![the walking dead season 8 episode 1 reddit the walking dead season 8 episode 1 reddit](https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/the_walking_dead_season_8_dvd_cover.jpg)
![the walking dead season 8 episode 1 reddit the walking dead season 8 episode 1 reddit](https://assets.skybound.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/21105642/1009feat.jpg)
The first is mysterious: we see Rick with a long gray beard, lying in a bed that looks a lot like a coffin. Making the timeline even more confusing are the flash-forwards, both featuring Rick. Photo by Jackson Lee Davis / AMC Old man Rick and the mysterious flash-forwards It ends up watering down the inevitable climax before we even get there, because no matter how many times Jesus, Maggie, and Rick tell one another it’s just “one last fight,” viewers know better. The relationship between the Saviors and the rest of the communities clearly hit its breaking point at the end of last season, yet it still feels uncharacteristic for The Walking Dead to immediately jump into a sequence that plays like the conclusion of a story arc when the season is only beginning. But conversations between Rick, Maggie, and Gabriel convey that Rick leads not by force or authority, but through collaboration focused on a common goal. Even weirder is a jingoistic speech from Rick, claiming everything around them is “theirs, by right.” Why that’s somehow better than Negan’s pitch, which boils down to “because I’m the strongest,” isn’t clear. It eventually leads to an assault on Negan and the Saviors, but the time issues make the 30-minute buildup feel a bit disjointed. Eventually, after a telling scene where Dwight feeds Daryl intel via messages tied to crossbow bolts, the context is set: events are happening not long after the season 7 finale, but the state of the world hasn’t really changed. It’s a bit confusing at first, because The Walking Dead doesn’t make it clear whether any time has passed since last season, or whether tensions with the Saviors have actually diminished. Much of “Mercy” revolves around carefully arranged shots showing Rick, Maggie, and Ezekiel helping their respective groups arm up to “end it once and for all.” Meanwhile, Carol, Daryl, and Tara prepare to entrap and herd a zombie horde. Photo by Gene Page / AMC Preparing for war For a while, at least.) So here we are, one year later, with “Mercy,” the season 8 premiere and the beginning of what we’re told is a brutal war for the future of this small slice of post-apocalyptic Virginia. (It also made my colleague Bryan Bishop quit the show. The violence was over the top, the delivery was awful, and Negan’s ham-fisted introduction sent the entire show into a narrative and ratings tailspin it’s never recovered from.
![the walking dead season 8 episode 1 reddit the walking dead season 8 episode 1 reddit](https://tvline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/the-walking-dead-season-11-episode-5-josh-hamilton-lance.jpg)
We know how that ended: the show closely followed the comics, as it does with most of its weighty choices, by killing off Glenn in brutal fashion, alongside the more inconsequential murder of Abraham. In last year’s season 7 premiere, The Walking Dead delivered perhaps its most jarring and controversial episode, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” Showrunner Scott Gimple had to deliver on the cheap, and still unforgivable, cliffhanger ending of season 6, in which viewers were told to wait half a year to find out who Negan would kill. Let’s see whether The Walking Dead can turn him around. But while we’ve glimpsed the many faces of our main character, Negan has thus far remained hopelessly shallow. We’ve had it bashed into our skulls that Negan symbolizes the dysfunction and depravity of the post-apocalypse, while Rick embodies humanity’s hope. A score of 10 means he’s the best, most complex villain we’ve ever seen a score of 0 means he’s pretty much the same ol’ Negan he’s always been. We’ll look at all the traits a villain is supposed to exemplify and excel at, including those we detest, and boil it down into one single score on what we are calling the Negan - o - meter™. As played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan has always been violent, but otherwise, he’s stubbornly remained a comic book thug, never entirely becoming the nuanced character the show so sorely needs.Įach week, I’ll be analyzing the show through its presentation of Negan: how he acts, how he delivers his bad jokes and menacing threats, and most importantly, how his character develops in contrast with our supposedly virtuous heroes. For us here at The Verge - forever critics of big bad guy Negan and his man-baby antics - it’s an opportunity to examine just how effective the show i s at creating a complex villain. The Walking Dead is back, kicking off its eighth season with a bloodier, more political story arc that will likely track the comic’s “All Out War” saga.