It's not about patience. Negan is what he is, and from that one and a half episodes - and prior references - the show has established that he's sadistic, psychopathic and power crazy, who inspires a cult like following. What do you think will happen over the next few episodes? That we'll discover that underneath it all he's really a sweet-natured pussycat? You don't introduce a character like Negan, then completely change his personality in the space of the few episodes he'll be in. The only change we'll see is when he changes from being alive to being dead.

I thought it ramped up the tension, but I'd avoided all spoilers. In retrospect I do think the suggestion above of having Abraham die at the end of season 6 and then the shock addition of Glenn being killed is a good one.


They're a lovely mesmerising turquoise.


I'd like to see more made of Morgan, hated him going all wishy-washy on us.



I'd already watched it but early yesterday morning the daily mail had 4 spoilers on the main page. Merely confirms what arses they are


There were, then Rick shagged her and she met her end.


I found a live US stream, showing from 2 in the morning including ads, the first one right after the titles with no warning. It had a young man who looked like Aaron with a baby in a park. It took a few seconds before I realised it wasn't a flashback. I prefer my commercials more clearly defined.

....don't be ridiculous - that's not what I suggested and you know it. I'm not about to get into an argument over it...............


...oh come on - its plainly obvious that if you go to a social media account of TWD, you are going to find a spoiler - accidental or not.

Additionally, I'm sure that the 'victims' in last night's episode were not known 7 months ago..............

Agreed - this was a completely different way of introducing a character. When we first met The Governor in Woodbury, he appeared to be a benign leader of a reasonably idyllic town (in the circumstances), and it's only as time goes on that we (and Team Rick) discover his true nature.

Negan doesn't have the time or the inclination to deceive or convince anyone to like him in order to get them to join his group, he rules explicitly by fear & violence, which he's grown to enjoy (if indeed he wasn't always like that) and it's his first, rather than last resort... yes, we'll almost certainly see other sides to him (maybe even some sort of "origin" story) as time goes on, otherwise there is the danger of him becoming a cartoon, but for now he's achieved what he intended, to break Rick and become the "boogeyman" for the whole of Alexandria...

Rick's group did strike first but this situation would have played out eventually even if they hadn't.

It's what Negen's group does when they encounter any new group.

The only bit i found overboard violence wise was the drawn out way Glenn died, him babbling with his eyeball out seemed unessasary, if he just went down and stayed there it wouldn't have left a bad taste imo. That stuff is just for people that like gore for the sake of it.
Also you have to see its a different type of gore, when zombies are involved its some how cartoonish, even when someone is eaten alive. But man on man sadism feels different, and i think that's part of the shock. But in some way i think that was needed to shake things up, the show needed another slant, and with this you know the threat is very real. Rick completely powerless and stripped down is something new.
The rest of it i thought was able to stomach, even using carl, as the point needed to be made, this guy has no limits to his sadism.
I was getting bored with the series so this event definatly has kept me watching, it really shook things up, i just hope it doesn't go stale again and they keep the momentum but wonder how that's going to go.
One thing i'll add is after the waiting i thought it would be a let down but was pleasantly surprised, although i think it would have had more impact if they included the deaths last season finale.

I don't think we'll see a soft side to Negan as such, but I expect we'll see other facets to the character than what he has shown to Rick's group so far. It was necessary for him to show only those characteristics in that situation, so that's what he showed in order to get the reaction and change of behaviour he needed to gain control. This doesn't require a change of his character, only an exposing of the depth of the character, something TWD does very well. Psychopaths by their very nature reveal parts of their character necessary to acvhieve their aims in a given situatuion, by turns charming, then psychotic. Already we've seen something of a paternal side in him being upset at the death of so many of his men, and I think that is just scratching thje surface. The show's producers, writers, directors, actors, etc. generally create multi-dimensional characters, that's why peope get emotionally invested in them and are upset when they're killed off. I have faith, after 6 seasons, that they'll do the same with Negan.

Agreed, TWD, despite having comic book origins, don't do cartoon characters. That's the appeal of it for me, the characterisation they instill in each and every one, the different sides they show to make them believable, relatable and human.

Steven Yeun really wanted Glenn to have the same ending as in the comics and I think the writers were always going to keep it as Glenn. Abraham's death was them adding their own twist to the comic storyline, and the Daryl interruption was just the plot line to give Negan a reason to kill someone else (even though he'd already said if anyone moved or spoke he'd cut out Carl's other eye and feed it to Rick, but clearly the writers forgot all about that...)

I've never quite got the Daryl love, but he was never going to bite the bullet here because of how hugely popular he is with a lot of fans.

(I assume it's considered ok to mention the comic as I have above as that event has happened in the show now?!)

