The Walking Dead 616: Last Day on Earth [recap and poll]

So, the day we’ve both longed for and simultaneously dreaded has finally arrived. For better or worse, below is a recap of the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead. So, what did you think? Did you love it? Hate it? Are you too traumatized to form coherent sentences? Cast your vote to rate this episode and leave us as many thoughts as you’d like. Your family and friends who don’t watch TWD might not understand your suffering, but we do.

At the end of last week’s episode, East, we were left gasping in surprise when Dwight dared to fire his gun at Daryl Dixon. Oh no you didn’t, Dwight! We assured each other repeatedly that he would be fine. “It’s just a shoulder wound,” echoed fans over and over on social media. And so we were left to wonder for an entire week. A very, very long week.

Tonight, the much anticipated season finale begins with eerie lights and distant whistling. Then we see Morgan walking through the tall grass, where he sees a sign that says “You are alive.” Not far from there he comes upon a saddled horse, just standing there in front of him.

Elsewhere, a man is running through a field, bloody.

Carl and Enid come into a house and Carl tells Enid she needs to stay. He tells her that he won’t let what happened to the others happen to her.

Rick is getting ready to leave in the RV. Abraham and Sasha inform him that they’re coming along. Eugene wants to come as well.

Enid confronts Carl, reminding him that it’s about getting Maggie to a doctor, nothing else.

The bloody man has been caught in the woods. He’s sitting on the ground, surrounded by other men, who say that he has broken the rules. Apparently his people had wanted to fight back, so this was how it had to be. They punch the man on the ground, knocking him down.

Carl tricks Enid, telling her that she can come along and to get something from the closet. He shuts her in the closet to stop her from coming along. It’s the way he decides to keep her safe.

Related Story: The Walking Dead: Carol, Morgan and exile

Back on the road, the men punch and kick the bloody man on the ground.

Enid asks Carl through the door what she’s supposed to do if he doesn’t come back. He tells her, “Just survive somehow.”

Aaron wants to come along too, though Rick is against it. Finally he gives in. Is anyone staying in Alexandria besides Gabriel, Judith and Olivia??

Meanwhile, Gabriel has everything organized in Alexandria. He tells Rick that his first priority in case of emergency is Judith, and he promises Rick that he will not fail him. The RV leaves, and the gates close behind it.

Morgan rides the horse down an empty road. He passes mutilated bodies behind a wrought iron fence, and sees Carol sleeping in a doorway. He calls to her, then gets off the horse and goes to see her up close, which is when she wakes up. She’s weak, and he examines her the best he can.

The bloody man is being dragged through the woods and onto the road by his legs. The group stands around him on the road and says they’re going to make an example of him.

The RV speeds down an empty road. Rick tries to reassure Maggie that the doctor at Hilltop will be able to help her. “As long as it’s all of us, we can do anything,” he tells her.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned building, Morgan patches up a wound in Carol’s stomach. They hear the noise from a walker. Morgan tells her that she needs stitches, that he’ll make sure they’re safe for the night, and that they’ll head back in the morning. Carol says “No,” but Morgan doesn’t press the issue for the moment.

Abraham is driving the RV, Sasha beside him, when they come to a group of men in the road. It’s the bloody man, surrounded by the men who beat him up. Rick, Eugene, Aaron, Carl, Sasha and Abraham get out. Rick is in front, holding his hands up. The men tell him to give them all of their stuff and that they’ll probably have to kill one of them, but that then they can move forward.

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Rick says that’s not going to work, because he was actually going to ask for all of their stuff. He says he’s not going to kill any more of them. The other men don’t like that. They spray something on the man laying on the ground.

The leader of the other group says they don’t negotiate, to which Rick says that his group is leaving. Rick asks the man if he wants to make today his last day on Earth. The other man asks him what if it’s the last day on Earth for him or someone he loves. He tells Rick that they should be kind to each other. Rick tells him to do the same.

Abraham starts the RV and they back away from the makeshift roadblock.

Coming back from commercials, we see those eerie lights again and hear muffled voices. Then we’re back in the RV. Carl looks out the window and sees a walker. He asks Aaron why he hadn’t stayed back. Aaron says he owes her. He asks Carl the same question. Carl says he owes them.

Eugene and Sasha are discussing strategies for which way they should go. They find one, and the group is off again.

