PopHorror Let's Get Scared
This past summer was a killer for The Walking Dead fans, wasn’t it? Puns aside, waiting to find out who Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) annihilated with his barb wire wearing girlfriend, Lucille, has been one of the most talked about subjects in the show’s history. I’ve got to give props to Director Greg Nicotero’s cast and crew, too. They kept their lips zipped. Although, even if someone had blabbed, the info would have just become one of the dozens of speculations going on these past months. Much like Ryan Murphy did with this season of American Horror Story, The Walking Dead creators let the rumors flow but never once gave any hints as to what was right and what was pure gossip. But now, after 6 long months, we finally know who got the bat.
SPOILERS! MANY, MANY SPOILERS!!
This Sunday, October 23rd in an episode titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” we finally found out who met Lucille. The episode starts after the actual slaughter, with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) threatening Negan for what the madman did to his friends. Negan isn’t going to take this lying down, and he drags Rick and his trusty ax into the RV for a lesson in obsequiousness. Because this is The Walking Dead, they’re going to make us wait even longer to find out who’s still alive.
After ribbing Rick to take an unsuccessful swing of his ax at his head, Negan drives off to one of the roadblocks from last season, where day has broken and a thick fog has rolled in. He throws Rick’s current weapon of choice onto the roof of the RV and shoves our sweaty hero out the door, telling him, “Get me my ax!” As Rick fights his way to the top of the camper, he has flashbacks of good times with everyone in his party, but not of any deaths yet. The powers that be were really dragging this one out.
Finally, after months of waiting, we find out who dies as Rick lies on the camper roof and re-imagines the entire death scene. As we watch Negan once again (very slowly) play Eenie Meenie Miney Moe, we see Lucille stopping on Abraham (Michael Cudlitz). So to the people that guessed that Abraham would bite it: you were right! The poor guy stays witty to the end, telling Negan to suck his nuts, even as the bat came down on his fuzzy red head. Honestly, I really liked Abraham. I thought he was strong and loyal and he had the best lines. I’ll miss him.
Daryl (Norman Reedus) decides this is a good time to launch an attack on Negan’s face, and unfortunately, this backfires in the worst way. As Negan reprimands him for being a spitfire, he turns and slams poor Glenn (Steven Yeun) in the head with Lucille. Well, I certainly didn’t see that coming. What I also didn’t see coming (no pun intended) was Glenn’s eyeball popping out of his face from the force of the blow. Ouch!
So to the people who guessed Glenn was going to die – congrats! You were right, too! As the rest of the group wail and cry, Glenn’s melon is beaten to a bloody pulp. Poor Glenn… What a terrible way to die. In his last breath, he talks to his love, Maggie. Thanks for breaking my heart, Mr. Nicotero. And poor Daryl. He looks absolutely devastated. If only he hadn’t gone after Negan…
Back to Rick on the roof, who, after being encouraged to hurry by Negan’s automatic bullets flying at him, makes his way back into the RV, but not before swinging from a hanging zombie until its head pops off like Momma’s baby. Negan is still determined to break him but Rick still looks slightly defiant. They drive back to the others, where Negan calls Carl (Chandler Riggs) up to the stage, tourniquets his arm and demands Rick use his ax to chop the kid’s arm off or he’ll have the rest of the group killed. This is what finally turns Rick into a blubbering wreck, which is exactly what Negan wants to see. He stops the poor guy just as he raises the ax handle. “You will answer to me. You will provide for me. You belong to me. Right?” Rick nods, simpering. He gives them a week to gather up the first offering, then he and his men grab Daryl, toss him in the back of a van and drive off into the sunny morning.
Everyone else is in shock, and they all mourn the dead right there on the ground. As they begin to load Abraham and Glenn’s bodies into the truck Negan let them have, a guilt-ridden Maggie (Lauren Cohen) insists that she’s going to walk off into the woods and kill everyone responsible for this tragedy. If you’ll recall, she wasn’t exactly healthy on this trip. As a matter of fact, getting her to a doctor was the reason they had left Alexandria in the first place. First Sasha (Sonequa Martin Green) and then the others say they’ll go with her. The episode ends with Rick driving the RV by himself (apparently the rest of them are going to cram themselves into Negan’s pickup), tears in his eyes.
I’m not sure why they wouldn’t all go back to Alexandria to get reinforcements and weapons. Sure, I get that they’re still raw, but is going out there in the condition that they’re in really a good idea? They couldn’t beat Negan’s men on their best day, never mind after what they just went through. Plus now they’re short three guys. But who am I to judge? I didn’t just watch two of my friends get their heads bashed in. Also, although he carries on like he’s this laid back guy, Negan is an intense, demented psychopath. Jeffrey Dean Morgan did a stellar job bringing this bloodthirsty maniac to life, and from the get go, he’s got us on the edge of our collective seats. Is it wrong that I find him sexy? I feel like that’s a bad thing. But there’s just something about that leather jacket, slicked hair and ascot that really turns my wheels. Sigh…
Tune in to PopHorror next week for our recap of episode 2, titled “The Well.” Maybe everyone will have limped along to Negan’s house by then. Or maybe we’ll even find out what Carol and Morgan are up to. We have an entire week to speculate, folks!
