‘The Walking Dead’ Season 7 Premiere Recap [SPOILERS]

Warning: This recap for the Season 7 premiere episode of The Walking Dead, entitled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” contains storyline and character spoilers.

What a ride. Last night was the premiere of season 7 of The Walking Dead and it was an emotional rollercoaster. The rollercoaster actually started with the season 6 finale. I was tiffed with the finale but now I can understand why they ended it with that cliffhanger. The writers of the show have put the audiences through the type of psychological warfare Negan puts Rick’s group through.

<ENTER SPOILER ZONE — READ AT YOUR OWN RISK>

twd1The victim(s) of Negan’s bat, Lucille, wasn’t revealed until 20 minutes into the episode. As the audience, we were being toyed with. We saw multiple montages of all the characters and witnessed Negan tormenting Rick in the RV.

When we finally saw who the victims were, it was like we were kneeling there with the group because we were viewing it from Rick’s perspective. Abraham was the first to take Lucille in the head. After the first blow, Abraham mutters, “Suck my nuts.” It was in true Abraham fashion. Daryl gets up and takes a swipe at Negan because Negan taunts Rosita. This causes Negan to take another victim, Glenn. Even while I read the comic, I was not prepared for Glenn’s death. The first blow does not kill him. It causes his eye to protrude and Glenn manages to speak his own last words, “Maggie, I’ll find you.” Brutal.

twd2In the final scene we see Negan tormenting Rick further by demanding him to chop Carl’s hand off. Negan stops Rick just as he is about to do so and Rick submits to Negan. This final submission feels like Rick has been completely broken and has zero power. Not even a drop. This is Negan’s world now. And as one of the guests of The Talking Dead puts it, “There’s a before Negan and after Negan.” This episode created a massive turning point for the entire series. It was a perfect opening and it indeed felt like we were suffering Negan’s mind games. I can’t wait to see where this season will continue to take us. Rating: A+

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