The Walking Dead: Top 100 Moments

7. The Hatchet Breakdown

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

Original Airdate: 10/23/2016

Submitted By: Nir Regev

Series defining scene. It was universal. This visual of the father being forced to cut his own son’s arm in half was mesmerizing in a way that needed no language. The body language contrast, the streaming tears, the pure child-like state Sheriff Rick Grimes was reduced to needed no translation. No subtitles. Whether you’d ever heard of Negan before or seen The Walking Dead or even liked the idea of a zombie didn’t matter. You couldn’t look away. Instantly placing yourself into the situation in a way that made you feel a part of Rick’s group watching on the ground.

One man’s empire is another’s snow globe. All the hoopla over control of Alexandria suddenly minuscule to the greater picture. For the first time, Rick Grimes was not the center of his universe. Not the leader, not the Sheriff, and not in control. It was as if Rick and the group had an epiphany staring one night into the stars.

Moonlight shining into their faces, but it was the constellation of Negan that came into view. Forcing the need to adapt to a new state of humbleness. One man’s Rome, another man’s backyard pest. Rick’s empire, Negan’s snow globe.