Oh gosh. That's so horrible. I can't imagine what goes through ones mind doing that to a child. Anyone for that matter, but a child? And your own child?? Demented.

I guess if Negan was slit shallow enough, but according to Rick saying they'd "open him up..", it must have been deep as his trachea.

 

The finale was good. I can understand Rick having second thoughts based on his son's wishes, but most others should want Negan's head on a stick. They should have just had Rick beating Negan up and pulling his punches in the end or having him choked out just like Simon but then Rick lets up. A little harder to believe Rick was so precise about his throat cut.
I would think Dwight, Daryl, Tara, Maggie, Carol, Morgan, Ezekiel Eugene, Rosita, and many of the saviors would want Negan dead. I personally dont think Negan is that good of a villain at least how its written or how Jeffery Dean plays it. I am ready to move on to the next big thing.

One theme that is getting old are main characters cycling between giving peace and justice and forgiveness a chance, to kill all who oppose them. It goes in cycles and to me its getting old and not believable. Think how many times Rick and Carl and Carol have done this. Darryl is one that has been pretty consistent throughout. Its been there from the beginning but to me its getting old. I understand contradiction between the two ideologies like what use to be there with Dale and Shane, but at least Dale and Shane remained true and not fickle.

 

The only good thing about letting Negan live and being locked up is seeing him completely stripped of his power. But if he continues to lecture everyone and have that smirk on his face, what's the point?

Realistically, there would be no reason to keep that man alive. But I guess the show needs him as a villain. So they used this weak, contrived reason to keep him alive. And I guess Maggie's meltdown was to sort of speak for the audience. But...ugh. You just know he's going to eventually escape, which makes Rick and Michonne look like idiots.

Oh well. At least we finally got to see some sexy Jesus. And we got to hear him actually talk for the first time since Thanksgiving. It wasn't a total loss. I give the episode a C+, which is pretty good for how bad this season has felt.

 

oh what fun season 9 will be -- now Negan is locked up...dialogue ad nauseam
For once I'm not dreading the summer hiatus.

 

My only complain is that we didnt see more of Rosita! jk.. i dont have any.. just that i want to see Dwight and Sherry again! I dont want to believe that was it for them.. The letter that Sherry left to Dwight had the infinity symbol that is connected with Alpha and the Whisperers.. i hope thats a clue for the whisperers and not just that they will meet in their honeymoon place.

 

Maybe I missed it the first time, but did anyone from Rick's group question WHY in the hell they were supposedly ambushing Negan in the middle of a wide open field, with no cover and no high ground? Like...why would Negan even be here? Was it a Savior's picnic or something? There was nothing of strategic value there yet they just waltz in.

The "ambush point" should have been a warehouse or some area of actual relevance to the struggle, not some grassy knoll in the middle of nowhere.

WTF

 

Big lead up to the beach people entrance = uneventful
I will also throw in Ezekiel having little to no contact with Morgan in the finale and the Fear premiere is nonsensical. Jeez keep it together writers.

 

Yeah, I was rather WTF by Rick thinking he's about to ambush people when he is in the middle of an open field, and walking from downhill to UPHILL where you don't even know what's over the crest.

Uh, Rick? That's the wrong end of an ambush.

 

I was under the impression that Rick and our gang were ambushed on the way to ambush Negan? Since Negan had provided a fake map he knew what route Rick would be taking.

 

I really needs to say one thing that really bothers me: somebody tell the writers STOP using this quote: " i have to!! i had to !!" i've been hearing it nonstop lately!!

Mentioning this fact that i LOVE this show, and yeah probably the worst thing about the last episode, was this fact that it was the LAST episode!!!!

 

I genuinely loved this episode and will reserve points for the praise thread, but not too much too complain about...

1. Father Gabriel in the burned up church only felt like it was chewing up time. Wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to take away from the scene that isnt already redundantly covered in most FG scenes. FG did have a good season 8 though.

