Has ‘The Walking Dead’ Finally Gone Too Far? Not On Your Life!

WARNING SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD AHEAD

I have just finished watching The Walking Dead’s Season 7 premiere. I put it off for a week to avoid the gruesome, unpleasant, inevitable outcome we all knew was coming: one of the show’s main characters was to be beaten to death before our eyes, courtesy of new villain Negan’s barbed-wire covered baseball bat Lucille.

I should say, not everyone knew what was coming, but I did. Full disclosure: I’m the type of guy who reads the last page of a book a chapter in, I look up spoilers from the source material – in this case The Walking Dead comic book and The Spoiling Dead Fans Facebook group (which broke the news about who died a few weeks back). So I was prepared, but you know, like getting a flu shot at the doctors, knowing it’s coming doesn’t make it hurt less. Mostly, I’m just glad that it’s over. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season, which if we’re lucky, will be just as good as the premiere.

Fans of The Walking Dead comic book know this scene originally played out with Negan killing Glenn Rhee, one of the show’s genuine good guys, who struggled with the moral implications of the new zombie world order, even when he succumbed to its dog-eat-dog code of behavior. Steven Yeun’s commanding portrayal of Glenn made him one of the most likable characters in a show where even the heroes do terrible things to stay alive. As they like to do, The Walking Dead’s creators upended his death, by making Abraham Ford Negan’s victim. Michael Cudlitz seemed born to play the gruff yet hilarious former military man, which also made him a fan favorite.

As Negan pounds Abraham’s skull into tomato sauce, we hear every sickening wet sticky squish. We see the horror of Rick’s Survivors. We feel it ourselves. And like Daryl, we want to jump up and punch Negan’s lights out. But The Walking Dead isn’t done making us suffer. In fact, just getting to this point — about 15 minutes in — has already been torture as we know the deed has been done via flashbacks, but we don’t know to whom (well, unless you hunted down the spoilers like myself).

Doubling down on gruesome, heartbreaking deaths, Glenn then becomes Negan’s second victim, collateral damage for Daryl’s emotional outburst. Making one of the other Survivors culpable for Glenn’s death makes it that much more unbearable. And then the fun really starts, as Negan systematically breaks Rick down into submission, yanking him around by his collar like a petulant school boy, toying with him, making him play zombie fetch and ultimately reducing him to a gurgling, snot-coming-out-of his nose, crying mess, fully submitting himself to Negan’s unequivocal dominance.

It is a bracing, unsettling, disturbing episode, which has become kind of de rigueur for The Walking Dead’s season premieres. But, yes, this was worse, especially after fans were held hostage over the summer, with last season’s “pee pee pants city” finale. In its wake, some fans have said they’re done with the show, that the show has finally gone too far, tugged at too many heartstrings, shown too much gore and too little regard for it’s fan’s feelings.

I say phooey.

To quote a friend: “Sorry your zombie apocalypse show is too violent.” In regards to the brutality of the deaths, I have to ask, what is going too far on this show? We’ve seen people eaten, split in half, shot, cut up, and have their faces literally ripped in half. Hell, in this episode alone, Rick hangs on a walker until his head pops off and then he rips another one’s inside’s out through his throat. I think if your justification is that zombies being disemboweled is somehow more acceptable than living humans having their brains bashed out, you need to examine what it is that’s really bothering you.

The whole point of The Walking Dead, the comic and the television show, is that everyone dies. People you love. People you hate. Strong people. Weak people. And children? And children. “We are the walking dead,”as Rick memorably said, in both iterations of the series. The entrance of Negan and the deaths of Glenn and Abraham drive home the other important message of the show: in the apocalypse the greatest danger isn’t necessarily the zombies, but other humans. Let’s be real here, Rick and his crew have done some pretty foul shit over the course of seven seasons as well.

That’s what makes Negan such a great character; He beats Rick at his own game. He’s tougher, smarter, funnier — and bastard that he is — more charming. Veteran actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is outstanding in the role, relishing every one-liner and look of menace. “This must be hard for you, right?,” he says at one point to Rick, “I mean, you have been King Shit for so long.” And he’s right. Down with Rick. Up with Negan. Yes, he’s a little bit more of a dick about it, and right now he’s on the opposite side of characters we’ve grown to love over seven seasons, but in many ways, in one episode, The Walking Dead is now “The Negan Show.” And frankly, I can’t wait to see where he’s driving that bloody camper to next.

[Where to Stream The Walking Dead]

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician who still misses Tyreese and hopes more actors from ‘The Wire’ get cast on ‘The Walking Dead.’ Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.