I’ve thought about this more than I probably should, but honestly, it still bothers me. Every time New Year’s Eve rolls around, it hits me all over again. With 177 episodes in total, The Walking Dead never gave us a special New Year’s Eve episode.
And the more time passes, the more that fact feels almost unbelievable. Not just because the show ran for so long, but because New Year’s Eve feels like it was made for a story like this. This is a series that lived and breathed emotional downtime, with people sitting in silence, staring into fires, talking about the world before, and holding onto rituals that didn’t technically matter anymore but still felt essential.
And yet, somehow, the one night that’s literally about time passing, reflection, and clinging to hope just never happened on screen. It just doesn't make sense, and it’s such a glaring missed opportunity because New Year’s Eve is exactly the kind of moment The Walking Dead was built for. I can picture it now.
I can imagine Rick and his group gathered quietly, the cold of the night pressing in, maybe with a small fire crackling between them, each person carrying the invisible weight of everything they’ve lost and everything they’ve survived. Someone would remember the old traditions like fireworks, parties, laughter, and the thrill of counting down the seconds to a new beginning. Another person might scoff at the idea, exhausted and bitter, because celebrating a new year in a world that has taken everything from them feels meaningless. Yet, someone else would insist on marking it anyway, even if just with a small ritual.
I can even picture them having their own little makeshift celebration with a scavenged bottle of something to toast with, a few mismatched candles for light, and maybe some tattered paper or scraps to make a confetti-like mess. The beauty of this imagined New Year's Eve episode would have been in its simplicity and humanity. It didn't have to be this big spectacle. It could have been painfully simple. No dramatic cliffhangers, no horde rushing the camp, no shocking deaths. Just the characters together, quiet, human.
But unfortunately, that moment never existed. Honestly, I shouldn't even be surprised. The zombie series never gave us a Christmas episode either, so it’s clear that moments of quiet reflection and seasonal warmth weren’t part of its storytelling focus. Still, it’s hard not to feel a sense of loss for what could have been.
The Walking Dead is available to stream on Netflix.