‘The Walking Dead’ season 6, episode 16 (finale) review: Who did Negan kill and is Daryl alive?

The last episode of “The Walking Dead” left fans of Daryl Dixon with enough stress for a life time as Dwight shot Daryl and all we saw was a lot of blood. Is Daryl dead? We don’t think he is, but at the same time we know that tonight Negan will be showing up and in the comics this meeting ended up with Glenn dying – could that death be switched to Daryl? There are a lot of balls in the air right now when it comes to Daryl, Rosita, Glenn and Michonne, so let’s jump in and see what the finale has to bring us.

Carol: She is still missing and is Morgan tracking her, but so is the Savior she shot in the car. Morgan finds Carol first and she’s in some bad shape, not just physically but also mentally and spiritually. She tries to push Morgan away and tells him to leave, but he refuses. When Morgan goes out for a moment, he returns to find that Carol has taken off. So who found her first? The Savior. He starts by shooting her in the arm, then the leg and then tells her he’s going to watch her die slowly, but Morgan shows up and kills him after he refuses to drop his weapon. Carol needs help and as luck would have it two soldiers show up and offer their help.

Negan: While Maggie is going through a miscarriage, Rick, Sasha, Abraham, Eugene, Aaron and Carl are taking the RV and bringing Maggie to the doctor at the Hilltop to help save her and the baby. So all of the main defenders of the town are leaving and Gabriel is in charge… they are doomed. While on the road the RV is stopped by the Saviors saying that they are looking to make a deal, but Rick refuses their terrible deal and says they will find another way to the Hilltop. Unfortunately all roads to the Hilltop lead to Negan’s men. When they get to a group of walkers tied in a row, they see that there are pieces of Michonne’s hair, Daryl’s clothes and crossbow arrows as well as other hints that their people have been captured by the Saviors. They kill the walkers and move through towards the Hilltop, but an even bigger blockade is waiting up the road.

Rick’s group decides to play a different game to get around all of these blockades. Eugene takes the RV and the rest of the group takes another way knowing that the Saviors are looking for the RV, but before they split up, Eugene gives Rick the recipe to make bullets…. so we feel that he’s going to die a horrible death. The plan doesn’t work and instead they are lured right into a giant trap where they are surrounded by massive amount of Saviors. Also, they have Eugene as a prisoner already and they make everyone get on their knees, including Maggie. The Saviors also bring out Daryl, Michonne, Glenn, and Rosita so the group is reunited and ready to meet Negan. He comes out and he’s terrifying as he explains that their job from now on is giving him half of their stuff from now until the end of time and to prove how powerful they are (and to pay them back for killing a lot of their men), he kills one of Rick’s party with his bat Lucille. Who did Negan kill? They didn’t reveal who is dead, but the two people we are sure it’s not is Carl or Rick since Negan said that if anyone moves to help the person he is killing, that the Saviors are to take out Carl’s other eye and feed it to Rick.

This was an intense finale and even though we didn’t get to see Negan until the very end, it was incredibly satisfying. What wasn’t satisfying was making us wait until season 7 before revealing which of the group was killed by Negan. We are all for a good cliffhanger, but come on! What we do have to say is that if they don’t kill a main character this time around, and pick someone like Aaron we are really going to be disappointed because the main cast is just way too safe at this point and this show needs to take some bigger risks. Episode grade: B

What did you think of the “Walking Dead” season 6 finale and was Negan everything you hoped he would be? Leave us a comment below and tell us what you thought of the season and what you want to see happen on season 7. If you want more news on “The Walking Dead” then head on over to the link here and let us be your guide. Also, if you want more great TV news sent your way then be sure to sign up for our weekly CarterMatt newsletter. It comes our every weekend and in addition to getting the top stories of the week, our subscribers also enjoy some first look scoop before it hits the site. (Photo: AMC)