The buildup to the big scene we all knew was coming was absolutely fantastic. Every time they round a corner on the road and see a different kind of blockade, the tension mounts. Rick is being corralled. For the first time in a while, he and his group are 100% powerless and no hope is in sight. The goodbye scene for Eugene's attempted suicide mission was emotionally powerful, and when the whistling started up and sent them all dashing straight into the Savior gathering, my breath caught. Grade-A stuff, no question.
Morgan and Carol's interludes in bumfuck nowhere were fine, I guess, but dragging and distracting from the point of the episode. I honestly thought Carol might die to that Savior (she's still in a terribly bad way and very near death), but Morgan finally breaks his one rule and shoots the asshole dead. And then the armor guys on horses show up. TIme for the motherfucking Kingdom and Ezekiel and maybe somehow the tiger or whatever animal they'll have to change it into because the tiger cannot work in live action. So that was really the only point of Carol's and Morgan's arcs here; the teasing of the Kingdom. Awesome, but did this episode really need to be stretched to 90 minutes just for that?
... Then they finally unveil the big man, Negan himself. Negan Negan Negan. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is as fantastic as everyone expected. He looks torn straight off the page, he carries Lucille like he popped out of the womb with that bat in his hand, and he injects every line with the rough, slimy charisma that makes Negan so likably hatable. To everyone's intense disappointment, he doesn't say "fuck" -- I'm curious whether we'll ever get to see the version of the scene AMC shot that contained all of the cussing, and I'm equally curious why "fuck" is the worst swear word of all time according to censors -- but that aside, he's pitch perfect. He embodies Negan, and he is without a doubt going to be great in the seasons to come; in this one scene, he's already better than the Governor.
Props to the other actors, too. The fear they exhibit looks completely genuine when they're facing Negan down (or up, I guess). I'm watching Talking Dead now, and apparently they looked like that even when the camera was on the opposite end of the row. They sell the fear. They sell that there is
Something To Fear.
And then... "Eeny. Meeny. Miney. Moe."
And the clock ticks down.
And the rhyme runs out.
It is the best scene in the show's run, bar none. And it would have been one of the best scenes of this television year.
Had they not done the worst thing they could have done. The thing everyone was screaming at Scott Gimple not to do. The thing I freaked out over a couple of posts back. They switch to first person and don't reveal who it is. They are forcing fans to get into #WhoIsIt.
The big onscreen death of the season was fucking DENISE.
The only praise I will give this decision is that they don't cut it off right away, and it looks and sounds fucking brutal. There are a multitude of swings caught from the unidentified character's perspective, and they're heavy, and they're brutal, and they're wet, and they're Negan. Seeing it play out for real is not going to be a happy affair for anyone.
But you know what would have been better? Showing us the goddamned swings how they're meant to be shown.
Because now Season 7 is going to start with a major character's head caving in, and we'll have none of that buildup, none of that rawness, none of that horror. It'll be a popcorn betting game about who's right and who's wrong. This could have been the Red Wedding. This could have been Hannibal stabbing Will. This could have been the legendary moment of suffering that everyone talks about, everyone cries over, everyone is left forever scarred by. Instead, we have ninety minutes of buildup and filler capped by momentary excitement that fizzles out in the end.
What a waste. What a goddamn waste.