Why The Walking Dead Still Has Me Hooked

By Laury Scarbro

I just spent the last 90 minutes watching The Walking Dead‘s Season 6 finale. To say that I am shocked would be a complete understatement. We’ve spent the entirety of the second half of this season awaiting the arrival of the notorious Negan, with hints of who this man is and why we should fear him and fear for our most beloved characters should they come face to face with him. A cliffhanger was not unexpected, but the acting in this episode? Some of the best, most realistic, and visceral I have ever seen from a television show.

I adore Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I have not seen him in a role yet where I haven’t loved him. My favorite version of him is the often-absent father of Sam and Dean Winchester on Supernatural. I feel like he will do an amazing job bringing this character to life. Will I hate him for whoever it is that he has killed? Probably. But that’s what a good villain does.

There isn’t a single character kneeling in those woods that I want to see killed. Rosita, I could probably do without, but the rest of them? That’s an absolute, unequivocal NO. Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, and Abraham are all embarking on something new and hope-inspiring. Rick and Michonne have a budding romance, and by the gods, they deserve some happiness. Eugene is finally coming into his own as a survivor rather than being forced to rely on those around him to get by.

Don’t even THINK about touching Daryl; I don’t care if he doesn’t exist in the graphic novels. He’s such a vital character now that I don’t believe that the show could continue at the same level if he were no longer part of it. Aaron didn’t have to be there, and yet, he sacked up and joined the merry band of survivors in trying to get Maggie to Hilltop.

Rumor has it that it’s someone from the original crew, narrowing it down to Rick, Carl, Glenn, Daryl or perhaps even Maggie. I’m not mad that it ended on a cliffhanger, and I think that the sheer volume of people saying they will stop watching the show because of it is pretty much ridiculous. This was one of the best executions of building tension and anxiety that I have seen in a long time.

Yes, it was a bit drawn out, and yes it’s going to suck having to wait six months to find out who got treated like a human whack-a-mole game, but I believe that the payoff will be worth it. I’ll probably be sobbing like a newborn child, but that’s precisely what makes a show like this so great: it’s ability to draw you in and make you feel something real, despite being fiction.

So, here I sit, already staring at the calendar counting down the days until October. My biggest question is: Why the blue hell do the evil villains on this show have to whistle?