The Walking Dead 6th Season Finale Review

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 6 finale, "Last day on Earth"

This review will consist of multiple views from different contributors. Alexandra Atkinson

This Sunday’s episode of the walking dead was the long anticipated season finale. “Last Day on Earth”, introduces comic-fan favorite Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The episode also introduces Lucille, Negan’s number one lady, played by a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Keep an eye on that one, she’s going to be a real hit.

The episode started with Team Family packing up the RV to take Maggie to the Hilltop, where the only known doctor resides. Rick, Carl, Abraham, Sasha, Eugene, and Aaron all climbed in, all for their own reasons. Enid wanted to come too, but Carl locked her in a closet.

“What the hell am I supposed to do?” Enid asks.

“Just survive somehow.”

Nice one, Carl. I appreciated that.

The defense of Alexandria was left in the hands of our newly appointed Battle Priest. Gabriel’s interactions with Rick since getting his proverbial crap together are all adorable and I am so happy that Gabriel joins the growing list of “Comic Characters That Have Been Greatly Improved On”. It’s like they’re constantly trying to make up for Andrea. In anycase, Seth Gilliam makes really adorable earnest faces as Gabriel trying to make Rick proud, and I can’t get enough of these scenes. After assuring Gabriel he believes in him, and saying something cocky to Spencer, Team Family rides off.

What they don’t realize is they’re riding right into a trap.

Speaking of “Comic Characters That Have Been Greatly Improved On”, on the other half of the episode, we had Morgan searching for Carol. These scenes could have come off as boring or slow, if not held together by the amazing chemistry these two character have together. Who knew? The anxiety of knowing a surviving Savior followed hot on their trail didn’t hurt either.

Many feel this storyline for Carol is very left field or out of character. It doesn’t seem that much to me. Following the death of Sam and the Wolf that saved Denise, it makes sense for Carol to be shaken. I love the parallels with Morgan realizing that killing isn’t always wrong, and I can’t wait to see how his own struggle might help Carol land somewhere in the middle with him.

The end of their story for the episode, after Carol slipped out of Morgan’s grasp with the same trick as before, the Savior catches up to her. Carol wants to die. When it finally looks like the Savior is going to give it to her, Morgan shoots him.

Nice.

Comic fans were then delighted when they then meet two members of a group we haven’t met in the show yet! Who are these mysterious armored men with horses? Carol and Morgan's... knights in not-really-shining armor?

Meanwhile, Team Family keeps riding into roadblocks set up by a handful of Saviors. This series of scenes started out a little annoying, but by the time they hung the Library guy I started to feel creeped out. Things only got worse from there. The group discovered a string of zombies that clued them to the fact Michonne and Daryl had been taken. Once it was clear they were being lead, and hoping to fool the saviors, Team Family left the RV in the hands of Eugene.

The feels lingering from the touching Eugene scene didn’t take long to be ruined as whistles rang out in the woods.

Uh oh.

Yes that’s right. Rick thought they knew the world enough to take it. What he didn’t know is that the Saviors are so much bigger. Bigger than Alexandria and the Hilltop.

Right where the Saviors wanted them, they make Team Family get on their knees, Maggie included. Eugene is there. That didn’t last long. They bring out Daryl, Rosita, Michonne, and Glenn. Confirming, yes, Daryl is alive, they hid him under the dumpster, and filling out a nice line up.

Then the moment happened, the one we were all waiting for. Negan.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan knocked it out of the park!

(No, the baseball puns will never stop, look forward to next season.)

It would have been better to hear it word for word from the comic, but it was pretty damn close. I laughed when they substituted the word “pegged”, because, wow way to get one under the radar. Another delightful scene missing from the comic is where he explains a reason for not killing each of them, and I don’t mean the “how can you work for me if you’re dead” bit. Unfortunately, with Daryl and Abraham there, the scene would have been hard to adapt, because Negan wouldn’t have an excuse to not kill them.

"Gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon."

At least we did get to see Negan interacting with Carl. For fans that haven’t read the comics, Negan and Carl’s relationship is quite a highlight of the series.

And though this was Negan’s big scene, I couldn’t stop looking at Rick. WOW Andrew Lincoln. Bravo. Way to act. The rug has been pulled out from under his cocky feet, and we have never seen Rick this shaken, this scared, this helpless. It really drove home how serious the scene was. He played it so well my heart sinks just thinking about it.

Then came the “eeny meeny miny moe” scene. The way it was filmed and the way Negan bounces around makes it hard to figure out the chosen victim. Though it seemed as if he was manipulating the choice.

Once chosen, we were given the point of view of the victim as Negan lucilled one of our beloved favorites. Or perhaps the camera man.

"It."

“Another cliffhanger?” Screamed outraged fans.

“You ruined it!” screamed a slightly smaller group of comic-fans.

By splitting up the iconic Lucille scene with a cliffhanger, The Walking Dead has infuriated many. At the same time as my annoyance, I felt a sense of relief. Oh thank god, I don’t have to see this scene with real people. Then I felt panic. Are they going to show it next season? To be honest, the Lucille scene is something I feel is just too graphic to show on TV, even for The Walking Dead. Then again, they probably have to show it. It’s too big of a scene to not show.

But here’s the real question. WHO WAS IT?

As I mentioned before, if they had adapted the scene with Negan explaining why he didn’t want to kill each of them, he wouldn’t have had a reason for Daryl or Abraham. Why you ask? In the comic the group was Rick, Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Sophia, Carl, and Heath. Negan doesn’t want to kill the girls, he isn’t a fan of violence against women. He doesn’t want to kill Carl, because he’s too interesting. He doesn’t want to kill Rick, because he’d make a martyr out of him, giving his people something to fight for. He doesn’t want to kill Glenn or Heath, because he doesn’t want to seem racist. Debates on Negan’s gaydar aside, I can imagine he would have probably provided it as an excuse to not kill Aaron.

