BE AWARE: SPOILERS.
I started out watching "The Walking Dead" upstairs in our guest bedroom secretly because I did not want anyone to know I was watching this scary television show (not sure why that was a thing, but it was middle school). Six years later and I am still watching the show. I have seen every episode, winced at every death, screamed at every villain, and have remained a faithful member of this crazy fandom.
On October 23rd, season seven of the The Walking Dead premiered on AMC, the first episode entitled, "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be You."
On October 23d, I was definitely no longer myself. I was a screaming, raving fan, dry sobbing in my living room and yelling at my little T.V. because I could not stand the events unfolding.
For those that do not remember, season six left our cast of characters kneeling in front of Negan, the ruthless new villain who claims control over Rick's group of people. As punishment for killing several of his men, Negan tells Rick that they will have to pay, and someone is going to die. Season six ended with a point of view shot from the person about to meet their untimely demise, complete with grotesque sound effects as their head is smashed in.
Fast forward to season seven, and the show is back at it again, tugging on people's heart strings and making them wait fifteen minutes into the episode before finding out through a masterfully shot flashback from Rick's POV of the character's death. SPOILER ALERT!!! Unfortunately...that character was Abraham.
The show did an excellent job of telling that story, especially through Rick's point of view. While the show is probably one of the most graphically violent shows on television, this moment was almost too much. I had to shut my eyes, but the sound of the head and brains being beaten to a pile of mush was too much.
Tension ran high the entire episode. While Rick is having the flashback, he is trapped outside the camper while Negan waits inside, having driven him to an undisclosed location and forcing him to go outside and retrieve an ax he threw. Rick lies on top of the camper, helplessly trapped in his own thoughts, and struggles to process the events from the night before.
Just when you thought it was over, Greg Nicotero comes back to rip out your heart even more and smash it just like the next character's head got smashed. With a wild turn of events, a second character gets killed after Daryl's unexpected outbreak. I was biting my fingernails, expecting it to be Daryl (who is my favorite character), but it was not Daryl...SPOILER ALERT!!! It was Glenn.
The worst moment of the entire episode was when Glenn, with his head partially smashed in and spewing blood from his mouth, tells Maggie that he will find her right before Negan continues to beat his head to a pulp. The sound of Glenn getting beaten and Maggie crying was almost too much. The episode ends with the group going to bury their dead while still emotionally unstable and uncertain of what the future holds.
Overall, I thought that the episode was an exciting but heartbreaking way to start Season 7 off, but I am anticipating more heart wrenching losses to come later on. It was a little heavy on the gore, especially when they showed the two unlucky members' remains, a pile of red mush on the ground. Remembering that that pile of mush was someone's head was a little too much for me, but definitely showed who Negan really is as a character, and the threat that he is going to pose for the rest of this season, if not later seasons as well.