2. The Maggie scene is highly realistic given not everyone would be in agreement with Rick's decision, but the scene fell a bit flat to me. The way it played out was overly sinister than it needed to be because Maggie wouldn't ever hurt Richonne - she obviosly just disagrees with them and wants to kill Negan, but she just came off as a tad bit too villainous. Jesus attending that secret meeting also felt odd.

Those are pretty minor things... The episode was honestly perfect to me!

 

Oh - Forgot to mention Oceanside... Unfortunately, I feel like they add little, if anything, to the show. Aaron would have been better served doing something else on the show.

To be fair, Aaron originally worked for a NGO, possibly in a similar capacity of brokering aggreements and peace among hostile entities, so I can see why Aaron would be the guy to do what he did... Unfortunately it just felt oh so boring than it should have.

 

Could not agree more. There are so many things stupid about this plot line. Jesus is a uniter, not a divider; they've made that almost annoyingly clear in every possible way they could. But now he's going to join in a mutiny? If Darryl wanted Negan dead badly enough, he'd be dead, and he and Rick share a lot of history and a pretty special bond. No way he's going to plot against Rick. And, sure, Maggie could be wildly bent out of shape about keeping Negan alive, might even try to take things into her own hands, but that doesn't translate into an attack on Rick. And Michonne? What the hell does this poorly scripted Maggie think Michonne did to protect Negan, other than not kill him on the spot, like everybody else present?

I'm sorry, I've loved this show since it's inception, but if this is the new direction for next season, I hope they make that clear, so I can just mentally edit out this stupid scene, and stop watching. I really can't imagine a bigger shark to jump than having the core team turn on each other.

 

Well I hope they don't make Maggie the villain of next season simply because she wants the man dead that brutally murdered her husband and seemed to enjoy it and murdered her friends, terrorized communities, raped women and tortured people. That is not believable if they do that. Maybe if they have the resources to keep Negan in prison, stand guard, feed and clothe an unproductive member in the ZA, maybe they have the resources to have a trial with a judge and jury that decide his fate. He would be the biggest resource drain in the entire community by far. Regardless of what Carl said, it simply would not be believable to me to see Rick, Carol and Michone take up arms against Maggie and Daryl to save Negan...after all they have been through together. I mean they can still work for peace and execute Negan in order to protect others. No way will I say a battle between those two sides makes any sense!

 

You got that FG was giving thanks for getting his sight back? That that shot of light streaming through was his point of view?

 

I didn't care for it much, but thank you for bringing up these points.

1.I think maybe they are setting up Fr Gabriel to be Negan's visitor. They have had a lot of screen time this year together and there's been lots of talk about Gabriel's purpose in life, maybe that's what he is "seeing?" That it's on him to counsel Negan. Which of course will lead to Negan manipulating Fr G and getting away.

2. The scene with Maggie, Jesus and Daryl made me nauseous. Maggie's outrage is completely justified, Rick has completely put his own need to honor Carl above her grief for Glenn. But the tone of her speech was disturbing at best.

I think Jesus was just doing a 'smile and nod' to avoid disagreeing with Maggie when she was in such a fragile state, but no way would he let that go unaddressed outside of a given moment.

Daryl has every reason to disagree with Rick and want Negan dead, but that would take the form of another physical confrontation, or outright getting to Negan and killing him. No way he's going to plot behind Rick (and Michonne's) back to overthrow them because of this. Not his style at all, especially if this goes into a time jump.

I am curious as to what they'll do with this if LC is gone. Would they recast, I wonder?

 

Totally agree on the Maggie thing. It was way overdone making her look all mob boss like.

 

I've joked that if Lauren Cohan decides to quit TWD, then the season 9 premiere will reveal that Maggie "died in childbirth" and Daryl will take the lead role in the conspiracy to kill Negan.

 

I'm happy to report that someone asked Norman Reedus about this on his instagram account saying, "really? You are turning on Rick?" his reply, plain and simple, "no".

Guess it's too soon to speculate about a 30 second clip.