People are really angry about the “The Walking Dead” Season 6 finale, and they have a point
If you haven’t watched the Season 6 finale, “Last Day on Earth,” turn back now. Close this tab, walk away, trust me.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk Season 6 finale, because it was the most frustrating hour-and-a-half of my LIFE, and probably yours, too.
First of all, did I mention the episode was AN HOUR-AND-A-HALF? 99 percent of that hour-and-a-half was Abraham driving the RV around with a very sick Maggie and some of the others, including Rick, Eugene, Sasha, and Carl. The crew kept getting ambushed by Negan’s cronies, and at one point they’re met with a pile of burning pine trees, which was admittedly very intense.
Basically, Negan set up a very elaborate trap to show Rick who’s boss, and he won because the last twenty minutes of the episode showed everyone together, on their knees, glossy-eyed because they know one of them is going to die a very brutal death at the hands of Negan.
But do we get to find out who Negan killed? Nah. The last minute of the episode was shot from the perspective of the person getting knocked out and probably murdered by Lucille, Negan’s barbwire-wrapped baseball bat. (Yes, Negan named his murder weapon “Lucille,” so be still my problematic fictional character-loving heart.) Everything goes black before we find out which Walking Dead character bites the dust. Obviously, everyone is pretty upset.
Not cool, indeed, Walking Dead. After an entire season of cliffhangers (like the whole is Glenn dead or not dead thing, Daryl getting shot last week), it’s fair to say we expected to find out who Negan takes out. Because, like, that was the whole point of this season. At this point, it seems like comic creator Robert Kirkman and executive producer Scott M. Gimple are trolling us, and we the people have HAD ENOUGH.
Kirkman, who obviously feels differently about this, told Talking Dead host, “As a fan, I love cliffhangers. I love that tension. If you read the comic books, pretty much every issue ends with a cliffhanger. I think that’s a lot of fun.”
No, you are WRONG, Kirkman. Last night was NOT A LOT OF FUN.
He continued, “The cliffhanger isn’t the story. This episode is about the loss of that confidence. It’s about tearing Rick Grimes down, and that’s the conclusion of this episode. The story of who died, of what comes next, of who Negan killed, that’s really the story of Season Seven.”
Psh, whatever. Pretty sure who Negan killed should have been part of Season 6, too. We DESERVED that. What’s to come of next season? Gimple explains that, too.
“We have to do an episode that justifies it to you. We have to do something so great and so intense that you’re like, OK, all right, fair play, and that’s the challenge that we have. We’re going to do it, we’re going to deliver you something fantastic. We want you to be one of those people in that lineup. We want you to feel that suspense, that terror, and that pain, and we’re going to deliver you a story next season that justifies it.”
Um, pretty sure we’re already feeling too much suspense, terror, and pain. But hey, until Season 7, ya’all.