Thoughts on The Walking Dead Season 6 Finale
“Do you think you’ve suffered enough?”
A 90 minute special was delivered. It felt like a traditionally-done finale where on reflection nothing too groundbreaking really happened. A lot of nerves were pricked, a lot of dignity and confidence broken and beaten. Not only literally but metaphorically as we’re left to assume the all important question everyone has been asking: whose fate was left up to Lucille? Before we get into speculation and theories, I’d like to go over the events that occurred in brief to get a better overview of what happened and what we have to look forward to.
Starting with the Carol/Morgan sideline story, it showed the further deterioration of Carol as she desires nothing more than to slip into isolation. Morgan, on horseback, goes after her tracks. Sidenote: seeing Morgan on horseback reminded me of season 1 sheriff Rick, as he rode into Atlanta. Regardless, Carol is soon found by Morgan, but she still resists going back. She then escapes from Morgan, only to be shot by her stalker Savior, not once, but twice as he watches the life drain out of her. She is ready to accept death, but Morgan saves her. The pair are both saved by a man in armor, the same one who was looking for his horse in last week’s episode. I can only assume he is part of some organization or other small group who might be helpful in the upcoming battle against Negan.
As for the main storyline, we can see that this episode encapsulated the brutal erosion of Rick’s confidence and surety against the massive Saviors. The entire episode was a psychological battle, as the Saviors preemptively struck against the Alexandrians in the worst kind of way.
From where we left off last episode, Michonne, Glenn, Rosita, and Daryl were captive by the Saviors. Maggie collapsed from sudden excruciating pain. Carol left. So, we start the episode by Rick taking some of his best people out of Alexandria to transport Maggie to Hilltop to get some help from a doctor. This is somewhat of a two-sided coin, seeing as if Denise had never left Alexandria on the supply run, she would have been alive and able to aid in helping Maggie. However, if the supply run had never occurred, I am doubtful that Denise would have been able to contribute with the limited amounts of antibiotics or medicine they had left.
Therefore, Maggie is packed up into an RV and core characters take off, leaving Alexandria under watch by defensive coordinator, Father Gabriel. Who would’ve thought? It was a rather strange turn of events that culminated in an undoubtedly frustrating ending. Plus, we have to wait until next season to find out how Father Gabriel was at defending the town, amongst a dozen other things.
This road trip turns out to have catastrophic consequences. The Saviors preemptively struck the RV’s path, tracking the vehicle and messing around with Rick’s psyche. At each roadblock the threat is elevated and the terror rises. Rick, who initially stands so secure that the Alexandrians will emerge victorious from this encounter is outwitted and incrementally outnumbered turn after turn. Eventually, Rick and company are trapped in a stressful sound cage, surrounded by whistling Saviors. All to lead up to the nauseating final minutes of the episode, where Negan is introduced and one of our heroes (anti-heroes?) meets their end.
Through all of this I watched, playing the part of the heartbroken audience. I have to say that the acting, especially in this episode, was so emotive and raw. I truly felt as if I were kneeling in the dirt next to the cast. I could see the breakdown in Rick’s character, watch as he realized who the Saviors had captive, the leverage they held against him, the impossibility of making it to Hilltop, and the defeat as he fell to the floor in front of his son. It was a tangible loss, for a number of reasons.
I mean, what were we left with? The only certainty we have is death. Negan made his grand entrance, put on a monologue that in my opinion took forever, and then didn’t even provide the audience with the decency to reasonably choose a character to brutally beat to death. I mean seriously, the man decided by playing eeny meeny miney mo! Whoever did meet their fate was chosen using a game of luck, which utterly sucks. But after thinking about it, I came to ask myself one question: Why should Negan care to choose? He doesn’t know Rick or his group. He just needs someone to make an example out of. So while the method was certainly “Pee Pee Pants City,” it effectively established Negan’s dominance over their group in one of the worst ways. Negan’s final words before Lucille makes impact:
“If anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy’s other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we’ll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry, hell you’re all going to be doing that.”
Now for the speculations. Personally, I am hoping that they don’t go the comic book route with Glenn. There is no point in prolonging the identity of the person beaten if there is no variation from the book. Plus, they’ve toyed with his life already in recent times. Another fan favorite for speculation: Daryl. However, I’m not sure that it was him either though, because he had already been shot in the arm at the conclusion of last week’s episode. So for him to sustain a beating after that would just be sort of a kick in the face to the fan base. Then again, they are trying to increase levels of shock and terror so it might be him as well. If not for either of those two, here are those that remain:
List of possible victims: Sasha, Abraham, Eugene, Glenn, Daryl, Rosita, Maggie, Aaron, Michonne
So now we play the waiting game.
Until fall, these are my thoughts.
