The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere Was Miserable From Start to Finish

Spoilers abound for the season 7 premiere episode, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”. (If you haven’t watched it yet, what are you still doing here? Go home.)

The Walking Dead finally returned last night—and after months of repeatedly teasing out the same cliffhanger (and trying to justify it), we finally learned the identity of the unlucky victim of last season’s finale, in which Negan (played to brutally memorable degree by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) murdered someone with a bat.

Turns out it wasn’t just someone, but someones—Abraham and Glenn—and in spite of the rumor that had been swirling around about whether or not Glenn was going to die, as he does in the comics (as well as the show’s misleading decision to remove his name from the credits for several episodes last year), it looks like The Walking Dead decided to honor the source material—at least in part.

When season 7 premiered last night, many fans hoped the big reveal would be made right at the top of the hour. Instead, they had to wait for nearly half of the episode as the show mainly focused on Negan’s choice to play mind games with Rick in an attempt to break him—thus creating an uncomfortable tone where the audience was almost waiting for the other shoe (or the bat) to drop. When the moment finally happened, though, it wasn’t a relief; it was too downright depressing, a narrative gut-punch.

It’s likely because the episode spent so long focused on the game Negan was playing with Rick that the impact, the meaning of Abraham and Glenn’s deaths didn’t resonate—and they should have. (Seriously, the Talking Dead aftershow paid better tribute to these characters than their own story did.) There was no opportunity for the rest of the group to grieve for the loss of their fallen friends; the show seemed to spend three-fourths of the episode on long speeches for Negan. By the time fans got to the moment where Rick was nearly forced to cut off son Carl’s arm, after brushing off several deaths that should have been given more consideration, it was like icing on a seven-layer cake of sadism.

So, yeah. It’s safe to say that fans were not happy after last night’s premiere—and many are weighing the decision to even continue watching the show. Even the cast isn’t immune to fan reactions—including Norman Reedus, who read this text from his son on Talking Dead:

https://twitter.com/PuunchDrunkLove/status/790379960749944832

We rounded up some other fan reactions below; the general consensus seems to be “not good.” Do you think the show finally went too far last night?

https://twitter.com/bcbishop/status/790401474970857472

https://twitter.com/roundhoward/status/790373670707400705

https://twitter.com/jamiefrevele/status/790365707208982529

https://twitter.com/MildlyAmused/status/790366584279826433

(image via Gene Page/AMC)

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Carly Lane