‘The Walking Dead’ season 7, episode 1: Who did Negan kill?

When “The Walking Dead” decided to leave the ‘who did Negan kill’ cliffhanger at the end of last season, fans of the show were not impressed to say the least. We like a good cliffhanger as much as the next person, but this one was a tough one to swallow. In the comic books (spoilers ahead), Negan kills Glenn and while that’s the most likely person that will meet Lucille, this show has been known to change things up.

One thing we can be sure of is that whoever he kills, it has to be someone close enough to Rick to want to stay and get revenge because otherwise there’s no justifying sticking around and taking that abuse… it’s a big world out there and Negan has stability where he is to go chasing after Rick. The only thing we want tonight are answers… and we got them.

The premiere sent us right back into the thick of things, with Negan’s bat covered in blood and Rick swearing vengeance on him for what he did. So who did Negan kill? He started with Abraham, but he also killed Glenn and the fanbase is surely weeping tonight over these loses. Glenn has been around since the beginning for the series and Abraham has become an important part of the family over the years.

Negan pulls Rick into his trailer to have a little talk – he gives Rick a chance to grab his ax and kill Negan, but Negan’s too fast and pulls a gun on him, knocking him to the ground. Negan starts the trailer and drives off with Rick leaving everyone behind. Negan pulls into a group of walkers, throws the ax out of the trailer and forces Rick to go out and get the ax for him. He finds his inner strength after thinking about what could happen to the rest of the group and brings the ax back to Negan. Is this enough to get Rick in line with what Negan wants or has he found the inner strength he needs to formulate a plan?

When they get back to the camp, Negan has guns placed at the back of all of their heads and makes Carl come and lay on the ground next to Rick. Negan draws a line on Carl’s forearm and tells Rick to chop Carl’s left arm off. After turning our stomach into knots whether or not Rick was going to cut his own son’s arm off, Negan stops him and makes Rick pledge himself to him, which he does. Negan also decides to take Daryl with him, saying that if Rick doesn’t do what he promised, he will do horrible things to Daryl.

After seeing what happened, we have a new leader emerging and it’s Maggie. She won’t stand for what happened to Glenn and Abraham and now she feels she has nothing left to lose if she’s also losing her baby.

Watching Rick struggle with his role as a leader was a tough one after seeing him guiding the group for so many seasons and basically becoming the patriarch to everyone. For him to be so powerless was just crippling to watch especially since everyone else that has power in this show (Negan, the Governor) has used it to hurt others. This is going to be a season of awakening for Rick and it’s something that he needs to rebuild after what has happened. Episode grade: A

What did you think of “The Walking Dead” season 7 premiere and were you satisfied? Leave us a comment in the box below. If you want more scoop on what’s coming up this season on “The Walking Dead” then head on over to the link here. (Photo: AMC)