After almost seven months of outrage, speculation and anticipation, season 7 of “The Walking Dead” finally premieres this Sunday. And AMC’s newest sneak peek seems to narrow down the show’s plotline possibilities significantly, while also introducing concepts many fanatics had put to bed a while ago.
It’s no secret that in the final 20 minutes of last season’s finale, Rick Grimes and his crew were gut-wrenchingly brought to their knees in the middle of the woods by their soon-to-be archfoe Negan and the saviors. After Rick’s group kills a considerable amount of Negan’s followers, the menacing leader gives Rick’s group no other choice but to forever work under his control. But first, one of Rick’s people are to be beaten to death by Negan and “Lucille,” his barbwire-wrapped baseball bat, as punishment.
However, the episode ended in the most frustrating cliffhanger ever as Negan’s victim was beaten to a pulp from a point of view shot in which his or her identity was never disclosed. And as you can imagine, that didn’t exactly go well with even the show’s most diehard supporters.Still, those who swore up and down they’d never watch another episode have licked their wounds, and loyally come back to the fandom just in time to dissect “The Walking Dead” and its latest three-minute preview of the Negan drama aftermath.
In the sneak peak, Rick is shown drenched in sweat, the right side of his face streaked in the blood of Negan’s victim, as those who survived are heard off camera weeping for the one they’ve lost. Though he is visibly shaken to the core, Rick somehow manages to pull himself together long enough to look Negan straight in his big, handsome face and say, “I’m gonna kill you...Not today, not tomorrow, but I’m gonna kill you.”This tells us a few things, actually. One, contrary to some theories (some crazy theories), Rick obviously didn’t get the bat. Second, whoever did get the bat was sitting to the right of Rick, which already eliminates another four people! Congrats to Eugene, Carl, Aaron and Sasha. Although let’s be honest, not many people expected any of them to bite the dust. To make that cliffhanger worth it, someone beloved by the fandom has to go, and aside from Carl, they’re all pretty much the the least cared for.
Later in the scene, the camera pans down to the spot of the crime, and there’s a lot going on. Somewhere in between the puddle of blood and guts, is apparently a wedding ring. And not too far away, is also the grey blanket Daryl had draped over his shoulder in the finale.
Now, just based on reason alone, that blanket is exactly why we KNOW Daryl didn’t die. It’s just way too easy of a conclusion to make. But the alleged wedding ring people are seeing in the mix is a total game changer. Of the six people on Rick’s right side, only three of them would be wearing some kind of wedding band: Glenn, Maggie and Abraham.
At this point, many signs point to Glenn as the victim. Throughout the show, Glenn’s character has miraculously cheated death multiple times, most recently in the first half of season 6. When Alexandria resident Nicholas and Glenn become stranded at the top of a dumpster, Nicholas commits suicide, and his body accidently brings Glenn down to his “death,” right into a pit of walkers that were assumed to have ripped him to bits.However, the show later returns to the scene, and it’s revealed that the body being torn apart was actually that of Nicholas. Meanwhile, Glenn somehow pulled himself under the dumpster to save himself. Just when you think it’s over for Glenn, he comes back swinging. Still, some are wondering if he’s used up all his nine lives.
Additionally, Glenn gets the bat in the comic books the series is based upon. Though the comics are by no means a reliable indicator of what’s to come, they also don’t mean Glenn is completely out of the woods, either. Because the show strays from a good amount of the original plotlines, but sometimes does sticks to the script more closely, it’s a toss up.
Given the evidence, Abraham is also a very likely choice. Abraham went through a substantial amount of character development last season. Between his hilariously explicit retorts (#bitchnuts), his blooming romance with Sasha and his reconciliation with Eugene, Abraham has quickly become one of the most loved characters on the show. So it’s possible that the writers have built Abraham up this season, only to bring him down hard and give audiences major feels.
According to the comics, Abraham was also supposed to die not too long by the hands of Dwight, one of Negan’s saviors. But in the show, his comic book death was given to Denise, Alexandria’s only doctor, instead. It’s possible Abraham was spared of his “arrow-through-the-eye” death only to get “Lucilled” later on.
As for Maggie, not too many people have considered any of the women, really. Given the fact that in the comics, Negan’s character has absolutely zero tolerance for rape, and in last season’s finale, Negan refers to his victim as a “champ,” it seems a lot less likely that a female is getting the bat. However, producers and writers of the show have made it very clear that Negan is capable of killing anyone.
Ehhhhh. a young, pregnant woman having a possible miscarriage savagely beaten in the head with a barbwire bat on cable television? Highly Doubtful.
Overall, the choices seem to be slimming by the second. But clearly, nothing about this scene is exactly what it looks like. In truth, no one really knows what exactly happened in between Negan’s beating and where the sneak peak picks up. In fact, many believe that instead of a single murder, there will be two deaths and an imprisoning, in which Abraham gets the bat, Daryl is dragged to another location and Glenn is shot to death. Horrifying.
In other news, references to Rick and his “right hand man” throughout the clip are starting to conjure up a few more major possibilities in the fandom. While some view Negan’s talk as a remark towards the ill-fate of Daryl, who has been Rick’s second-in-command for multiple seasons now, fans who read the comics have other thoughts in mind.
In the comics, Rick gets his hand cut off by “The Governor,” a villain the television adaptation parted with over two seasons ago. But in the sneak peak, Negan slides a hatchet down his belt, before roughly dragging Rick onto his bus and telling survivors, “Be right back. Maybe Rick will be, too.” That, combined with all this “right hand man” mumbo jumbo and it’s no wonder so many think Rick’s decapitation is inevitable.
However, “The Walking Dead” comic book creator Robert Kirkman has always been vocal about the how a one-handed Rick limits the way the narrative would be portrayed on television, as it would require too much CGI and constantly render action sequences a lot less realistic. So unless producers had a change of heart, this one is a little iffy as well.
