The Walking Dead returns to AMC airways this Sunday (February 12th), and this fly ass bitch could not be any more excited for it. Who can blame me!?!? Remember where this journey left off?
Shit – I actually don’t. Hold on, BRB.
Okay, looked it up. YEAH! Rick and Daryl are back at it! Getting ready to just ride through The Sanctuary on horseback shootin’ up every saloon along the way. Hellfire and brimstone. Blaze of glory. Whatever you want to call it – they’ve mutually decided to run through Negan like a healthy helping of Taco Bell with Diablo sauce.
And, if that man hug at the end of the midseason finale didn’t get you choked up, it’s possible you don’t have a soul.
Oh, and all the other characters reunited, too. And, Maggie’s pregnant. We’re going to see some more of King Ezekiel. Carol might turn into a badass again. And, of course, we’re all going to have massive Negan boners every second Jeffrey Dean Morgan comes across our screen.
But, stop and think about this. We’re going on seven years of TWD on AMC. It’s become a huge time investment for all of us. I couldn’t help myself – I started thinking, “man – where is all of this going to wind up?”
It feels like we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. We have to remember there’s nothing wrong with good old-fashioned storytelling. There doesn’t have to be some grand revelation or plot twist at the end of a show or movie for it to be good. Looking at you, True Detective fans. I swear, True Detective Reddit was trying to figure out who the Zodiac killer was. Naturally, when nothing major happened at the end of the season, people were upset. Let’s not let that happen with TWD.
Still, this tale is so tall, the mythos has become so grand that it feels like only a big ending could do such a long hard journey justice. Is that what we’re building towards? I don’t know, man – I don’t write the damn stuff. But, I do have a brain, and a degree in Psychology, so maybe we can think this through.
How could it all end?
A cure – When any sort of epidemic is involved, the natural solution is a cure. Does that happen in this universe? I don’t know – things are pretty bleak and grisly. I think this ties in with the ‘effective story’ idea from earlier, but it doesn’t really jive with the material. It could be that there’s not necessarily a cure, but that maybe one of our gang is immune. The series would conclude with the vague hope that they could genetically pinpoint the immunity and harness it for a cure.
I could see something like this happening: society staves off extinction long enough for the cure to be found, but not long enough to save our main characters, who finally succumb to a large herd. Which leads me to my next idea…
Everyone dies – yeah, maybe we hit season eight, and it’s like, “this is too unrealistic. There’s no way these people would survive 1/16th of this long,” and everyone dies. Illness, walkers, The Saviors, whatever – everyone just dies, and we all come away from this show feeling like we’ve wasted a whole shit ton of time.
A dream – I’m only entertaining this idea to state that it will not happen. It’s lazy writing. Robert Kirkman takes a lot of pride in his product, and he absolutely will not give it such a cop out ending. He’s even stated publicly that the events of this series are actually happening, and this is not taking place in the dreams of a still-hospitalized Rick.
Who’s left standing?
Rick – There’s no chance Rick survives this story. I’m just saying. Rick’s death is too critical to the development of Carl, who I believe is ultimately the main character of this story….sooooo, next:
Carl – Carl has to be the odds-on favorite to be the last man standing at the end of this series. More and more, it seems like this story is becoming a story about Carl. Think about it – he’s obviously the most developed character on the show. He’s in a position to seize greatness. It’s a highly unusual coming of age story.
Negan – Wild card here, but what if Negan was right? What if The Saviors really are able to restore society and his way was right all along? Negan is the definition of a survivor. Would any of you really be surprised?
What do you guys think? Who’s going to come out as the “winner” of The Walking Dead? Do they find a cure? Drop us a comment.
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, Contributor to FanSided’s Bama Hammer, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo, @Bama_Hammer
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