The Walking Dead: Will Rick Grimes die in his final episode?

The cliffhanger at the end of last week’s The Walking Dead previewed a very grim ending for Rick Grimes. Will this be how it all ends?

Our vibrant leader Rick Grimes is passed out and alone on a slab of concrete with a rebar cutting right through his torso. Two herds are headed directly towards his unconscious body. Is this how Rick Grimes dies?

Since this Sunday’s episode is actor Andrew Lincoln’s last, it is easy to believe that Rick will die and that this concrete slab is his last resting place. Yet fans of the show speculate there could be more than one way he goes out.

This is RICK GRIMES we are talking about. He can’t go out without a bang, right? Especially since Angela Kang has done a phenomenal job as showrunner so far and is more likely to surprise us than to give us a blah ending to such a principal character.

The following theories speculate the possible ways The Walking Dead will write Rick off the show.

Rick survives but dies elsewhere

Rick could lift himself off the rebar and find his way back on the white horse. Previews for Sunday’s episode show this, with him riding the horse and closely followed by a herd of walkers. However, that same preview shows Rick in dream sequences, and riding the horse to Atlanta (paying tribute to season 1), so not sure how much we can trust those clips. But if Rick does make it back on the horse and out of the way of the herds, he could return to Alexandria and get patched up by Saadiq.

That’s not to say that Rick would be in the clear. There’s the possibility that Rick has complications after the fact. Maybe Rick’s wound gets infected, or he loses too much blood causing him to die anyway. Rick could make it back home only to die there. It’s bittersweet, but in this scenario Rick would at least get to say his last words to his loved ones before moving on into the afterlife, which would give us some much-needed closure.

Anne picks Rick up with the Helicopter people

Anne may have dumped off Gabriel at the junkyard site, but that’s not to say she’s given up her dream to join the helicopter folks. She’s still going to need an “A” to guarantee her place with the helicopter people. What if Anne shows up at the right moment to take Rick with her to the helicopter community?

Anne may show up on the helicopter and give Rick an ultimatum. An injured Rick would be more then willing to join Anne and their people if they could offer hospital care in exchange for labor. However, this doesn’t automatically cross off the possibility that Anne won’t kill Rick in her mission to get an “A.” I mean, she almost fed her lover to a walker.

The Whisperers take Rick

With two herds headed toward Rick, there’s always the possibility that one of them holds members of the highly anticipated Whisperers. They could very well snatch Rick up, and no one will know the wiser. If Daryl and the others go looking for Rick, all they will have are blood stains on a rebar and a kidnapping mystery to solve throughout the rest of the season.

Rick bleeds to death or is torn apart by the walkers

Finally, the most apparent sequence of events can take place, and Rick dies where we last saw him impaled on the concrete. In this case, he would either bleed out — after hallucinating about Shane and past loved ones — or he’ll die at the hands of the two herds headed his way.

Although I listed Rick dying right where we last saw him, there is just no way I can believe that the most important character of this show goes out like that. I also can’t see Rick leaving without a final moment of true heroism.

If he’s going to die, then we have to see Rick’s life end with some bigger meaning than himself — similar to how his son, Carl, died. The theories that support Rick being taken away make more sense when you consider that the show may want to leave an open window for Lincoln to return for the finale, even though he claims he will not be returning. We’ll just have to wait and see.

How do you think Rick Grimes will exit The Walking Dead? By death, kidnapping or something else? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!