Despite the fact that show runner Scott Gimple promised some “hard left turns” from the comic books this year, almost anyone paying attention to Walking Dead chatter expected that a major and beloved character would die in the Season 6 finale. Maybe it wouldn’t be the same character who dies in the comic books, but in order to pay off their promise that Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the worst villainThe Walking Dead has ever seen, the writers had to give his arrival some major, lethal consequences. It’s been a season-long guessing game. Would the beloved character who Negan kills in the comic books be the one to die in the finale? Or would The Walking Dead writers slot someone else into that place? Turns out, they did neither.
Overly-invested fans of The Walking Dead have suspected for a little while now that the season finale would end on a cliffhanger. Series star Lauren Cohan said as much a few weeks ago. And a month ago Andrew Lincoln dropped a big hint on the Empire podcast saying that the finale made him “angry and then I sort of felt sick. I felt nauseous. I felt frustrated and all these kind of things and I think it’s exactly what we hope the audience will feel as well. We’ve never done what we do in this season finale . . . I think it’s very clear.” He’s right about everything—especially that they’ve “never done” this before—except when it comes to clarity.
Following up on the tone they set with Glenn’s mid-season fake-out death, The Walking Dead writers have constructed another puzzle for their viewers to unravel. (Hey! A major character death mystery in the season finale certainly kept Game of Thrones a hot topic of conversation in the off-season. Can you blameThe Walking Dead for wanting to get in on that Jon Snow action?) Andrew Lincoln says that the finale cliffhanger “woke me up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t go back to sleep I was so angry and frustrated.” If you, like Lincoln, are tossing and turning thanks to The Walking Dead, here are solid some theories as to who met Lucille in season finale. Some light comic book spoilers to follow.