There’s just nothing to be said for Daryl or Abraham. They look like they could be Saviors themselves.

Abraham, in all his hope and happiness, gave off major “going to die very soon” vibes.

Daryl, wrapped up in all his recently inflicted pain, has more story to go.

Sorry Abraham. I think it might be your time.

Overall, the finale was a little bit of a letdown, but still good. I wish the extra time granted for the finale had been put to better use. Even more I wish that they would stop with the cliffhangers. In happier news, Negan!!! I’m so glad he’s finally here! This of course, is just my opinion! Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments! No really, do it.

Kevin Ma Who the f*ck was it? Who got the bat?!?! These are the questions making us all restless, but I have narrowed it down to three possible options. Hold on, I think I might be getting ahead of myself. Let us focus on the rest of the episode first.

“Last Day on Earth,” was the season 6 finale of “The Walking Dead.” The episode managed to be both suspenseful and slow. We follow Rick, Abraham, Eugene, Carl, Sasha, and Aaron as they try to get a sick Maggie to The Hilltop. Most of the episode was Team Rick on the road. It was a very helpless situation as the Saviors were everywhere, and their numbers seemed to increase each time. This made the drive very suspenseful because Team Rick was being boxed in, and they also have Negan waiting to mess them up. However, it also made the episode very slow. Once again, the Negan hype was dragged on for too long, but hey, at least he showed up.

The episode also focused on Morgan and his quest to bring Carol back to Alexandria. However, Carol is also being hunted down by that Savior who survived her massacre (forgot his name). This once again puts Morgan’s values on the line. Will he be forced to kill to protect someone he cares about? I really liked Morgan’s “All life is precious” mantra, even though it is naïve. Morgan finally knew the flaw of his thinking, and he decided to kill the Savior, which definitely lost him at least ten levels of Zen. The end of their arc saw them meeting two characters possibly from Kingdom, which is another faction of TWD universe.

A few other thoughts before we focus on the man of Sunday’s hour, Negan. First, I am so glad that we did not jump from the main action to Alexandria like the past two seasons loved to do. The Alexandrians were never interesting enough to focus on, and I cringed every time we were brought back to the quiet town with the boring citizens. It was even boring when we were focused on Team Rick in Alexandria.

I also liked the disoriented POVs of Daryl, Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita. Where the f*ck are they? Are all of them alive? These questions made us suspenseful throughout the episode. It is extremely effective as most of these POVs were used to transition back to Team Rick’s road trip of peril.

We have seen the badass, you do not want to f*ck with me Rick for the past three seasons. The Rick in “Last Day on Earth,” was definitely not the case. It seemed like he was unsure the entire time. Yes, he was confident and truly believed that he was going to win. Unfortunately, he was also very irrational. He did not bring enough people with him when he knew the Saviors were on the hunt, and his key players (Daryl, Glenn, and Michonne) were missing. He also never thought of turning back as they ran into more and more Saviors. Yes, Maggie is sick, but her life is in greater jeopardy against Negan. Rick did not make the best decisions, and he ended up helpless in defeat. It is a side of the character that we have not seen in a long time, which is extremely powerful because it shifts the power from Rick to Negan. We have been accustomed to Rick getting his way, and now it is Negan’s reign.

Negan is finally here! It took him long enough, but it was worth the wait. Things have been good for way too long, and Negan is here to change that. His presence will take “The Walking Dead” back to its original roots of anything goes. Any and everyone will be in danger, which I personally like because the suspense has returned. Negan is also an interesting character so far. He has a terrifying demeanor, and yet, he can also make you

laugh with his one liners. He can scare the sh*t out of you, but also has charm. Negan is the villain the show desperately needs, and I am glad that he is finally here.

I am just as intrigued as the rest of you to know who got the bat. We know that it cannot be Rick or Carl, as Negan threatened to cut Carl’s eye out and feed it to Rick, if anyone reacted to Negan’s beat down. This leaves Aaron, Abe, Daryl, Eugene, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, Rosita, and Sasha. I have narrowed it down to three possibilities.

First, we need to focus on Rick. He is in the middle, which is key. To Rick’s right is Maggie, Abe, Michonne, Daryl, Rosita, and Glenn. To Rick’s left is Sasha, Aaron, Carl, and Eugene. This order is very important. Negan starts his sadistic “eenie meenie miney mo” with Rick, and proceeds to Rick’s right, but Negan’s order is weird as he jumps around while choosing. This is to confuse us.

However, right when Negan is about to finish up, he moves to Rick’s left, as seen from the shadow on Rick. We can narrow it down to Sasha, Aaron, or Eugene. If I have to pick one out of the three then it would be Aaron. After Negan picked the victim, he says the line about cutting Carl’s eye out. Negan then speaks his final thoughts while glancing to his right and left, which would mean he could not have been at Eugene because there was nobody from Team Rick next to Eugene. Negan could have been looking at a Savior, but his message was clearly directed towards Team Rick. The victim could have been Sasha, but Negan says “taking it like a champ,” after the first swing, and I do not think Sasha would be able to take that first swing like that, let alone survive all the other ones after that before the episode ended. My money is on Aaron.

This was not my favorite finale because the pace was slow. I believe that the whole season was relatively slow, and it is because the hype for Negan was stretched for too long. However, the finale did do its job. The anticipation for Negan’s arrival is finally over, and he delivered with his brutality. The dynamic of the show has changed drastically, and we are left craving more. Happy waiting guys! Let us know what you think.

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