The Walking Dead: Embarrassment and Ads

Was that groan from a zombie or a viewer?
"It Stinks!" - Jay Sherman, The Critic, S01E01




Well, you know The Walking Dead is in trouble when Father Gabriel is left in charge.

Last night, the sixth season of AMC's The Walking Dead concluded, along with a plethora of viewers patience with the show. In all of the misguided season finales and plot arcs that this show has gone through, last night's 90 minute finale "Last Day on Earth" has got to be at the top of the list. The one redeeming quality of this extended bore was that Rick didn't become a lumberjack at the end, though to be honest, at least it would have changed the status quo.

The previous most offensive decision on TWD
The problem with this entire half season was that it was obvious where we were headed. Right from the time that the Hilltop and The Saviors were introduced, whether or not you're a comic reader, you knew exactly where this season was ending. If it wasn't ending here, we would have met Negan a long time ago, and the plot would have actually moved somewhere over the course of the last five or so hours. Instead, we watched episode upon episode of nonsensical plots such as Carol's departure and filler episodes, like when Maggie and Carol were captured by the only three female Saviors in the 300+ person group. We all knew where we would end, but the course to actually get there was filled with nothingness. And, once we actually arrived, all we were given was an atrocious cliffhanger that has no actual reason to be there.

Let's begin at the end of last week's episode, in which Dwight, a lieutenant of Negan, shot Daryl, closing out the episode in black and saying, "He'll be alright." Not only was this yet another fakeout death, but the writers apparently forgot that this even was a cliffhanger going into the finale. When we finally saw Daryl again, he was bloodied, but all of zero seconds were spent explaining the ostensibly shocking events of the previous week. All this outlines to us is that Daryl being shot was nothing but a ploy to run up viewership in the finale, rather than an actual plot point. Kind of reminds me of another nonsensical cliffhanger ending - but we'll get there.

In the actual finale, though it was extended to 90 minutes, about 80 of those minutes were spent on:
1. An RV backing up away from similar roadblocks.
2. Advertisements!
3. Bad Morgan/Carol plot.
Indeed, there was absolutely no reason for this episode to be 90 minutes long. Rick and the remaining members of the group running into Saviors on the road was supposed to build up a feeling of dread, that for the first time Rick had been outsmarted and outnumbered, but due to logistical issues, most of this fell flat. For one, we never had any idea how capable the Saviors were. A few episodes ago, they were idiotic thugs with foul mouths who were easily dispatched by Rick and co. Suddenly, now, they're un-killable and ridiculously smart, setting up a perfect perimeter around Alexandria and the Hilltop. Additionally, we have no idea how many Saviors there truly are. When our "heroes" invaded the Savior compound, they gunned down at least fifty, if not more. From there, countless Saviors were killed on the road and in other small skirmishes. In the finale, there seems to be hundreds more - enough to roadblock everywhere in the area. I get that Rick is outgunned here, but just how many Saviors are there?

On the road to the final scene, most of the dialogue feels quite shoehorned into existence, with Rick frequently talking to a Savior lieutenant played by Steven Ogg. Though Ogg did a good enough job in the guest starring role, the conversations, revolving around the episode title, "Last Day on Earth," felt forced, as if the writers were trying to be creepy and create a mood when all it did was shove themes down our throat.

Ride With Norman Reedus: the new most offensive decision of AMC
At the same time, our B story follows Morgan and Carol in yet another badly written plotline. A few episodes ago, Carol left Alexandria with nothing but a note because she didn't want to kill people anymore. Instead of having a rational conversation about this, or instead of the creative team slowly building up to Carol's departure after fleshing out the psychology, she just left. After departing, Carol immediately was forced to go back on her reason for leaving, as she guns down a group of Saviors after only a few hours. One of these men doesn't die and stalks her. Meanwhile, Morgan goes on horseback, only a gun and a stick to accompany him, to retrieve Carol. He finally finds her and, in a predictable turn of events, is forced to shoot the stalker Savior in order to save Carol, thus breaking his Eastman-influenced philosophy. Once again, this could have been done well had it been nuanced. Morgan's morals were forced into being broken, something that should have been powerful. Carol left her post-apocalyptic family, something that should have been heartbreaking. Instead, it felt like filler plot to take up time while we waited for the arrival of Negan. In the end, a group of men in odd garb helped them out, a cliffhanger that could have been interesting had there been any more buildup or reason for the two characters to be on this ridiculous quest.

And then, we get to the ending. The introduction to Negan. The reason that so many fans, including Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall, just quit the show altogether. Once we've seen the RV back up multiple times, Rick and the group finally get surrounded by Saviors, a scene that, for the first time in the entire episode, did what it was supposed to do. For the first time, we realize just how screwed Rick is. Soon, Steven Ogg has all of our protagonists on their knees, including those captured last week... including Daryl Dixon, who, I suppose, survived the gunshot wound just fine, seeing as how the show didn't even remember it had happened. After a brief villainous speech, Ogg announces, "Let's meet the Man!"

Out comes Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The arch villain whom we have building up to for eight hours announces that it's about to be "Pee-Pee pants city!" I presume this was more threatening in the comic books, but in the show, it just seems childish. I'll give the show this: casting wise, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was outstanding. Even with mediocre writing and a terrible episode to introduce him, Morgan still managed to be charismatic and threatening. Much as we'll all look back on Negan's introduction with distaste, points must be given where they deserve.

Perhaps it just translated better in the comics. 
The big bad then says he's going to kill one of Rick's group as an example which, given how many Saviors Rick has murdered, actually seems fairly lenient. He decides to do eeny meeny miney moe and after picking a target, the camera cuts to said target's point of view, meaning we have no idea who it was. It's a cliffhanger far worse than Daryl's gunshot or Glenn and the dumpster. Really, it was just misguided and silly. Not only has this royally pissed off every Walking Dead fan out there, but it is also just a poor writing decision. Even with the lame nature of the episode, having Negan brutally beat a beloved member of the group to death in front of all of their friends would have been a powerful way to end a season. It would have made the title make sense (it actually was someone's last day on Earth,) and it would have proved to us that Rick is no longer in command. Instead, we have a cliffhanger that, come next year, will be resolved in the first five minutes of season seven. There was literally zero reason for this other than to try and run up viewership for the next season just to see who died.

No - I won't say I'm done with the show. However, I am very close to it. The entirety of season six has been a creative mess, and unless season seven can give a herculean effort to recover, it seems like The Walking Dead has officially jumped the shark. Besides, at this point, I'm assumed whoever Negan chose to kill just crawled under a dumpster and survived anyway.

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