For what feels like forever, AMC has been advertising the final episode of Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead. Well, we finally got it, and boy – did they get us. It should go without saying that this post is loaded with spoilers, since it’s been nearly a week since the episode aired….but hey! I’m going to go ahead and give you guys a **SPOILER ALERT** just to be safe.

And in case you missed it,

This post is loaded with spoilers

The whole episode was like this beautiful ode to Rick’s time on The Walking Dead – we got glimpses all the way back to the hospital outside Atlanta. The whole ‘don’t dead open inside’ thing that’s been a meme forever. We even saw Shane and Hershel in flashbacks, with Shane being the real asshole that he is, talking about Judith being his daughter and whatnot. Oh, and there’s the fact that Rick fell on a fucking rock with a piece of rebar sticking through rib cage.

There was absolutely no reason to think that Rick was going to survive. But, what did he do? Pulled his ass off that rock and started walking back to camp….over the bridge…leading a herd of walkers behind him. That damn bridge. The same fuckin’ bridge that was the source of so much strife this season.

Conveniently, he found a pile of dynamite, shot it, and BOOM – down goes the bridge, keeping the walkers from making their way into town. Daryl, Carol, Michonne, shit maybe Maggie was there too. I don’t remember. Point is, all of Rick’s bestest pals and the woman he was currently giving the sex to, watched him ‘splode on a bridge with some zombies.

It was sad. It was the culmination of nearly 10 years of emotional turmoil. We survived this far with Rick. Just like that, he’s gone.

Except not really. Somehow, he landed down the river, floated downstream, and ol’ trash bitch – I forget her name – scooped him up. The last we saw Rick, he was lying in a helicopter, flying off to who knows where, presumably to live forever.

The Walking Dead be like:

As it turns out, Rick didn’t die, and he was never going to. They tricked us! He’s just leaving the group and he’s going to get his own series of films! Maybe they didn’t technically lie to us. Maybe it really was his last appearance on the AMC series, but Rick’s story is far from over.

Courtesy of CNN:

Sunday’s episode of ‘The Walking Dead’ had been billed as the last appearance by Lincoln on the mothership series. A surprise twist at the end of the episode revealed Grimes, who had been severely injured in an explosion, was not dead as his friends and fellow survivors had presumed. He was rescued by helicopter in the final moments of the episode.

The first film will explore where Rick was taken and “what he faces in the new corner of the zombie apocalypse,” AMC said.

“It’s not the beginning of the end, it’s the end of the beginning. And I like the idea that we get to tell a bigger story, maybe with a sort of wider vista,” Lincoln said on “The Talking Dead,” AMC’s after-show about the zombie hit. “I’ve always been interested in what’s going on out there, you know, whether or not there is contact with the wider world.”

Gimple called the films a “big evolutions of what we’ve been doing on the show.”

“We want to break new ground with different, distinct stories, all part of the same world that’s captured our imagination for nearly a decade of the Dead,” Gimple said in a statement.

They’re turning this into a post-apocalyptic zombie Marvel Cinematic Universe! Bravo, AMC. You really got me. You pulled the damn shirt over my head and decked me right in the face. The old, reliable okie doke.

It’s a stroke of genius, really. Just when my interest in this franchise was waning, they go and evolve. No more Carl. No more Rick. It’s the Judith show now and it’s her time to shine. Now, I’m sucked back in and can’t wait to catch each episode from here on out.

The foresight to realize they were losing people and the show needed a change was phenomenal. It may be awhile before we see Rick again, but they succeeded in winning back at least one loyal fan on the weekly Walking Dead show. LFG.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley

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