Violet recaps the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead, titled The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be, where we finally find out who Negan killed at the end of the Season 6 finale! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be, Episode 701 of The Walking Dead
- Her thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 1: The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be
Recap of The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 1: The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be
Picking up after we left off at the end of the Season 6 finale, this episode begins with Rick, still kneeling on the ground, telling Negan he’s going to kill him. We still don’t know who it is Negan has killed. He asks his right hand man, Simon, to give him Rick’s ax. Negan then drags Rick into the RV and says he’ll be back, and maybe Rick will be with him.
In the RV, Negan wedges Rick’s ax into the table, then gets behind the wheel, leaving Rick sitting on the floor. Negan tell Rick that his best chance is to grab the ax and drive it into the back of his head. Rick grabs the ax, but Negan is ready, and immediately turns around, pointing an assault rifle at him. Rick drops the ax, and Negan hits Rick, knocking him back down, then hits him on the head. Negan tells Rick to think about what happened, what could have happened, and what can still happen. Then Negan drives off in the RV.
Meanwhile, Rick thinks about Rosita and Glenn, and has flashbacks about them. Negan stops the RV, and tells Rick that he is his, the people back there are his, and the ax is his. He then open the door, tosses the ax on top of the RV, and tells Rick to go get his ax. Outside, there’s a horde of walkers. Negan shoves Rick outside.
Rick fights off walkers with his bare hands, while he has flashbacks of Sasha, Eugene, Aaron, , Abraham, Maggie, and Daryl. He makes his way to the ladder at the back of the RV, and kicks a walker away as he climbs atop the RV. He sees that they have come back to the road where the logs were set on fire, and the man was hung from the overpass. Rick thinks about Michonne, then Carl. Negan talks to him from below, saying he bets Rick thought they were all going to grow old together — but that’s not how it works anymore.
Rick lays down on the roof of the RV, and thinks back to what happened. We see Negan go through his “Eeny meeny miny moe” charade. This time we see that he landed on Abraham, who subtly gives a peace sign to Sasha. Negan bashes Abraham’s head. Abraham tells Negan, “Suck my nuts.” Then Negan finishes him off. The group members are horrified, and in tears. Negan is enjoying himself. He puts the bloody bat right in Rosita’s face and demands that she take a look at it. Daryl gets up and punches Negan, then his men pull him off. Dwight grabs Daryl’s crossbow and points it at him, but Negan says not to kill him. The men drag Daryl off. Negan reminds them about his promise that the “first one’s free,” but that after that, he’ll “shut that sh*t down.” To prove he’s a man of his word, he bashes Glenn’s head in, so much that his eyeball bulges out. Glenn tries to speak, telling Maggie, “I will find you.” Negan says he’s sorry, but tells them that he did say no exceptions. Then he finishes Glenn off.
We are now caught up to the point where we opened the episode.
Negan insistently tells Rick to get him his ax. He then begins shooting through the roof. Rick runs with the ax and jumps off the RV, hanging on to the hanging walker. However, the walker’s neck stretches, putting Rick closer and closer to the horde of walkers below. But Negan opens the back hatch and opens fire on the walkers. Rick falls to the ground, and retrieves the ax, which fell to the ground in the commotion. He then fights his way back tot he RV door — but it’s locked. He has to fight off a couple walkers, but then Negan opens the door and opens fire on them, allowing Rick to make it safely inside the RV. Negan then holds out his hand for Rick to return the ax to him. He praises Rick, and wedges the now bloody ax into the table once more.
They drive for a bit, then they stop. Negan goes through the cabinets and finds alcohol, which he uses to clean off the act. Meanwhile, he tells Rick that although he can’t be in charge anymore, he can still lead a nice productive life producing for him. He gives Rick back the ax, telling him he thinks he’s going to need it.
Negan pushes Rick out of the RV. They have arrived back where they began. He drags him back toward the group. Negan asks Rick if he knows what that trip was about. He says it was about the way that Rick looked at him, and he wanted to change that. But he’s still looking at him the same way. He wonders if he should give Rick another chance. Rick’s next decision will decide the fate of his group. Negan demands guns to be pointed at the back of each group member’s head. Then he calls Carl forward and straps a belt around his upper left arm, and has Carl lay down on the ground next to Rick. Negan draws a black line across Carl’s forearm. Rick begs Negan, “Please don’t.” But Negan says he isn’t doing anything. He tells Rick to cut Carl’s arm off, right on that line — or else all of his people die. Rick tries to offer himself in Carl’s place, but Negan says this is the only way. Negan begins to count to 3. He gets to 2, and Rick is begging him, crying. Rick picks up the ax, as Carl tells him to just do it.
Negan kneels down next to Rick, and doesn’t make him go through with it. He has Rick repeat back to him that he answers to him, he provides for him, and he belongs to him. Negan gets the look from Rick that he wanted to see, and takes his ax. He tells everyone that he hopes they understand how things work now. Dwight is ordered to load Daryl into the van. Negan says he’ll leave them a truck, and will be back for their first offering in one week.
