It was a long wait since the sixth season cliffhanger of ‘The Walking Dead’ with Rick and his crew waiting on their fate at the hands of the new super villain Negan. I recently purchase NowTV because my TV provider Virgin doesn’t have Sky Atlantic in their line up and it’s getting harder to access these shows on iffy internet streams I normally use. I was up early and after catching up with Westworld, I remembered The Walking Dead had just finished so watched it on catch-up.
The seventh season premiere episode crackled with menace thanks to Negan and his bat as he walked up and down the line of Rick and his chums. The rumour mill was that Glenn was going to get his head stoved in but we were made to wait and wait until Negan stopped in front of Abraham. He took what was coming like a man but his head took a real pommelling. It was messy.
Negan’s bat covered with barbed wire was now soaked in blood and it looked like he hadn’t finish as he continue to walk the line. Smash! It was Glenn’s turn. The rest of the group looked on in horror still in shock of the death of Abraham and now Glenn they were beside themselves.
He (Negan) then takes Rick for a drive mainly to impress his superiority over Rick playing mind games putting doubt into his head leaving him looking a shell of his old self. When he returns to the group Negan, still playing mind games tells Rick to chop, his sons arm off, nasty, He didn’t but for how long before he will be using threats to Rick and his group again. With Negan now the alpha male Rick and the rest head back to the Alexandria community to wait on Negan’s arrival for his tribute.
Those scenes were upsetting and extremely graphic, foremost because of how drawn out they were. Negan's purpose was to wring any vestige of resistance out of the group's leader, Rick who defiantly told him in the wake of those murders, "I am gonna kill you." By the end, having threatened Rick's son and the other survivors, Negan announced, "You are mine”, laying the groundwork for what amounts to a life in servitude.
The producers certainly got the casting right, which seems especially vital having just sacrificed two such significant characters with Negan brings a mix of charisma and absolute ruthlessness to the role.
Nevertheless, it’s most admirable qualities have increasingly been overshadowed by its more distasteful ones -- not merely in demonstrating just how brutal humanity can be, but by toying with its audience, dangling plot twists the way somebody plays with a kitten.
So when Negan informed a broken Rick, "Things have changed”, he wasn't just talking about life within this post-apocalyptic world. Because while Negan's presence as what amounts to the new sheriff in town has once again altered the show's dynamics.
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