‘Walking Dead’ season 7 set the stage for ‘All Out War’

Joe Greenberg, Advertising Representative

On Halloween 2010, American Movie Classics (AMC) debuted their new show “The Walking Dead” based on the comic book of the same name. Zombie fans rejoiced as they now had a weekly television series they could sink their teeth into. Fast forward seven years, the show has become AMC’s most popular show, the No. 1 network show watched by adults, and the No. 3 most watched network television show overall. Those numbers even are after the drop-off in viewership after the deaths of Glenn and Abraham in the season seven premier.

Yes, there were plenty of ups and downs in season seven all of which were to serve a greater purpose. That purpose was to get to “All Out War,” not only just to get there but to make the impending war mean something. Season seven set the pins up, and season eight is going to knock them down. If you’ve seen the season eight trailer or read the comic, you know there’s a lot going on, and Gabriel seems to be in quite the sticky situation. Aside from the Negan/Gabriel intro, there seems to be just a bunch of clips strung together which looks pretty epic. I’m definitely digging the Irish style music during the last half, it reminds me of the Boondock Saints, and it gives the trailer an awesome vibe.

During season seven we saw many characters fall and rise. Rick especially had his morale beaten to a pulp. After being outnumbered, outgunned, watching Glenn and Abraham get beaten to death, and almost being forced to chop his son’s hand off, Negan brutally forced Rick into believing that he was in charge and that there was no way to change it. Rick then spent the first half of season seven getting emasculated by Negan at every turn. Rick finally decided enough is enough when Negan allowed Olivia, who is the most innocent person on the show aside from baby Judith, to be killed.

In the second half of the season we saw Rick slowly return to his old self, meaning he gathered weapons, tried to forge alliances, and got an inside man, Dwight, in Negan’s camp. Things were looking up for Rick and the Alexandrians until they were double crossed by the scavengers. That’s going to make for an interesting dynamic between those three groups, and I’m curious to see how it plays out over the course of the upcoming season. I think the scavengers are going to be a secondary antagonist. I see them being the challenge that’s overcome during the mid-season finale.

Some characters didn’t rise, they just fell, such as Eugene. It’s hard for me to guess his ongoing arch because he went back to being a coward so convincingly. He made his choice, and I think in season eight he’s going to try to jump ship back to Alexandria once Rick starts taking the upper hand, and Rick is not going to have it. Eugene is likely a goner, and I’m not upset about it.

On the other hand, season seven saw some characters stand strong in the face of adversity, such as Daryl and Carl. Daryl was anything but on “Easy Street.” His mental health was tested by Negan and Dwight as they tried to break him down so they could build him back up to be used as a solider for them. Boy, that song “Easy Street” being blasted over and over again sure was a terrible thing to do to someone, and that’s where I would draw the line. If I had been in Daryl’s shoes, I would’ve been begging Negan to take a couple swings at my head. Later on in the season, Eugene can be seen jamming to the same song. This provided an uncharacteristic moment of comedy but also succeeded in making me dislike that cornflake Eugene even more.

It wouldn’t have been “The Walking Dead” without losing some beloved characters. Sasha went down in a clever way while trying to take Negan down with her. I like to think that was her reasoning anyway. Some would say that she did what she did because she didn’t want to be used as a bargaining chip, but I think she was trying to serve a greater purpose and she almost accomplished the goal. You can expect even more “thinning of the herd during the next season” according to Steven Ogg, who plays Simon on the show.

While the disappearance of Heath and Sherry isn’t too important to the story at this point, I think it will be down the road. I don’t think they’ll necessarily be addressed in season eight, but think Sherry might eventually end up becoming Alpha of the Whisperers and Heath could very well be the future Beta.

Which brings us to the main antagonist for season seven and eight: Negan. He made his anticipated debut at the end of season six, and he sure made quite an … impression at the beginning of season seven.

Over the course of the season, Negan did absolutely terrible things to everyone who crossed him, including his own people. The guy’s totally heinous and is everything the Governor wished he would’ve been. I’m interested to see what kind of plans he has for season eight. I cannot wait to see Rick and Negan go head to head. Rumor has it that we’re going to get a Negan backstory episode at some point this season.

Season seven also spent a lot of time expanding the universe within the show, as we were introduced to The Saviors, The Kingdom, Oceanside, and the Scavengers. What’s the reason for such an expansion? It’s simple, if you’re going to have a war, you’re going to need soldiers, and boy do they have soldiers!

Yes, the stage is certainly set for what should be an explosive season, tensions are high, and Alexandrians are hungry (for revenge).

I want to keep this a positive preview but it needs to be said, history shows us that for every half a season you can expect around two awesome episodes, two OK episodes, and four lame episodes. My hope is, as it is every other season, that they’ll deviate from that pattern because if they go any less than all out for “All Out War,” there’s going to be an all-out war between AMC and fans of the show.

AMC’s season eight preview already aired on Sept. 10. If you missed it, be sure to tune in to AMC on Oct. 22 for the season eight premiere, coincidently that episode will also mark the 100th episode of the series, so something big is bound to go down.