Warning: Spoilers ahead from “The Walking Dead” Season 7 finale
It wouldn’t be a “Walking Dead” finale unless a major character got killed off, and in Sunday’s seventh season ender, that unlucky soul turned out to be the most obvious victim.
The writing had been on the wall for Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) for weeks now, not least of which because the actress has been cast in a lead role in the upcoming “Star Trek: Discovery” series on CBS All Access. At least the way she went out was unexpected. Still being held prisoner by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), she agrees to come work for his side as they head to Alexandria to bash in some skulls. Negan has the idea to transport Sasha there in a coffin, which he then unveils to Rick (Andrew Lincoln) as a way of bartering the group’s surrender.
Though Rick and his ragtag army are ready for the Saviors with their stolen guns and reinforced numbers, their plan hits a snag when Jadis (Pollyana McIntosh) and her junkyard-dwelling followers reveal themselves to be traitors, having negotiated a better deal with Negan to help his side. Their guns pointed at the Alexandrians, it looks like Negan has them beat again — until he opens the coffin and to reveal a zombie-fied Sasha, she having taken the poison pill Eugene (Josh McDermitt) gave to her in an act of sacrifice. She lunges for Negan’s throat, giving Rick & Co. the diversion they need to start firing off rounds at the Saviors.
Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) gets a shock from a zombie-fied Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green). Gene Page/AMC
Negan manages to escape Sasha’s bite, though he is not the only character to experience a brush with death in the episode. After Jadis pushes Rick off a platform, he’s forced to kneel next to his son Carl (Chandler Riggs) as Negan threateningly swings his barbed-wire bat, Lucille. Rick spouts some taunts, and it looks like we’re about to have a repeat of the season premiere’s head-bashing — when as soon as Negan raises his bat over Carl’s head, out leaps Shiva, King Ezekiel’s (Khary Payton) tiger. Yes, Ezekiel and the Kingdom and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and the Hilltop have arrived in the nick of time, and though Negan again manages to escape a tiger mauling, he high tails it out of Alexandria with the few Saviors still standing.
The final death fake-out of the episode happens with Michonne (Danai Gurira). While Rick and Carl were on their knees, she was in a struggle for her life on a balcony with one of Jadis’ followers. A piercing scream off-camera made it seem as though she’d lost that fight — however Rick eventually finds her very bloodied but still alive, the other woman having been the victim of the fall.
Though only Sasha ultimately met her end in the finale, the 85-minute episode also paid tribute to two characters lost in its Season 7 premiere: Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz). As Sasha debates what to do, she talks to Abraham in a dream sequence, who convinces her to fight for others rather than look out for herself, even if she has to put herself in danger in the process. In a narration at the end of the episode, as the Alexandrians hold a funeral for Sasha, Maggie explains to Rick that she decided the Hilltop had to join the fight because of Glenn, who’s baby she is carrying.
“Because Glenn chose to be there for you that day a long time ago, that was the decision that changed everything. It started with both of you, and it just grew,” she says. “All of this. To sacrifice for each other. To suffer, to stand, to grieve, to give, to love, to live. To fight for each other. Glenn made the decision, Rick. I was just following his lead.”
It’s a touching tribute to one of “The Walking Dead”s most beloved characters, whose death so rattled both fans and characters at the beginning of Season 7. And the Alexadrians are going to need reminding of Glenn’s lessons in the days to come, because their fight with Negan is far from over. Back at the Sanctuary, he tells his still sizeable group of followers, including Eugene, “We are going to war.”
But we’ll have to wait until October and Season 8 for that.
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