Walking Dead Recap: "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be"

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(This article is a guest feature written by Brad Morris.)

Wow. Just . . . Wow.
For The Walking Dead to pull off a truly rewarding wait from the end of Season 6, until last night’s Season 7 premiere, they HAD to do something totally brutal. The person(s) killed by Negan was finally revealed. And for fans of the show hoping we’d only get away with one… well it wasn’t a good night. So let’s dive in…

———-EXTREME—-SPOILER—-ALERT———-
(see you after the jump)

Sgt. Abraham Ford

Sgt. Ford was the muscle of the group. We’ve grown accustomed to his manly ways, his love of assault rifles, and his attachment to Red Dye #5. I started to suspect Abraham would be Negan’s victim last year, when he raised up from his knees to show Negan he wasn’t afraid to die. For this to come to fruition was a satisfying way for his character to end. IF Negan and the group had moved on from there, fans could’ve made it through the show relatively ok. While a major contributor to the group, he was definitely in the second tier of characters. His comic book death was given to another character last season (Spoiler Alert—Denise), so Abraham was living on borrowed time. All in all, a fitting end for the physically imposing and one liner spewing Sgt. Abraham Ford.

Like I said, fans might have made it through the episode ok with just his death… And then Daryl had to go and give Negan a right hook to the jaw. This led to the truly heartbreaking moment of the show. The death of…

Glenn Rhee

Glenn was such a young, sweet, and naive kid when we first met the former pizza delivery driver in Season 1. His growth into a man in the post apocalyptic world was a story of hope. He always seemed to know that any day could be the day he died, which led him to live life to the fullest. Learning to be a man from Dale, learning to hunt and kill with Daryl, saving Rick’s ass more than once, and making whoopee with Maggie. This character has been a joy for all to watch and root for. And that’s where we must give credit to the show’s writers, to have the guts to launch this New World Order storyline in a truly heart wrenching fashion. To take an almost untouchable character, and ending his life in a crushing way.

Negan

I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on the TRUE introduction of Jeffery Dean Morgan’s Negan into TWD world. His emergence signals a total shift in the paradigm of the show. The focus has always been on Rick’s group, and this has been turned upside down. Although we’ve had other bad guys, the Governor and the Termites mostly, this bad guy is totally different. Not a psychopath, not a cannibal, but a clinically diagnosed sociopath. Never too pissed off and never too mellow, Negan is the man in charge now. The “showing him the ropes” to Rick was the bulk of the premier. Breaking down Rick to prove to him that he was in charge and required total submission was great television. And I can’t wait for this season to roll along.

I’ll end with my introduction. Hello! My name is Brad Morris, and I’m new to KSR. I’ll be here every week to go through, or preview, The Walking Dead. I’m going to try this a little differently than other recaps of shows and just assume that you’ve already seen the episode so that we may have more of a discussion about it rather than me just rambling on about how this happened, and then this, and then that. I mean, how boring. So lets talk about it together! I’ll be joined every week by Josh Juckett of Funkhouser. We’ll take any questions or comments you have and answer them if we can. You can follow Josh on twitter @banterjosh and you can follow myself @Bhmfire. Until we meet again.