The Walking Dead's season seven premiere got off to a bloody start with some dire losses. We've finally witnessed the carnage wrought by Negan and Lucille, and the results were absolutely horrifying. If social media hasn't spoiled it for you already (which we're about to do right now, so there's your warning), Negan completely broke Rick Grimes down in just one episode. Daryl Dixon got abducted as a hostage, and beloved characters Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee exited with a pair of the goriest deaths in television history. Series lead Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) described the new "Big Bad," Negan, as "a brutal, beyond words psychopath" in an interview with TV Insider. Now that we've finally met him on the show, let's break down how we saw Abraham and Glenn's deaths coming and prove why Lincoln's description was true.
What originally happened in the comics
Matching what happened in the unforgettable 100th issue of The Walking Dead, the Saviors finally reveal that they overwhelmingly outnumber Rick and Alexandria's forces and easily outgun them during the season six finale. Continuing with the source material, the Saviors ambush Rick's group and kneel them all down. Negan finally appears, talks a whole lot of smack, randomly chooses a victim, and beats them to death with Lucille, his barb wire-covered baseball bat. In the comics, his victim was Glenn, who'd followed Rick and the group throughout every major adventure up until that point. On the show, Negan also picked a target at random, but we didn't find out who until the season seven premiere, where it turned out to be Abraham. In a massive twist, Negan reacted to Daryl's defiant punch by claiming a second victim, Glenn, who ended up dying nearly frame-for-frame the way he did in the comic.
Why did Negan choose Abraham?
"Taking it like a champ," Abraham Ford was the first cast member to meet Lucille. Season six established the mustachioed ginger's character a bit more, especially in terms of his relationships with Rosita and Eugene (with his random and hilarious quotes, like "Why are dingleberries brown?"). Abraham has been through a lot since we first met him. He lost his family, was let down by Eugene's save-the-world lie, almost died for a rocket launcher, left Rosita for Sasha, and thought about having kids with her. In the comics, Dwight kills Abraham with a crossbow. On the show, though, Denise received that fate, so Abraham was already living on borrowed time.
Sure, it seems Negan chose at random, but he happened to choose the strongest-looking member of the group, which may have been a calculated move to take Team Rick down a notch. Missing the arrow, making peace with Eugene, embracing a new lease on life, and giving a huge, defiant look to Negan during the season six finale were all the signs needed to predict that Abraham would be first at bat. We'll miss you, big guy.
If Daryl dies, we riot
Fans worldwide were worried that Daryl was going to get his brains bashed in by Lucille. Luckily, the beloved badass was only kidnapped by the Saviors as a hostage to keep Rick and his people in line. Unfortunately, all it will take is one act of defiance from the people of Alexandria for Daryl to die. Still, whispers that Negan may eventually kill Daryl are rampant, especially considering actor Norman Reedus has another AMC show on the docket, Ride With Norman Reedus, that may serve as a transitional series for hardcore fans of both Reedus and his character if he's killed off, and his biker show was already renewed for season two. Negan certainly has motive to kill Daryl, considering he knows the motorcycle-riding bad-boy-gone-good scorched a large group of Saviors with a bazooka.
The Walking Dead would probably never kill Daryl off facing a random zombie or raider, so if he were to die, it would ultimately be at the hands of the series' biggest villain. Dixon may have ducked Negan's first two swings, but you never know when Lucille will make a return.
Please, not Glenn!
The Walking Dead comic did it, so we always knew there was a chance of Glenn dying the same way. He just killed his first living humans in season six, which he lamented over greatly (despite them being bad guys). He also had a baby on the way. Based on how many times children end up with single parents on this show, we knew Negan was swinging for the fences when it came to this longtime character.
Steven Yeun lined up some outside projects when The Walking Dead would otherwise be filming, and The Hollywood Reporter noted his current contract with the series (that only lasted a year) ended with season six. The show certainly had enough Glenn-related bat imagery throughout the series to convince us he'd end up dancing with Lucille, and Yeun's short contract corroborated his character's death.
Think back to Terminus: remember how Glenn almost got whacked in the head with a baseball bat? He just happened to be the first member of Rick's group in line to be killed with a Louisville Slugger. It was an intentional nod to this storyline. The show certainly spelled it out for us over the past few seasons, but you can't strike out forever.
The show hinted at Glenn's fate when he looked up while raiding the Saviors' satellite base and saw some of Lucille and Negan's prior victims in a collection of Polaroid photos on the wall. While we were still in shock at Glenn's death, a Savior snapped a Polaroid of his corpse, likely to be another addition for the collage.
Since hearing his voice at the end of the series' first episode and seeing him save Rick from dying in a tank, Glenn has been the heart of The Walking Dead. We've seen him go from being the speedy guy the group would send for inventory runs to becoming a cornerstone of Alexandria. We cringed at every moment he looked death in the eye, especially during that alleyway scene when we thought he died alongside Nicholas. Glenn brought a lot of down-to-earth humanity that the group lost after the deaths of Hershel and Dale, which makes his loss even sadder. If there's one thing we can count on, Team Rick will eventually score some payback for their fallen comrades—just as long as Daryl doesn't die.
