The Walking Dead: Top 100 Moments
2. The Lineup
Episode 701 “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”
Original Airdate: 10/23/2016
Submitted By: John Tateossian
Not only is this episode one of the most memorable it is also one of the most horrifying. After months of waiting, wondering and speculating who Negan killed in the season 6 finale, we finally get our answer.
Our group is surrounded by The Saviors who we see are not your average survivors. They are big, mean looking, almost resembling and army more than a group of survivors and they have our group surrounded. Helplessly Rick still trying to act tough tells Negan he will, eventually, kill him. However Negan laughs at this remark as the ball (or bat in this case) is firmly in Negan’s court.
Then it is finally revealed whom Negan killed with Lucille, his barbed wire covered wooden baseball bat. Our loveable friend Abraham met an unfortunate fate in our first run in with Negan. Although fans for months speculated the death would be a lot more important, we were still saddened to see Abraham go after just getting together with Sasha. It was hard to watch Rosita and the group have to watch Abraham get beat to a pulp while not being able to a thing about it.
Fans watching were still shocked and upset to see Abraham die, but many fans thought the death would be more significant with someone such as Carl, Daryl or even Glenn. Then in a fit of sheer frustration, sadness and anger Daryl lashes out, leaps up and punches Negan in the face. That is when fans stomachs dropped and yet again we feared the worst. Thinking Daryl would certainly die for this had us all on the edge of our seats.
Negan explains that there is punishment for resisting The Saviors and now all the fans are wondering when he will kill Daryl. Then to everyone’s horror Negan brings Lucille down on Glenn’s head. After taking the hit Glenn sits up with his head dented from the force of the blow and eye popped out of his socket to utter his last words. He weakly tells Maggie that he will find her before Negan repeatedly brings the bat down on Glenn finishing the job. The group watches in horror as now two of their friends lay completely unrecognizable on the ground. Negan tells us all that he is now in charge and the group and audience has never been more convinced that there is a new sheriff in town.
This episode was probably the most traumatic and shocking out of every episode so far. The horrifying deaths of Glenn and Abraham actually truly upset some viewers to the extent they boycotted the show and voiced complaints to AMC. Although very gruesome in nature the show promised to show Negan do something that would shock and he did just that. Losing a character we have known and loved since season 1 and a fan favorite character whose one-liners were a sort of art this episode was hard to swallow. This is certainly a moment no Walking Dead fan will ever forget thus making it one of the Top 100 Moments of The Walking Dead.