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‘The Walking Dead’ premiere was too brutal to handle

It was worse than we could've imagined.

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Michelle Jaworski

Internet Culture

Posted on Oct 24, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 5:54 pm CDT

Warning: This article contains major spoilers from the season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead.

More than six months after Negan took that fatal swing on The Walking Dead, we finally found out whose head was on the receiving end of Lucille’s wrath in a drawn-out hour that quickly turned into sadism.

Six months of backlash, theories, teases, over-analyzation, and anticipation couldn’t prepare fans for what was to come.

(This is your final chance to turn away if you don’t want to be spoiled.)

In the span of the 66-minute season premiere, Negan:

  • Bashed Abraham’s head, but not before complimenting him for taking it like a champ—and marveled that Abraham’s final words were “Suck. My. Nuts.”

  • Bashed Glenn’s head after Daryl punched him in the face for killing Abraham.

  • Threatened to cut off Rick’s right hand after Rick promised to kill him for what he did.

  • Drove off with Rick, gave him his axe, and threw him out to a bunch of Walkers—where Rick then flashed to everyone else being hit by Lucille.

  • Nearly shot Rick on the roof of his RV for not giving him back the axe quickly enough.

  • Ordered Rick to chop off Carl’s left arm—and then changed his mind.

  • Took Daryl away as a prisoner.

No wonder AMC scheduled 90 minutes for The Talking Dead.

https://twitter.com/JoshMcDermitt/status/790340834197504000

But the reveal, which aired about a third of the way into the episode, didn’t arrive without testing its fans, some of whom were already on the verge of quitting, and the people who decided to hate-watch the episode. Some even thought they’d pull a Game of Thrones and not reveal who died until the second episode. At first, with tension already rising (and not just from the episode at hand), viewers vented their frustration.

https://twitter.com/MildlyAmused/status/790360558155489280

https://twitter.com/e_alexjung/status/790360235747737600

Then Negan chose Abraham to die for everyone’s crimes. When the season 6 finale aired, his name was often initially cited because Abraham was a beloved character without being the protagonist (Rick) or being a fan favorite (Daryl). Some comments made by actor Michael Cudlitz appeared to rule him out, but that was clearly not the case.

But Negan wasn’t done just yet. It initially appeared as though The Walking Dead had subverted Glenn’s comic book death by killing Abraham, but Glenn, who escaped death more times than we can count, couldn’t get out of this one; Maggie, who’s now lost everyone she loves, was inconsolable.

https://twitter.com/RickAndThangs/status/790374437929508864

https://twitter.com/kisafuller/status/790369890121035776

https://twitter.com/blessedpcy/status/790368225808814080

https://twitter.com/dresvibe/status/790382473687420929

And it got worse. Way worse. And for some reason, we kept watching it—even though it started to make some of us sick to our stomachs. We were just as numb as the characters as we watched witness Negan’s many atrocities on TV.

Just to rub it in, The Walking Dead showed us what could have been: one big happy Alexandrian family having Thanksgiving dinner with Abraham, Glenn, and his and Maggie’s unborn child.

https://twitter.com/BAMFAbrahamFord/status/790378709500829696

So who’s ready to just hang out with King Ezekiel and Shiva for the rest of the season?

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*First Published: Oct 24, 2016, 8:21 am CDT

Michelle Jaworski

Michelle Jaworski is a staff writer and TV/film critic at the Daily Dot. She covers entertainment, geek culture, and pop culture and has covered everything from the Sundance Film Festival, NYFF, and Tribeca to New York Comic Con and Con of Thrones. She is based in Brooklyn.

Michelle Jaworski