The Walking Dead Season 7 Finale Recap: “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life”

The Walking Dead season 7 came to an end last night during episode 16 “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life” and it wasn’t the battle we were all expecting.

It’s probably been pretty clear from my recaps and reviews that The Walking Dead has less than impressed me this season. It all began with Negan’s terrible character development, which then lead into Rick’s terrible character development, and so on.

So I’ll be honest when I say that I’ve been preparing myself for this finale for quite some time now. I was excited. I was ready. And I desperately needed Rick to regain everything he had lost throughout this season; and not only Rick but the entire community of Alexandria (and Hilltop and The Kingdom). It all lead up to this one moment.

Plus, it was even teased by showrunner Scott Gimple that this finale would be closure — it had an ending.

"“It is everything and the kitchen sink. It is exciting and it’s very emotional and I believe it’s funny in a couple parts, and it builds and builds and builds and it explodes. And though it promises more, because there is a whole lot to get to, there is an ending.”"

I would hardly call what I watched on my screen last night an ending. I would hardly call that a finale even. So you could say I felt sorely disappointed in this latest episode. You know in the season premiere when Negan dragged Rick Grimes from the ‘eenie meenie miney mo’ line up so he could terrorize him in the RV? The scene where Negan drags Rick Grimes was me this entire season. I was quite literally dragged through a season of mediocracy. The story they told in 16 episodes could’ve easily been told in 8, leaving them with 8 episodes to show this “epic battle” that they’ve been gearing up for since October.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that season 8 better be the best thing to grace my television screen because I need that if they want me to keep watching this show.

Okay. *takes deep breath* All complaining aside — let’s recap.

The entire episode sort of followed the journey and thought process of Sasha, who was held captive in the same cell as Daryl. It flashbacked to her time with Abraham and you could tell that she blames herself for his death. In an attempt to redeem herself, she devises a plan.

Negan wants to go to Alexandria and kill three people to ensure that he means business. On the other side of things, the Alexandrian’s are prepping for war.  As we saw in the last episode, Dwight arrived to tell Rick that Negan was en route. He says he wants to help Rick and the gang so he sets up some roadblocks to slow Negan down but I’m still not sure if I can believe him. While Negan remains stuck at said roadblocks, Rosita (being the badass that she is) rigs up an explosive for when the Saviors arrive. The Scavengers have showed up as well and they’re pitching in. Hilltop and The Kingdom are also en route. All signs are so far, pointing to an epic episode.

However, in a complete twist that I honestly didn’t see coming, once the Saviors arrive, the Scavengers turn their guns on the Alexandrian’s, proving that they were on Negan’s side all along. Negan starts on one of his infamous monologues and then he basically says that of he doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll kill Sasha … who is oddly riding in a coffin.

Sonequa Martin-Green as Sasha Williams – The Walking Dead _ Season 7, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Flashback to Sasha getting into the coffin back at Camp Negan. She asks for some water before the 2-hour journey to Alexandria. Then, she takes her suicide pill that Eugene got her and … RIP Sasha. Rick wants to make sure Sasha is actually in there, so he asks Negan to show him. Negan opens up the coffin and a growling Sasha falls on him (but unluckily doesn’t bite him). However, it does give the perfect amount of a disturbance to allow the Alexandrian’s to turn the guns on the Scavengers and take a decent amount of them down.

Unfortunately, Negan captures Carl and surrounds him by Saviors. Another Negan monologue puts us in a circle with Rick and Carl Grimes in the middle where Negan is about to bash Carl’s brains in. He raises Lucille to follow through with it and in typical The Walking Dead fashion, Shiva saves the day. Thank you, King Ezekiel! (and Carol!)

The Scavengers and Saviors flee from Alexandria after a bit of a showdown, leaving the original squad to scratch their heads and wonder where they went wrong. War is definitely brewing.

Was it the war I was expecting? Hell no. But it was somewhat entertaining to watch. I’ll tune in to season 8, but I can’t promise I’ll stay through the whole thing though.

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The Walking Dead season 8 will return in October on AMC.