Morgan tells Carol that he and Rick had been looking for her. He tells her that Daryl and some of the others had been gone before she left, that they’re probably back already.

Carol asks Morgan if he thinks it’s so easy to get her back, that he just has to ask her. She asks him doesn’t he understand, after everything. She explains that if you care about people, you have to kill for them. But if you don’t want to kill, or you can’t, then you have to get away from them.

Morgan says that everything worth a damn in this life is about people. He tells her that she’ll die out here on her own, and that he can’t let her do that. She doesn’t seem bothered. She tells him to go, and pulls a gun on him, then lowers it and asks him to go. She tells him that she can’t pay the price for caring about people anymore.

In the RV once again, Abraham, again in the driver’s seat, asks Sasha if she thinks they can do it, “What they did… Glenn and Maggie.” He wants to know if that’s living. She asks him if he could, and he says yes. She just stares at him.

Suddenly there’s another roadblock of cars and men ahead. They stop and evaluate the threat. Rick says they’re not making their stand there. There’s 16 of the other group against five of them, if one of them stays at the wheel. Abe starts backing up slowly, and the other group fires a few times into the air. The RV turns around and continues back the way it came.

Morgan walks through a courtyard, walker groans coming from nearby. There’s one hanging from a noose on a nearby tower and many more outside the iron gates outside the courtyard. He climbs the narrow metal tower and stabs the walker in the head, silencing it, then cuts it down.

Next, Morgan walks back into the dark and ransacked building where he’d left Carol, calling to her name. She’s not there. He goes back outside to the front, quickly opening the gate and mounts his horse and riding off down the street in search of her.

The RV roars down yet another road. They’re at ½ tank of gas. Sasha says the men weren’t the same ones blocking the road the first time, though Abe says they’re from the same group. Almost immediately they stop. They’ve come to a line of walkers chained together across the road.

Rick says they can’t take the RV through, they have to clear it. He tells Abe to stay behind the wheel. Upon closer inspection, they notice that several of the walkers are wearing Daryl and Michonne’s clothes, but don’t resemble them.

Rick is about to raise his axe at one of them when they’re fired on from out of sight. Rick hacks through the arm of one of the walkers and then pushes it to the edge of the road, stabbing it in the head. At the same time the group ducks and tries to cover each other, while also taking out the walkers, then run back to the RV and drive down the road, which is now clear.

The RV rattles along, and they hear a strange noise. Rick says that the men were firing at their feet. He thinks they’re trying to lead them in a particular direction. Aaron says that Maggie is burning up. They’re still hearing the noise. They come to a roadblock with a huge group of men standing on cars.

Rick tells Abe to go back, to which Abe says “Where?”

Morgan is on the horse, trotting through a small town. He sees Carol’s rosary on the ground beside a dead walker.

Carol walks by a run-down barn. She’s breathing hard. A walker is banging on the metal back section of a dump truck and making a lot of noise. She closes it in, but then another one comes up beside her and she has a lot of trouble getting control of it, but she does.

She’s immediately grabbed and knocked over from the side by a man with short gray hair. He’s one of the men from the pick-up truck on the road, on which she’d opened fire. Her knife is knocked away and she doesn’t get it before he has his gun on her.

He tells her that she’s going to lie there and he’s going to watch her die, like his friends did back on that road. He shoots her in the arm and says it’s a pretty good start.

There are more eerie lights and muffled voices, slightly clearer.

Maggie doesn’t look good. Rick kneels by her bed and comforts her, telling her she’s going to be ok and the baby is too. Maggie says that she believes in him.

Carol lies on the ground, panting, then smiles. The man is agitated by this. Carol says there’s nothing wrong with her anymore because she’s going to die. He doesn’t understand, and he shoots her again. He asks if she thinks she’s suffered enough, to which she says “probably not.”

He turns around and walks away. She says that unless he kills her now, she’s not going to die. She yells after him that he doesn’t get to walk away. He walks back to shoot her again, but a voice tells him to stop. It’s Morgan, holding his gun on the man and telling him to drop it. Before he can shoot Carol again, Morgan shoots him repeatedly.

 “Give me your shit, or I will kill you.”

Morgan kneels by Carol, telling her it’s not her time. He says she’s going to come back from this. Several other men approach, one on horseback. They ask what happened. They’re dressed in some sort of armor. Morgan says he found the horse and his friend, who needs help. The man says they’ll get him some help.

