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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
The Walking Dead
Season 7, Episode 1
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. It’s been a long hiatus for Walking Dead fans. (Catch a tiger, by its toe.) Six months
ago, 14
million tuned into the sixth season finale to watch Negan’s long-teased first
appearance, and to find out who would become Lucille’s first victim. (If he hollers, let him go.) But of
course, we never found out. Negan swung, screams echoed, and the episode ended before
we could see who had finally met their maker. (My mother told me…) By now though, most of this is old news. As
soon as the finale aired, fans and critics
erupted in near unanimous disapproval of the twist, accusing showrunner,
Scott Gimple, and director, Greg Nicotero, of ruining one of the series’ most
iconic moments (…to pick the very best
one). But the time for anger has passed, and the answer we’ve all been
waiting for has finally been revealed. So buckle up, because The Walking Dead is back. And you. Are. It.
“The
Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” the title of the season seven premiere, is
actually a clever callback to season one’s CDC episode, a plot point that’s been
largely, and noticeably, ignored since then. When the group prepared to leave
the exploding CDC, Rick Grimes thanked Dr. Edwin Jenner, telling him that he’s
grateful for the latter’s help with escaping; to which Jenner replied, “The day
will come when you won’t be,” implying that zombie apocalypse life will eventually
become so hellish, that death by instant incineration will seem sweet by
comparison. But for all the danger that Rick and co. have faced, they’ve always
managed to persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Until now.
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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
Any
way you slice it, this was a rough one. There’s really no other way to put it. No
matter how many hours you spent watching YouTube videos analyzing the camera
angles during Negan’s lineup scene. Or, how many Reddit threads you dove down,
over the summer, while rumors were leaking left and right about who was, or
wasn’t, on set during season seven filming. I don’t think anybody could have been
fully prepared for what happened. For the past six years, The Walking Dead has been a winding road of death and loss. Sure, some
deaths were less impactful than others (especially in recent seasons); but for
the most part, you can plot the arc of this show based on who died and when. And
that’s no less true for the character we lost Sunday night.
Say
what you will about The Walking Dead
and its repetitive storytelling and shallow character development. But for all of
its flaws, the reigning
#1 rated show on cable is still
able to manufacture these moments that make us tune in and refuse to look away.
The fact that one of the series’ most memorable moments happened seven years
into its run speaks volumes to The
Walking Dead’s staying power as one of the few remaining “appointment
viewing” shows on television.
Was
the execution perfect? No, of course not. Like most, I still believe the
writers would’ve been better served showing Negan’s victim in last season’s
finale. But, the reality where that was possible is not our own, and all things
considered, I think Greg Nicotero and Scott Gimple did a good job of picking up
the pieces. Admittedly, if you take a step back, and look at this episode from
a broader view, it is kind of weird. Narratively, it plays out more like a finale
than a premiere (obviously), bringing closure to multiple storylines, while establishing
another. But we get a laser focused introduction to Negan, which helps set the
table for what we can expect from the rest of this season.
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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
And what we can
expect is a whole lot of Negan. This week was the Jeffrey Dean Morgan show
through and through, as most of this episode centers around the psychological
beatdown that Negan bestows upon Rick. Morgan’s performance as Negan, the
lone bright spot from last year’s finale, is on point. And, for the first
time since Jon Bernthal’s Shane Walsh in season two, The Walking Dead finally has an antagonist worth their weight in
zombie guts. Unlike the Governor, who was portrayed as nothing more than a
violent madman, Negan’s sadistic nature is buoyed by his charisma and
utilitarian style of survival. He seeks out Rick’s crew not for vengeance or
chaos, the usual M.O. of Walking Dead baddies,
but to enforce his own twisted (though logical) sense of order- beating his
victims so thoroughly into submission that they will serve his every whim out
of cold hard fear. This is exactly the type of villain that The Walking Dead has been craving for so
long. Not some drunk abusive husband, or yet another giant zombie hoard, but a character
who’s as physically dangerous as he is calculating, bringing structure to a
lawless world, in a way we haven’t seen.
In
my opinion, there are two types of television watchers- the practical (we’ll
call them the Ricks) and the emotional (let’s call them Glenns). The Ricks
prefer characters that act rationally, or at least consistently. They need the
plot to move forward and as directly as possible. A leads to B leads to C leads
to D. In other words- little to no filler. Glenns, on the other hand, are more
tolerant of a plot that meanders. Glenns understand that it’s about the
journey, not the destination. And even more so than the journey, what matters
to Glenns are the characters on that journey- Who are they? What do they stand
for? Have they grown as people? Do I care about them?
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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
There was a time
when The Walking Dead was a show made
for Ricks. The plot was straightforward and pragmatic- how do you survive during
the zombie apocalypse? At some point along the way, though, it became a show for Glenns, exploring the
more personal question- what type of person do you become when the world goes
to hell? For better or for worse, this has been The Walking Dead’s approach for the past few seasons. And, it’s led
to an exhaustive cycle of character after character pushing the boundaries on
what they consider morally right, only to ask themselves if the cost of
surviving is worth taking the lives of others. However, there are some
characters, like Glenn, who have always asked this kind of question of
themselves, always believing that “it matters who we are,” just like there are
some fans who have always cared more about who these characters are as people,
rather than how their actions serve as a means to an end.
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| (Photo Credit: AMC) |
For
the Ricks of the world, watching this season premiere was a means to an end-
the only way to finally find out who dies. And sure, for fans of the show, that’s
an important thing to know. But as we’ve learned, The Walking Dead is about more than just who dies. It’s about who
that character was, and what their death means to the rest of the group. It’s
about how that loss will impact the show in the weeks, and even seasons, to
come. The Walking Dead is a show for
Glenns. This episode is an episode for Glenn.
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