Jeffrey Dean Morgan debuted as Negan (with his bat, “Lucille”) in the sixth season finale of The Walking Dead, and killed … someone. (All photos by Gene Page/AMC)
By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
(Note: BIG HONKING SPOILERS AHEAD for the Walking Dead episode "Last Day on Earth" as well as The Walking Dead #100.)
So, #WhoIsIt?
If you recognize that hashtag, you’ve watched the sixth season finale of The Walking Dead, and likely the talk show that follows, The Talking Dead. And now you’re pondering who it was that Negan killed with Lucille, which – as this viewer expected – won’t be revealed until the seventh season premiere, sometime in October.
As almost anyone with any interest in Walking Dead knows, whether they read the comics or not, Negan killed Glenn Rhee in the 100th issue of the comic book, which corresponds to the episode that aired April 3. In case you don’t read the comics, let’s compare the two scenes, which differ in some respects.
First, it should be noted that almost every word that came out of Negan’s mouth on TV came from the comics. But some of the comics dialogue was omitted. Here’s what was left out:
* Negan’s dialogue was cleaned up quite a bit. In the comics, he is a perpetual (and creative) potty-mouth.
* Negan initially ruled out killing the non-white characters, explaining that he didn’t want to be considered racist. I guess that was too much of a hot potato for a show that regularly depicts ultra-violence and gore.
* Negan also spoke metatextually on occasion, as if he was somehow aware he was in a comic book. He rules out Carl as a victim, saying “I can’t kill you before your story ends.” He explains he has to kill someone in Rick’s crew because it “might have been a long time since the last person died.” (Which was true.) In short, it felt like Negan had been reading “Walking Dead,” knew this was the 100th issue, and that something important had to happen – like a major character dying.
And this was one way the TV show was far superior to the comic book. Yes, in the previous episode several characters – especially Daryl – had to act badly out of character to remove themselves from the relative safety of Alexandria. They acted stupidly to serve the plot, which is always irritating.
But in this episode, there was a valid reason for people to put themselves in jeopardy – namely, Maggie’s potential miscarriage. That’s a thing worth endangering yourself for, and the gang’s increasing anxiety as they ran into one (literal) roadblock after another on the ambulance run to Hilltop racheted up the stress level for viewers as well. This all made sense – a terrible, inexorable, inevitable sense. It was a nail-biter of an episode.
And why were there roadblocks? Well, it’s a given that Negan is watching Alexandria, because he knows intimate details about it. So his men, watching from rooftops, would alert him when the RV was being loaded up for a trip. With only one logical destination, he only needed to block all the routes between Alexandria and Hilltop – he’s certainly got the men to do it – and wait to see what fish he nets.
Whereas in the comics, that wasn’t the case. In fact, the sequence of events leading up to Glenn’s death was so ham-handed this reader nearly stopped reading.
In the comics, there were no roadblocks. Rick & Co. seemed to have just blundered into Negan’s men. And how did this happen? Writer’s Fiat ™.
Several characters – Carl, Glenn, Heath, Maggie, Michonne, Rick and Sophie (who’s not dead in the comics) – set off for Hilltop for reasons I’ve already forgotten. But they get into trouble because:
* Rick misjudges how far it is to Hilltop, although he’s been there before. On the first trip, it was an easy one-day drive. Here, they are caught by nightfall, because … plot.
* These veteran road warriors decide to spend the night … in the middle of the road. “Visibility,” explains Michonne, given that they can see in all directions for a distance. Although that works two ways, doesn’t it? Notwithstanding that in previous issues this same group would settle in for the night in defensive positions, because it’s the zombie apocalypse, you know? In this issue, though, they have apparently forgotten everything they (and we) have learned about survival in the previous 99 issues.
* Despite all that “visibility,” 50 men sneak up on them. Fifty. With motorcycles, trucks and cars. Apparently Negan’s men were all ninjas before the apocalypse.
* Or maybe they were cowboys. Because they take out the guard on top of the RV (Rick) with a lasso thrown around his neck from a distance, preventing him from shouting a warning. Hey, that’s a pretty good rope trick! On the first try, too! While throwing upwards! And at night! Roping must have been a big hobby in Virginia before the end of the world.
* In the comics, it was never established that Negan routinely kills only one guy when intimidating a new group. (The TV show has cleverly done this.) So when the leadership of Alexandria falls into his hands, the most logical move is to kill them all, decapitating and demoralizing his opposition. But for no reason at all – aside from Writer’s Fiat – he kills only one.
And if you’re only going to kill one, Rick is the obvious choice. If you want to win, that is, and not just further the plot.
And that unpalatable explanation – “further the plot” – is the obvious reason for all of these cringe-worthy Creative Writing 101 errors.
For example, wondering about the lasso, you can walk back to why it was used. What do you normally do with a guard? Kill him. Who’s the guard? Rick. Can’t kill Rick, because he’s got Plot Armor™. Something quiet and non-lethal is needful. Laser? No, don’t have any. Batarang? Wrong book. Hey, how about a lasso? Implausible, but it gets us from A to B. And you can imagine similar for all the other silly stuff.
Anyway, back to the central question: #WhoIsIt? Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of options. Negan has captured 11 characters, including most of the core group.
Here are my top three guesses:
1. GLENN. He’s the obvious choice, since he’s who died in the comics. After all his near misses this season, it would almost be anti-climactic. But he’s still my first guess, since his absence wouldn’t change the overall story much going forward, and as a major – and beloved – character, he’d have the proper impact.
2. ABRAHAM. He’s dead in the comics (his demise was assigned to Denise), so he – like Glenn – has no assigned role from this point forward. Still, I bet the writers enjoy inventing his bizarro dialogue, so that may save him.
