The Walking Dead: Top 100 Moments

86. Negan Breaks Rick Apart

Episode 701 “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”

Original Airdate: 10/23/2016

Submitted By: Sarabeth Pollock

There were so many moments in the season 7 premiere that were gut wrenching. It was an episode full of death, and it was also one that saw Rick reduced to a shell of his former self as Negan takes him on a journey of self discovery.

Negan sees strength in Rick. He doesn’t want Rick to die, nor does he want Rick to be a problem. Negan knows that the only way to rein him in is to break him first, so they go off in the RV on a little trip where Rick must fight to save his own life. All the while Rick is having flashbacks of what happened in the clearing, and we see what actually happened and who died and how it all happened. Rick is tormented by what happened and Negan uses the trauma in order to make sure that Rick isn’t going to be a problem for him.

We see Negan systematically breaking Rick down, piece by piece, in one of the most gut wrenching scenes of all time.