Rick and his group have found a huge roadblock made of logs, once again in the middle of the road. They get out to investigate. Suddenly a man is dropped over the overpass behind them, and dangles from something, being choked before their eyes. Rick tells them not to fire, because they need the bullets. There’s a red X stray painted on the man’s shirt. Behind them, the log roadblock is now on fire.

A voice asks if they’re “treating their people good,” because it’s their last day on earth. The voice says that they’d better get going because it’s going to get hot. They get back in the RV and back up yet again. The log pile is now fully engulfed.

That night, the RV is parked in the woods and they’re trying to make a plan. Sasha says there are two more routes north. Eugene says that the other group may be ahead of them and behind them, but they don’t know the occupancy of the RV, and that the sun sets soon. He has an idea.

Soon after that, in the dark, Rick tells Eugene to keep moving. Eugene hands Rick his plan for how to build bullets, telling him that Abraham can show him where to do it. Rick tells Eugene they’re lucky that he’s there, which Eugene agrees with.

Abe tells Eugene to go steady on the pedal, that he’s a survivor and always was, they just didn’t know it. Eugene surprises Abraham by hugging him.

They take Maggie on a flat board out of the RV. Eugene gets into the RV by himself, takes a deep breath, and starts the engine. He drives away, leaving the others behind.

A walker wanders through the misty woods, and the group chops his head in half. They’re carrying Maggie on the stretcher-like board now. They’re talking quietly when they hear whistling. They stop and look around, then start running as best they can while carrying Maggie.

Suddenly bright lights shine on them and the noise is deafening. They’re in a circle formed by a huge group of men. No one moves, they just stand and look at them. Eugene is kneeling nearby. He has been captured. A man steps forward and tells them “Welcome to where you’re going,” then demands their weapons, which are removed from them forcibly.

They are told to put Maggie down and get on their knees. Abe helps Maggie walk forward from the board she’d been laying on, and they kneel together. Rick is still standing, as is Sasha and Carl. The man tells them again to kneel.

Once again, we see eerie lights and hear muffled talking. Except now it seems to be coming from the trap that Rick’s group just fell into.

Michonne, Daryl, Glenn and Rosita are taken out of the back of a van and put on the ground, steps away from Rick and the others. The two parts of the group are not glad to see each other there. The group is lined up on their knees and a man comes out of an RV with a baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire over his shoulder.

The man asks which one of them is the leader. He introduces himself as Negan and tells him how much he doesn’t appreciate all of the men of his that they’ve killed. “You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes.”

Negan tells him that the new world order is this: “Give me your shit, or I will kill you.”

He walks back and forth in front of the group, pointing with his bat. He tells them that their job is to give him any shit they have. He tells Rick that he’s not even close to safe, and that the harder they fight back, the harder it will be. Negan asks if he understands, but Rick doesn’t answer.

Negan says he doesn’t want to kill them, he wants them to work for him. He tells Rick that because they killed more of his people than he’s comfortable with, he’s gonna beat the holy hell out of one of them. He introduces Lucille, his bat. Everyone avoids Negan’s eyes as he paces in front of them, except Abraham, who looks right up at him.

Seeming sickeningly calm, Negan continues walking. He tells Carl that he has one of their guns.

Next Negan tells Maggie that she looks shitty – not that any of them are really looking their best – and says he wants to put her out of her misery. Glenn immediately surges forward, screaming. Dwight grabs him and puts him back in line. Negan smiles, not seeming bothered. He tells them with a smile that none of them had better do that again.

Next: The Walking Dead: Survival Rule of The Week

Negan looks at Carl, just realizing that he’s Rick’s son. Rick starts to yell, and Negan tells him not to make it easy for him to kill the future serial killer. Negan can’t decide who to kill, then has an idea. Smiling, he says “eenie, meenie, miney, moe,” going from one to the next. “Catch the tiger by his toe if he hollers let him go. My mother told me…” The rhyme goes on.

He points the bat at the camera and after a few more words, bashes whoever it is over the head. It’s dark but we can see blood dripping down through the frame, then blackness, and all we hear is repeated swings and crushing of a skull.

And now for six months of wondering which of them it actually was who was just beaten to death. SHIT.

Oh Negan, there are already so many discussions about you happening. What did you, the readers, think of this episode? Did you enjoy our first taste of this man who seems to be such a psychopath? Vote and comment one more time for season 6! We know you have thoughts, and we want to hear them.