This was an outstanding episode. It doesn't make up for the movie-length - that's the length of a movie - finale, where ten percent of plot occurred in comparison to this 40 minute episode. Negan is my new favourite character, despite the fact that he killed two likeable (but ultimately expendable) characters (plus Glenn implausibly escaping death only to see Maggie die would have been tragic, him surviving death just to see himself immediately die is anti-climactic and makes me think the show doesn't remotely plan ahead, given they would not have resurrected him if they knew he was going to die ten episodes later), purely because something is finally happening in this show for the first time in years and considering Rick's crew murdered a bunch of his people unprovoked and in their sleep, Negan's even justified in doing so. Maybe not justified in doing so gleefully but that's what makes it entertaining. I wasn't surprised by who died but seeing and expecting are two different things and that was a brutal scene. Obviously, as many have pointed out, it would have been a punchier ending to the season to see Abraham get Lucilled and then have the twist at the beginning of the premiere of Negan not liking Daryl and Rick's reaction and killing Glenn because people would be expecting a timejump over something like that. The way they did the cliffhanger, people were expecting everything and were thus not surprised when a couple of them happened. Good cliffhangers ask 'what will happen next?' not 'what just happened?' The only death the cliffhanger would have justified is Rick, because it would have kickstarted anarchy within the group without a leader, or literally everyone but Rick, just to destroy him permanently. This way, things plot-wise will be back to normal in two episodes, only with Negan looming over them. Which just leaves things character-wise, which they hopefully don't brush past to get back to status-quo.
Didn't mean to go back to bitching about the season 6 finale but did I mention that was a movie where literally nothing progressed? And making the deaths a flashback just doubled down on that particular copout. That whole cliche of a hero only being as good as their villain has never been more true because liking and fearing Negan has made me actually like or at least tolerate Rick for the first time in forever. He's still a complete moron, don't get me wrong, but seeing him break was actually a really impressive way of making him interesting again. Negan screwing with him the whole episode and wearing him down was that weird combination of joy and suspense. It's great to finally have an engaging character in Negan. Hopefully they don't turn him down a few notches like they did with Carol starting to feel guilt and Abe getting thrown in the most boring love triangle since... you know, this show has had a lot of boring love triangles for a show about dead cannibals now that I think about it. Of course it did give us the sick burn that's come back to bite him, since there's no chance he'll be the last man on Earth either. Too soon? The post office started it!