We are not immune. From the moment the series’ sixth season promos began beating that Negan’s coming drum (much around the time Glenn escaped his dumpster death), we found ourselves caught up in an impossible-to-escape devolution of our own. Why did we think, how could we believe, that journeying alongside these people we were somehow immune?

Meeting up with good guys became less frequent, Grimes’ group encountered demented leaders like the Governor and Terminus’ Gareth and slightly lesser crazies like Dawn how long could it be until Rick or one of his own lost a rational sense of right and wrong? Carol went from frightened abuse victim to stone-cold killer and (inexplicably) back again, and both Rick and Carol (among others) have experienced psychotic breaks. That’s a fairly understandable behavioral evolution in the situations the group find themselves, and with certain less than upstanding people they encounter, and it was natural for us - the viewers - to wonder how far that evolution (devolution) would go. There was a farm that served as home for a while, then a prison, and the core group had to continually evaluate what they were willing to do to other living people to keep themselves safe. As time went on and Rick’s group grew and morphed into a constantly changing, often on-the-move community, finding a protected area to carry on in some sort of societal microcosm was a necessity. With no true hope for a cure or vaccine protection, and only a vague understanding about how the “disease” worked, keeping safe from walkers was the living folks’ primary goal. Survival of the people he cared about - and in turn, we cared about - was all that mattered. When we gathered back in 2010 to watch this new world order unfold, one where many of us (non-readers) first experienced an awakening alongside Rick Grimes, we discovered the madness of a spreading pathogen that turns people into flesh-eating zombies. Whatever your take, I’d like to step away from that controversy a moment, and instead of focusing on the character arcs, let’s point the lens in our own direction - pose for a quick selfie, if you will. And, therein lies the problem - at least, going by viewer and critic reactions - the writers “tricked” their audience by not revealing who Negan killed, though according to Robert Kirkman and Greg Nicotero (who appeared on Talking Dead), this particular cliffhanger has more to do with one story ending and another beginning. Barbed wire-wrapped Lucille in hand, calmly recapping recent events and smiling throughout his introductory This-Is-the-Way-It’s-Going-to-Be speech, Negan’s ever-present threat was finally made good, only we’ll have to wait until next October to find out which of Rick’s Alexandria group had his or her head bashed in. After spending the entire back half of a wildly uneven sixth series waiting for a psychopath named Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), we finally got a good look at the Saviors’ oddly charismatic leader. Spoilers ahoy! If’ you’re not caught up through the current TWD episode (April 3, 2016), back on out now.Ī few days ago, AMC aired The Walking Dead’s season finale and from a quick look around the interwebs it seems like a lot of folks are still seriously disappointed or downright pissed.

The walking dead last day on earth