Written by Salima Bensalah
The Season 7 finale of The Walking Dead opens with a chilling introduction of Sasha listening to music in the darkness—is this some kind of twisted torture like we saw Daryl go through earlier in the season? She dreams she is with Abraham again, and already we can guess the devotion he has to Sasha will cause him to be the first to die in the episode.
Negan reaches a comprise with Sasha: only one has to die when he attacks Alexandria to pay for their rebellious plans. Meanwhile, the Hilltop group discuss their plan of action. Again.
We then cut to where we left off last episode, with Rick having Dwight at gunpoint. They aren’t too pleased he killed Denise, but Dwight reveals Negan knows about Rick’s plan to fight against him. Dwight comes up with his own plan to sneak out and attack the outpost while the group goes to Alexandria to get the workers to join them, then attack each outpost and thus ending a season-long fight against Negan.
Out in the streets, Carol and others of the Kingdom find Morgan outside; he too has a death wish and decides to attack Negan alone. Remind you of anyone? Ezekiel asks Morgan to join them on their journey to make an alliance to Alexandria.. About time too!
Cutting back to the main group, the Dumpster Group of women with one-word utterances join Alexandria and take position. The leader even makes a suggestion that she sleeps with Rick when it’s over, to which Michonne quickly says to get back to work.
Sasha’s dream of Abraham continues to manifest, where she begs him to sit this one out. She walks with Eugene and they prepare to leave the Saviours’ camp to attack Alexandria once and for all. With the amount of time dedicated to Sasha, the chances of her character being killed off is increasing by the second!
Negan’s group arrives with Eugene asking Rick’s group to comply or risk being attacked. After some hesitance, the group plans to set off the explosives they’ve planted around the place. But there’s nothing and then the Dumpster Group pull their guns on them, telling Rick they found a better deal with Negan.
Negan’s group arrives with Eugene and his speaker, asking Rick’s group to comply or risk being attacked. After some hesitance, the group plans to set off the explosives they’ve planted around the place. But there’s nothing. And then the Dumpster Group pull their guns on the group, telling Rick they found a better deal with Negan. I wish we could say we’re surprised, but honestly, we’re not.
Negan steps out and draws attention to a coffin they’ve brought with them and unsurprisingly, Sasha is inside. Negans wants their guns, Daryl and the life of one of their group so Rick demands they open up the coffin to confirm Sasha is alive.
But Sasha is now a Sasha-walker, so it looks like she took Eugene’s pill after all, or ran out of air. She lunges for Negan, which takes him by surprise. Although it was obvious she would be the first to die, it was still done rather well with some fantastic visual effects. Cue Rick’s group as they fight against the Dumpster group, but Jadis still has Rick at gunpoint, and she kicks him from the rooftop and shoots him.
Negan and Jadis team up and they take the others hostage, while Michonne intensely fights one of Jadis’ minions. Negan hovers over Rick with Lucille, and suggests as punishment he kills Carl and cuts off Rick’s hands. Again, we wonder why Negan doesn’t simply kill Rick, since we know he’s killed many for far less.
But just before he hits Carl, Ezekiel’s tiger lunges out and the Kingdom attack the Saviours, firing bullets everywhere. I cannot express how satisfying it is to finally see the fight, even though it’s strange that Rick’s bullet wound hasn’t seemed to affect his ability to fight.
Negan manages to escape and disappointingly, this season isn’t going to be the war we’ve been waiting for and the fight only lasts for a few minutes. Rick and Carl find Michonne, heavily injured but alive. It appears all is well, with only the minor civilians killed off.
Back at Negan’s camp, he asks Eugene how it was possible for Sasha to die in there. Eugene suggest she ran out of air, but it’s clear Negan is suspicious. He then turns and addresses his large group: “So, we are going to war!”
The episode ends with a hopeful montage of Alexandria and the Kingdom together, and a promise for a much better season next time.
This season was slow, even slower than last season (which is saying a lot). While there were highlights and some episodes did have great character development, a large portion of it was repetitive. Characters seem to blur together, and may of the show’s badasses have been reduced to cardboard cut-outs with a simple death wish. This season has been all talk and no game, but hopefully next season will bring some better writing to the show with more action and twists.
Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been confirmed for later this year.
What did you think of the Season 7 finale? Let us know in the comments below!
