(Season 6, Episode 16)
**Spoilers**
The season finale is upon us…
As someone who doesn’t read the comics and didn’t read any spoilers, I had no idea what to expect. And when it ended my heart was racing and I was sicken.
What the heck just happened!! OMG!!
So Carl and Morgan had a side adventure with Carol nearly dying at the hands of a man she fought with on a previous episode. Morgan saved her even though she didn’t want to be saved.
Now, let’s get to the Rick section. With Maggie sick and on the verge of losing her baby, Rick, Abe, Sasha, Rosita and Eugene drive the trailer to find a hospital.
This proves difficult as the road leads to a detour of Negan’s men. They try another route and there’s another detour. This goes on all day and they are left with no other choice but to leave the trailer and carry Maggie through the woods. Eugene was left behind to drive the trailer, allowing the others to flee undetected.
However, the plan turned out to be a trap.
The group wanders into Negan’s group to find that Eugene was taken hostage along with the trailer.
A van opens and out comes their friends Daryl, Michonne and Glenn. The good guys are forced to their knees (including a sick Maggie).
And so it begins… The moment when you realize that they may have met someone worse than the Governor.
This scene is eerie like something out of a horror movie. Tension builds as Negan steps out and finally reveals himself. He speaks with a psychotic charm.
And you just know it won’t end well. The look on Rick’s face, the defeat, the fear. He wants to kill Negan, but he can’t. He’s feeling something he hasn’t felt in a long time… helplessness. He’s at Negan’s mercy and Negan doesn’t have mercy.
So now they work for Negan. Negan takes half of everything they own and will continue to do so forever, much like the group they met up and tried to help. One could understand why that other group paid Rick to kill Negan.
But before Rick’s group is free to work for Negan they must pay a price for the people they killed.
Negan says: “I do not appreciate you killing my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people you killed more of my people. Not cool, not cool. You have no idea how not cool that {bleep} is.”
And so comes that moment that builds and builds until the viewer finds themself holding their breath. Negan holds a bat wrapped in wire designed to inflict damage. And someone is going to get a beating, a beating so bad they may not live theough it. It will be brutal and it won’t be swift.
But who? Who will pay the price?
Negan toys with the group and the audience. “inni minnie minie mo…” each member flinches, sheds tear, trembles except Abe, who’s prepared to die for the others. But the choice isn’t his. That honor belongs to Negan.
The bat points to person after person until he makes his choice. He bashes one of the group, but who? We still don’t know. The camera takes on the view of the victim. Blood pours down the frame. Another swing… fade to black.
And it ends…
We will have to wait until next season to see who died.
But there is a hint. It probably isn’t Rick or Carl because Negan says “Anybody moves, anybody says anything cut the boys other eye out and feed it to his father”.
