The Walking Dead S07E01 Review: Lucille the Vampire Bat

The Walking Dead, Season 7, Episode 1: The Day Will Come When You Won't Be

We're back with this! I suppose I'll just continue doing this because I'm actually giving the seventh season a whirl. We'll see how regularly I can get these episode reviews out.

So, yeah. I didn't have to wait that long between season 6 and season 7 mainly because I'm binge-watching this shit (and even then, it took me quite some time since I last reviewed Walking Dead), but while the premier episode to the seventh season of the Walking Dead is miles better than the sorry excuse of a season finale we got for season six, it's still not quite perfect. Still, imagine if this was the season finale instead of what we got. I wouldn't have to rant that long.

That said, this episode is a lot more forgiveable. It was a forty-minute exercise of showing us just how big of a dickwad Negan is, after all the trouble we spent last season to build him up. We get a bit of an anachronistic storytelling where for a moment we see Negan dragging Rick into the RV for some mano-a-mano personal chat, all the while Rick's flashing back to the faces of every single person present, leaving us once more in suspense of who's dead, though the prolonging of this cliffhanger, arguably, works better within an episode where the answer's given to us within ten minutes instead of six months. All the while, we have Negan telling Rick to think about who else he can lose with sadistic glee. 

And then, well, the death scene. We get a reprise of the chilling eenie meenie miney moe bit, before Negan whacks Abraham to death. Which... was a bit disappointing if I'm being honest. Abraham is relatively a longer-running character compared to someone like Aaron, but other than having a funny accent, being one of the few badasses in the crew and having that weird romantic storyline last season, he's not as important as, say, Rick, Carl, Daryl, Michonne or Maggie. Or Glenn.

Glenn's death is inarguably more important than Abraham's, and the fake-out that 'only' a second-stringer bit the dust ends up going to get worse and worse. Daryl attacks Negan, gets pinned down, and Negan decides to kill a second person after a bit of a monologue... and unlike Abraham's long drawn-out selection, Negan whacking Glenn in the head was sudden, brutal and a huge gut-punch. From a writing standpoint, it's certainly well done, and if nothing else last season's Glenn fake-out made me particularly unprepared for this moment. The death was suitably gory, with a particular close up (and Negan himself pointing it out) having one of Glenn's eyes pop out. And all the while Negan is showing far, far more childish energy, cracking bad jokes about how his bat is a vampire bat and stuff like that. 

Drawing Negan's mental torture of Rick over an entire episode is actually a smart move too, because the audience gets to see just how broken Rick is at the end of it all. Unlike Carol's badly-written, abrupt heel-face-turn into pacifism last season that went unexplained, Rick's horror as he's forced to basically bark like a dog and go get master's axe back for him, and that scene where he is forced to chop of Carl's arm or everyone else dies is amazingly chilling. Negan stops Rick before Carl becomes a veritable pirate, but still, the damage is done. Everyone's depressed, tries to vow vengeance but are clearly beaten. Also Negan kidnaps Daryl.

So... yeah. Negan's performance was extremely energetic and easily the highlight of the show, although there's scant little but the shock value at seeing one of the main characters get unceremoniously murdered in the most brutal fashion... and 'wow, shock value!' moments have well worn out their welcome at this point. Points for them having a decent premiere episode to fix the problems they've made throughout season six, and making Negan so psychotically entertaining, but more than before I really hope we're getting somewhere beyond an endless cycle of hope and despair because at this point when I care more about the hilariously over-the-top charismatic villain more than I do any of the protagonists it's definitely not doing things right.

Can I also just add that as much as the Negan and Rick stuff are done well, the aftermath after Negan leaves is just... blah? In particular, the bit with the random flashback to 'oh, you think you'll be having a summer picnic on a table' or some such imagine spot? That was particularly stupid.