard now not to believe them.
It was an emotional rollercoaster of an opener, but if the show is wanting to retain its loyal viewers, it must now – like its characters – find a way back. Fans are used to death on the show, but not this kind of human monster and carnage. The season cannot, must not, stay as dark as this if it to hold on to its base – people will start following through on their declarations of leaving if it doesn’t. This is supposed to be escapist horror-drama – not snuff. The Walking Dead has always maintained a degree of gallows humour amid the apocalypse and it must find that balance again to survive and thrive. But after watching this… one wonders if it can. It’s a whole new ballgame, one that comes with a heavier cost.
And apparently liars and tigers and bats , oh my
9/10
