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The Walking Dead Season 7 Fall Finale: Fans Celebrate a Big Reunion Despite Deaths

by | December 12, 2016 | Comments

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So many stories, so little time. But in a lot of ways, The Walking Dead fall finale wrapped up many of those stories Sunday night and gave fans a satisfying conclusion for the first half of season 7.

SPOILERS AHEAD!
STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN EPISODE 8, SEASON 7 OF THE WALKING DEAD

The 90-minute “Hearts Still Beating” had viewers on the edge of their seats, because we all knew there would be blood. We just didn’t know whose death would bring tears to Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) sad blue eyes.

For a minute there, it looked like villainous Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan ― who, by the way, won a Critics’ Choice Award for the role on Sunday night) might kill Carl (Chandler Riggs) or Judith (Chloe and Sophia Garcia-Frizzi), because of all the time he spent in Rick’s house casually shaving his beard, making jokes, and cooking up dinner. But ultimately, he seemed to enjoy the awkward tension and the house’s many amenities, and some fans kind of liked Negan’s usurping approach.

Others wanted Carl to remember that he wanted to kill Negan in the first place and try again. And then there are those who fretted over Carl’s health.

And:

But the episode’s stakes ultimately proved higher than Carl’s exposed eye.

Rick and Aaron (Ross Marquand) fought a horrifyingly convincing lake full of zombies; Richard (Karl Makinen) tried unsuccessfully to convince Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol (Melissa McBride) to tell Ezekiel (Khary Payton) that the Kingdom needs to proactively attack the Saviors; Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Sasha (Sonequa Martin), and Enid (Katelyn Nacon) made new friends and pissed off Gregory (Xander Berkeley) over at the Hilltop; and Daryl (Norman Reedus) overkilled Fat Joey (Joshua Hoover) before he and Jesus (Tom Payne) escaped the Saviors’ settlement.

Meanwhile, Spencer (Austin Nichols) tried to ingratiate himself with Negan in Alexandria.

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And Michonne (Danai Gurira), on a quest to take down Negan on her own, rode shotgun with a free-range Savior.

With all these storylines unfolding at once, fans seemed most grateful and frightened by the zombies in the lake, especially when it seemed like Aaron might die.

But more importantly:

Rick and Aaron’s watery adventure reaped a lot of goods to give Negan, but it also introduced a shadowy mystery man who watched the pair as they packed up their truck and split. Yikes!

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Is this guy with the weird boots a friend or a foe? Guess we’ll find out in February.

More than anything, fans wanted to see what it would take for Rick to be Rick again and fight back. Thankfully, it happened, but it involved a lot of death ― Spencer and Olivia (Ann Mahoney) ― and loss. Negan nabbed Eugene (Josh McDermitt), cut Rosita’s (Christian Serratos) pretty face, and took all of the supplies that Rick, Aaron, and Spencer brought in.

To make matters worse, a couple of Negan’s henchmen beat up Aaron really badly. So by the time Michonne came home ready to get that old loving feeling back with her Sheriff boo, Rick had already decided it was time to fight and Twitter rejoiced.

And this:

As for Rosita’s crappy shot, which ended up inside Lucille instead of Negan, and Spencer’s gruesome death ― yeah, fans had thoughts on that scene too.

Even Spencer’s foray into zombie life turned out to be sad and short-lived, because Rick killed him as soon as he turned. Rick had bigger fish to fry, and when he reunited with Daryl and the gang at the Hilltop, the reunion fired up fans who are ready for the gang to move onward and upward in the second half of season 7 ― and lay some serious hurt on homicidal Negan and his alt-Dead Savior drones.

Oh, and Rick got his gun back too! Yay!

The Walking Dead season 7 returns Sunday Feb. 12 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC

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