No, you didn't, season six wasn't simulcast on FOX UK and each and every episode didn't premeire here until Monday at 9.00pm.

They keep saying they did for some reason but there is no mention what so ever on the Internet. Also they aren't doing it for season 7. Maybe they were watching Fear the Walking Dead or repeats of The Walking Dead.

Ok, now you've done it. You will be accused of moaning, and not understanding the WD universe.

Going to miss Glenn, was my favourite from the start but knew his fate from the comics so was prepping myself for this.
Thought it was a great episide though. A real eye opener (no pun intended) as to how deadly this stranger is going to be. Great way of introducing Negan.

Negan and Rick reminded me of Ramsay and Theon all over again lol

Happy (not really..) to see Maggie so physically well after it was her ordeal that brought them out there in the first place. Seems that the poison that Enid put in Maggie's drink only lasted for one day.

I was a huge fan of this show but half way through the season opener I stopped watching and think that I will probably not bother with it any more.

This was not because of the brutality - that has been a feature of the show since the beginning. No what made me give up was the realisation that the decision to kill off Glenn and Abraham was not made by the character Negan, but by the show's producers.

In the past I have followed the events as they happened to the characters and believed in these events as the inevitable consequence of putting those characters into challenging situations. Whether it was the commander, or Merle, or the people in Terminus, or the wolves, they all had their own genuine reasons for doing what they did.

With the events of the end of seasons 6 and the start of season 7 the story is being presented without any explanation other than to provide a climax to one season and a dramatic start to another one. Everything seems to be totally contrived, without any internal logic. Why would Rick's group present themselves for the slaughter, and why would Negan only kill two of them? Now it could well be that explanations and justifications will be presented later - but for me that will be too late.

Once a viewer stops thinking that the characters are self-motivated, but merely the tools of the producers who will make them act in any way that they want, there is little point in carrying on with the show.

Fair enough, but the logic to Negan's actions seems self-evident to me. The group didn't exactly present themselves for slaughter, they were herded into it, killing Abraham was part of Negan's method to gain control and Glenn was killed as a result of Daryl's actions with Negan bound to carry out a threat to show his willingness to follow through on his promises. It would be pointless for Negan to kill any more, he'd made his point, broken the group and in particular Rick, and needs the rest of the group to produce for him.

Yes and no. Although the comic is never a reliable guide, the deaths of both Glenn and Abraham now only bring the TV show closer to where the comic was at the beginning of the Negan story. (although there are still quite a few other differences). One of the characters met the same death he meets in the comics, the other death is different, but only by a couple of days time-wise.

I agree that Abraham's death made sense - strong, defiant military type would always have been trouble. But Glenn's was unnecessarily random and more about slavishly following the comics than the show going in its own direction.

Explanations have been given.

It's been stated that Negan Always kills One person of every new group he encounters.
He doesn't kill everyone because he wants the group working for him.
He killed a second person this time as the message wasn't getting across to everyone.
Rick's group were railroaded into an ambush they didn't present themselves for the slaughter.

Yes, Glenn's death was random, but I think it was necessary for the reason's given above - Negan had to keep his promise to punish dissent, and Daryl dissented. It didn't necessarily have to be Glenn but it had to be someone and the randomness just reinforced that it could literally be anyone on the receiving end of Lucille, that Negan doesn't care who it was, only that it had to be done to show his intent.

Last season of Game Of Thrones was simulcast and shown on Mondays at 2.00am so maybe they're just getting their shows mixed up.......

Perhaps it was his way of breaking Daryl.... Knowing that it was his actions that (to a degree) caused the death of Glenn would cause him to feel shedloads of guilt.

Don't know if Negan intuited or not, but what he has done is take out the group's best soldier (Abraham), its best scrounger (Glenn) and its best Scout/Spy (Daryl). So if Rick wants to fight back, he's going to do it differently than he did before.

To add to the points already made, it's also a far greater punishment psychologically than if he'd simply killed Daryl. You know how people say 'Hanging's too good for him'? Same thing. Bad guy says don't do something, you do it anyway and you get killed for it. That pain is relatively fleeting for you, and everyone then carries on as near to normal as they possibly can. Too easy. Far better to punish a random, innocent person. Then you've got that on your conscience for the rest of your life and a tiny part of everyone else hates you for it. Everytime Daryl looks at Maggie, and vice versa, they'll remember whose fault it is Glen's not there. Everytime Maggie looks at her bump or the baby (should that happen), she'll remember whose fault it is he/ she doesn't have a father. Who knows, they may even create a storyline out of it where Maggie slowly grows to really hate Daryl, to the point she hopes he dies every bit as horribly as Glen did. Would certainly be interesting.

Adrenaline is a powerful thing