3. DARYL. He’s also a major and beloved character, possibly too beloved to kill. (Because it might kill ratings, too.) But the actor already has another show (Ride with Norman Reedus) and was on the couch on Talking Dead, a spot often reserved for the deceased. Not likely, but possible.
As to the rest: Rick and Carl have Plot Armor. Michonne is already filling the role of another comics character (Andrea), and would be Rick’s third bed-warmer to die – I don’t think the writers would want to re-fill that story niche so soon. Aaron, Eugene, Rosita and Sasha aren’t really A-list yet, and wouldn’t have the necessary impact. As to Maggie, I don’t think even this show would dare to beat a pregnant woman to death.
Of course, I could be wrong. Be sure to tell me why I’m an idiot. You are quite likely correct!
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Replies
Alexandra Kitty said:
That would be an awesome opportunity to bring Glenn's arc back to life. He has been stagnant of late. That would really ratchet things up.
I think I've about had my fill of stories where a woman dies to give her boyfriend motivation. If it's Maggie I'd be pretty disappointed. But Lauren Cohan has been doing other work lately ...
My feeling is, it's gotta be Glenn. Here's why:
Season 6 (as our discussions here indicate) has been all about the ethics and ramifications of killing other people vs not killing them -- personified in the characters of Carol and Morgan. Glenn, it turns out, had not actually killed any people over the course of the first five and a half seasons. It wasn't made a big deal of, and it didn't seem to be a philosophical thing, like it was with Morgan, but he'd never had to do it. (He mentions it to Heath on the episode where they sneak in and kill the Saviors in their sleep -- the first lives Glenn ever took.) This is something that was on the minds of the writers -- they not only had Glenn discuss this on the show, but it came up in conversation on Talking Dead a few times as well.
Negan is specifically punishing the group for that attack (and others, but that one particularly) by killing one of them. This death is retribution in a way the version in the comic wasn't. Thematically, this death is about the consequences of killing. And of the group that attacked the sleeping Saviors, Glenn's the only one who crossed a line he hadn't previously crossed that night. (Well, Heath too, but Heath's not there.) I'm not saying that's why Negan's picking Glenn -- Negan can't know that. But that's why the writers are having Negan pick Glenn at (supposed) random.
I think of the film The Untouchables from the 80s. Every one of Ness's men that was killed had had a drink of alcohol before they died -- they'd crossed the line of prohibition. Sean Connery's cop had a drink from a secret stash before he's murdered. The accountant who came up with the tax plan had gulped down some smuggled whiskey in relief from staying alive in the gunfight at the Canadian border; in his next scene, Frank Nitti murders him in an elevator and scrawls TOUCHABLE on the walls in blood. By crossing the line, Glenn became similarly touchable.
Also, the victim is being kept secret from us, in a way that's really unsatisfying to a sizable chunk of people. And I think that's partially because if Glenn were killed at the end of the episode, half the audience would sigh with recognition after having read the comic or heard of the scene. And "ho-hum, seen it before" is not the reaction you want from your season finale. But if you've decided to stick to the facts of that scene, a cliffhanger is a way of giving the audience a different experience while delivering the same result in the plot. Now, having any beloved character get straight-up murdered on camera may not be a great note to close a season on, so maybe the cliffhanger is a better option than killing anyone onscreen. (Anyone except Rick, that is -- if it were Rick, the shock value would be so tremendous that showing it is of much higher value than hiding it.) But there's a much bigger downside to showing the death of Glenn than the death of almost any of the others, in that we're expecting it. Dreading it, maybe, but expecting it just the same.
So that's why I think it's Glenn.
My pick (in the other thread) was Glenn as well.
I have to say though, that I think they've gone to the well a few too many times with characters dying or appearing to die at the end of episodes. It's a bit of a cheap tactic to begin with and now I think they run the risk of descending into self parody if they keep doing it. Also, the meta discussion about who is going to die next probably shouldn't be the primary focus if the show runners want the show to maintain credibility.
Personally, I think losing just three lovers in about two years of such a dangerous life is almost a blessed life. I sort of hope the show to keep diverging further from the comics,so Michonne feels like a very real possibility to me, right after Daryl (1st) and Glenn (2nd).
I don't think the dialog would work if it is Rick or Carl. Otherwise I would include Carl in the list.
After that, seeing how apparently the actors felt shocked by the episode, I would guess Abraham and perhaps Eugene as 4th and 5th. But I think (and hope) that they will keep both for a good while still They have some of the best lines and characterization.
From what I hear, the actors actually don't know who's dead yet. (Or maybe one of them does, I hope, and is keeping mum -- it wouldn't be far to keep someone on the hook for several months and then give them their pink slip on the first day of shooting.)
I think Carl's safe. I think he might be the safest character on the show. You can really frame the whole show as being about Carl growing up in a dangerous time. (And probably, how that forged a leader.)
Both Abraham and Eugene got "goodbye" moments in the last episode -- Abraham talking about how happy he is and ready to start a family, Eugene handing off the bullet recipe -- that are usually the kiss of death in a show or movie with a body count. But since they both got 'em, and only one is going to die (we assume), I'm inclined to think of them both as red herrings, since at least one of them probably is.
And yeah, if I were in the writers room, I'd never ever want to kill Abraham. He's got to be too much fun to write.
If I were king of the world, I'd decree that the next person to die would be Rick. That would really upend the show, with no set path forward, plus I find him to be something of a stock character.
And who would step up to take charge? I'm guessing Michonne would have the respect and inherent authority, but even in the ZA a black woman might be too much for some white male Alexandrians. So there might be a leadership struggle in the face of an existential threat. And whoever won -- with my money on Michonne -- it would be an entirely different show going forward.