After Negan’s group leaves, Maggie tells Rick he needs to go get ready to fight them, while she goes to the doctor by herself. They don’t want to let her go alone, so Sasha steps up and says she’ll take her. But first, Sasha tells Rosita that she’s going to take Abraham. Rosita nods in agreement. Maggie tries to take Glenn, but Aaron, Rick, and Carl convince her to let them. Rosita, Sasha, and Eugene take Abraham’s body.
We see a glimpse of everyone sitting around at “Sunday dinner,” Glenn and Abraham included, with Glenn and Maggie’s child, as Negan’s words echo.
Rick gets into the RV, and watches as a single walker wanders onto the road. Then he drives away. As Rick looks in the rear view mirror, he sees the walker kneel down to eat from either Glenn’s or Abraham’s remains that are left on the ground.
Her Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 1: The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be
I had initially been afraid that we would have to wait yet another episode to find out who Negan had killed, because The Walking Dead likes to stretch things out like that. But thankfully, I happened to read an article where one of the executive producers confirmed that we would get an answer during this episode, so I was glad about that. Of course, we didn’t get our answer right away though. In true The Walking Dead fashion, they found a way to keep us in anticipation for awhile longer, choosing not to make the big reveal at the beginning of the episode, but instead waiting until further along in the episode. So that was a bit annoying.
But wow, I did not see it coming that we would get not one death, but two! Some people complained that they knew it would be Glenn because of the comics, but I don’t know anything about the comics, so it was a surprise to me. Then again, it feels like Glenn has had it coming for awhile now, with all of his narrow escapes from the clutches of death. It seems like it had to catch up with him at some point.
The show did an excellent job of making Negan into a villain that I know I will love to hate, and already do. Jeffrey Dean Morgan did a great job of pulling that off. I was also very impressed with Andrew Lincoln’s performance, the way that Negan was able to break Rick down, and how he was able to portray this broken Rick. I felt like at the end of the Season 6 finale, Rick did have the helpless face that Negan wanted. But then when Negan killed both Abraham and Glenn, it made Rick angry and defiant, saying he was going to kill Negan. But after their little trip, and almost making Rick cut off his own son’s arm, Negan was able to break Rick down to where he wanted him.
The situation seems really dire at this point. It feels like they have no choice but to do what Negan says. Negan is not only evil himself, but he has the numbers, and he has Daryl — who will presumably be put to work by Negan. But let’s not forget that Carol and Morgan are still out there, and have just met a new group, and Tara and Heath are out there somewhere. I’m sure at some point down the line, the groups can converge and take Negan down. Even after just one full episode of Negan, I’m already looking forward to that day.
His Thoughts on The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 1: The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be
It looks like Glenn has finally overstayed his welcome on The Walking Dead. A lot of fans had been upset about the fake-outs with Glen, and while I certainly agree the whole dumpster issue was a stupid part on behalf of the writers, Glenn has been a staple character in the show, and while I do not consider him my favorite character, I appreciated his ability to be one of the few glimmers of light left in such a dark world. He was a guy who would do the right thing, no matter how badly he wanted to do the other thing. This is unlike almost every other character, including Rick. But the show decided to remain faithful to the comics, in terms of who Negan would be taking out–mostly at least.
Mostly in the fact that he decided to also take out Abraham, which was actually the first death of the episode. He had a fitting end, telling Negan just how he felt when he took that first blow to the head. Abraham will be another character that is sad to see go, although I did not have quite the emotional attachment to him that I did with Glenn.
It was very hard to watch both Abraham and Glenn take their beatings, though. Both for the gruesome aspect of it, and the sadness of it too. Seeing the rest of the group essentially remain helpless as two members of the group are executed viciously is hard to stomach.
As for Daryl, I am guessing he is going to be having a heavy conscience, wherever or however he ends up. I am curious to see Negan’s plan for him. Keep him imprisoned as leverage? Try to brain-wash him to work for him? Either way, it makes me wonder if this is the slow exit of Daryl from the show. We’ve seen less of him last season, which I think might be in part to his own show he has running on AMC now.
Then finally, Rick had a pretty tough story arc this episode. He went from the hero of Alexandria to Negan’s servant in the span of an hour. For the most part, it was pretty believable too. Negan treated Rick like a horse that had to be “broken”, and the way Andrew Lincoln acted his parts made it all the more believable. The scene where he is being forced to cut off Carl’s arm was one of the most heart-breaking, and nothing actually happened there other than the emotional breakage of Rick.
I know how the comics move forward with the story, but I am curious to see how the show will take it. For now, I assume Rick is going to do what Negan says, but as always, I am sure the group is going to begin going against the grain, until things come to a bloody apex.
The final thoughts I have regarding the episode is pertaining to the outcry people seem to have over the gore in the episode. I will agree it was very hard to watch, and I didn’t really like watching those specific scenes all that much, but I would argue that they were very effective in making me hate Negan. If the show continues with what they have started, Negan is going to be one of the best TV villains ever. But that is speaking too soon, as we have really only just gotten a glimpse of him so far. But to have so much outcry over a show that regularly decapitates, mutilates and kills cast members, I don’t really see why they would expect any different here.
Scenes from The Walking Dead, Season 7 Episode 2: The Well
Preview of Season 7 Episode 2 of The Walking Dead
