“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by its toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. My mother told me to pick the very best…and you are it.”

It was a day that Walking Dead fans knew would come eventually. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was introduced, and played out the iconic scene from the comic, brutally killing one of Rick’s group upon his first arrival after playing a game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe to select his victim.

Throughout the second half of this season, Walking Dead fans were wondering when Negan would be introduced, as he had been teased at for quite some time. We didn’t see the man until the last scene of the finale of season 6.

The 90-minute finale starts out with Morgan continuing his search for Carol, who went missing after realizing that she didn’t want to kill anymore. He finds a horse, and goes riding off to find her. Unfortunately, the one remaining Savior that Carol tried to kill is also trying to find her.

We cut to a man running through the woods, trying to get away from a whistling group. We then return to Alexandria, where Carl is talking to Enid, who wants to go out with the group. However, Carl won’t let her, so he locks her in a closet. The group piles into the RV to get Maggie to the Hilltop group so she can see a doctor.

Finally, after riding for some time, Morgan finds Carol and helps to clean up and wrap her wound. Throughout these cuts to our beloved cast, we see a group of Saviors tormenting a man. They talk about making an example out of him, to show what will happen to Rick and the group if they keep taking on Negan’s group.

The RV group continues to try and use any other roads leading to Hilltop, but they are all blocked off from the Saviors. One of the roads is blocked by “Red Rover” walkers and the group kills them and manages to get through, only to be stopped by logs blocking the road. They make a plan to get around.

While this is happening, Carol manages to get away from Morgan, but at a price. The Savior finds her and begins to shoot her in the arms and legs, planning to watch her bleed out. While on the edge of our seats, Morgan comes out and begs the Savior to stop, that it doesn’t have to end like this. But, before the Savior can kill Carol, Morgan shoots him six times. A few minutes later, a new group finds them and offers them help.

Rick and the group decide that Eugene would continue driving the truck while the others try to get Maggie to Hilltop on foot. This, however, doesn’t quite work out for them, as they find themselves surrounded by Saviors after only a bit of walking. They get down on their knees and are reunited with Daryl, Rosita, Glenn, and Michonne. Then, Negan makes his appearance.

While everyone thought that they would see Negan kill one of the beloved cast members with his bat, Lucille, it turns out that we only see him killing the person as if we are the person. We won’t find out who Negan killed until next season.

This finale was definitely a different one than the others. It seemed almost too slow at the beginning to be a Walking Dead finale, although all of us who know what Negan would eventually do were on the edge of our seats.

However, even with the feeling of dread, the episode seemed to be going slower than usual, up until the very end. While this can be a good thing in certain cases, it just didn’t seem to fit with the fast-paced episodes we’ve been getting throughout this season.

While I do have a love-hate relationship with cliffhangers, this particular one is not the greatest. Yes, the writers have said that the episode was supposed to be Rick-centered and that showing the person that was killed would have made the episode more about them, but it just didn’t feel right.
The Walking Dead is an incredible show with an amazing cast. This episode just wasn’t one of their best. However, I am looking forward to next season’s first episode, where we will hopefully find closure with whomever has died. Until then, we just have to speculate and hope that our favorite character isn’t the one on the receiving end of Lucille’s torment.