The Walking Dead: Negan goes to the mattresses

At the end of The Walking Dead episode “Service” Michonne comes upon a stack of smoldering rubble. But it’s way more than rubble and it’s way more than accidental.

As if the extended episode of The Walking Dead’s seventh season wasn’t enough, we were left with the image of smoldering rubble in the road. Some fans wondered if it was the RV that Rick and the gang had been in before their fatal run-in with Negan’s group. However, that rubble was something far more important, and far more symbolic.

That wasn’t just a pile of rubbish that had caught on fire. When Negan left Alexandria he mainly took two things: the guns, and the mattresses. In fact, Rick spends the end of the episode making up a next of blankets in the absence of his mattress. Negan really had no plan when it came to what he wanted from Alexandria, so he took the mattresses. You might guess that mattresses are a hot commodity among the various colonies, and they could be considered a symbol of luxury.

So why would Negan burn all of the mattresses if they were so valuable?

The answer is simple: Negan burned the mattresses because he could. They were his mattresses, and he wanted to burn them, so he burned them. Plain and simple.

Related Story: Did Negan already know about Alexandria?

The bigger answer is that he burned them to remind everyone in Alexandria that he is in charge. Every night the residents of the town will go to sleep on the ground, and they will think of Negan. They will wake up and think of Negan. This was a very intentional move on his part, a move meant to mess with their heads and make the people of Alexandria aware of how much control he has over them.

More from Undead Walking

• Walking Dead alum Jayson Warner Smith promotes new film, Chipper, watch it now
• Walking Dead actor Chandler Riggs filming new movie in Tampa Bay
• Why is there no season 12 of The Walking Dead?
• Will Morgan Jones find Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live spinoff?
• Watch Tales of TWD actress Jillian Bell in Prime Video’s Candy Cane Lane

Burning the mattresses is also a reminder from Negan to the people of Alexandria that they live their lives at his discretion. He can change their lives very easily, and this is but a small example of his influence and power.