Walking Dead Season 7 Finale Review: Beginning of All Out War

This episode starts off with Dwight talking to Rick and his group. He says he wants to stop Negan but they need to do it correctly or someone else will rise up and take his place. Dwight explains he only has been working for Negan to keep his wife safe, but now that she has escaped he is ready to fight against Negan. After seeing Dwight's heartbreaking scene in his home in a previous episode I am convinced he wants Negan dead. After all, Negan did melt half of his face off. 

Meanwhile, Sasha is being held captive and Negan her he knows Rick is trying to rebel. As a result, he says someone needs to die. Afterwards Sasha convinces Eugene to give her something sharp so she can kill herself so she isn’t used against Alexandria. However, her real plan is to kill Negan when he least expects it. Eugene agrees to help but instead of giving her a knife he gives her two pills that will kill her if she takes them. Sasha and Eugene walk out to leave for Alexandria and Eugene tries to convince her the Sanctuary isn’t bad. He tells her if people die today it is because of the choices they made.  Sasha says he can still make up for his mistakes, but Eugene looks at her with a doubtful look. Sasha decides to ride in the coffin on the way to Alexandria so she can get some “rest”. While in the coffin, Sasha is having flashbacks of her early relationship with Abraham. Abraham wants to help Maggie get to the hilltop because he believes she is carrying the future. Sasha is very hesitant because of a dream she had where she watched Abraham drown. Abraham convinces her to come with because he says if they die it will be ok because they died fighting.

I feel like the flashbacks Sasha was having could have been condensed to make the episode run much smoother. Although it was great seeing Abraham again the flashbacks lost my interest and it would have worked better as one continuous scene instead of being split up. The end of the flashback was the most effective because Abraham basically tells Sasha he doesn’t mind if he dies as long as he dies fighting. However, Abraham didn’t die fighting and he didn’t die for a purpose. He was killed to make a point and nothing more and the flashbacks make his death even more heartbreaking.

Back at the Hilltop Maggie needs to decide if the hilltop should stay in case something in Alexandria goes wrong or if they should go and fight with Alexandria. Maggie is now unofficially in charge since Gregory has mysteriously left the hilltop.

At the Kingdom Carol and Ezekiel and Morgan all leave to go tell Alexandria they are now going to fight against the Saviors. I love how Morgan is wearing Benjamin’s armor. It shows how much he meant to him and it was a great motivator to make Morgan stand up and fight against the Saviors. Hopefully, Morgan doesn’t go crazy and can come back from killing after the war is over.

In Alexandria, the Scavengers arrive with their army and Jadis is impressed with their setup. However, Rick explains they are fighting for their people, not Alexandria. Rosita and a few other people are setting up the stolen bombs and are rigging them to explode inside of a truck. Michonne is gearing up for action and her and another Scavenger decide to set up sniper spots on top of different buildings. The scavenger tells her “We’ll win.” Carl and several Scavengers are on the wall getting ready to fight. Rick is also on the wall and tells Rosita to get in position and wait for his signal to explode the truck. The Saviors then arrive, but Alexandria is shocked to see Eugene is trying to convince them to stand down so they don’t die. Eugene tells Rick that he is Negan and Alexandria is hurt by Eugene’s betrayal. Having given up on Eugene, Rick gives Rosita the signal, but the bomb switch doesn’t work. Suddenly all the Scavengers turn their guns to the people of Alexandria.  Jadis tells Rick they made a better deal with the Saviors.

This was one of my favorite parts of the finale. I did not see this twist coming and was truly shocked to see how everything played out. This turn of events makes me excited for All Out War because it shows Negan is just as much of a strategist as Rick is. They are a perfect match against each other and it will be interesting to watch them try to outsmart each other in season 8.

Negan comes out of a truck and taunts the community. He then brings out a coffin and says Sasha is inside and alive. He will give Sasha back in exchange for all their guns, Daryl, the pool supplies, and a victim of Rick’s choice. Rick asks to see that Sasha is truly alive, so Negan opens the coffin and to his surprise Sasha took the pills and had turned into a walker. Zombie Sasha pushes Negan off of his truck and in the confusion Carl starts shooting the Scavengers which starts off a chain reaction. Negan struggles with Sasha and gets her off as she eats another Savior. I wish this was a surprise for me, but unfortunately the decision was made to show Sasha dying in the very beginning of the episode. I would much rather have waited to see her die. I also wish they didn’t show Sasha taking the pills because the audience is smart enough to put together that she killed herself. If a few things throughout the episode were changed this could have been a much bigger reveal.

In the battle, Rosita is shot so Tara gets her to safety.  Michonne is fighting on top of a house with another Scavenger and is being beaten badly. Jadis shoots Rick in the stomach and then leads Rick through Alexandria and it is obvious they have lost the battle. Saviors bring Rick to Carl, who is kneeling and surrounded. Rick watches as a woman screams and falls from a building and he thinks it is Michonne. Negan realizes he is in pain so he torments him. Rick threatens to kill Negan so Negan decides he will kill Carl. Negan gets ready to swing but right before he can swing Shiva the tiger roars and attacks a Savior. The Kingdom warriors, lead by King Ezekiel, come out and start killing Saviors. King Ezekiel yells that Alexandria will not fall today and seeing the Kingdom in action was just awesome. Negan runs for cover and is shocked that there is a tiger on the battlefield. Then the Hilltop comes to fight and Negan is shocked once again when he sees Maggie alive and well. Rick crawls for his gun and is protected by Morgan and they begin to fight together.

Realizing they were losing, The Scavengers send up a flare and Scavengers on the other side of the wall begin throwing smoke bombs to provide cover for an escape. Negan drives out as he gives the finger to Alexandria and Alexandria begins damage control. Rick runs to the house and finds Michonne alive, but severely beaten. She tells Rick they are the ones who live. Rick talks to Maggie and he was glad she came to help fight. He also said he was grateful that Sasha gave them a fighting chance. Afterwards, Maggie and Jesus track down zombie Sasha and Maggie kills her. Daryl finds a figure that Dwight hid during the fight and it said he didn’t know about the Scavengers. Maggie and Rick talk more and Maggie pays tribute to Glenn by saying his decision to save Rick in the tank started their group. She says they sacrifice themselves and fight for each other and Glenn started all so she needed to follow his lead. Rick and Maggie then talk to their groups and prepare for war.

Back at the Sanctuary Negan, Dwight, Eugene, and Simon process what happened. Negan asks Eugene how Sasha died and Eugene says she probably ran out of air inside of the coffin, but Negan does not seem convinced. He then walks out to an army of Saviors and tells them they are going to war.

The ending battle of this episode was extremely satisfying. After half a season of trying to plan a war, all the pieces are finally coming together. Rick has gotten a gun and The Kingdom and Hilltop are finally banding together to fight the saviors. It was a slow build up, but I think it was worth it and will continue to be worth it when the war carries on to season 8. I also love how this episode took a lot of famous moments from the comic book and was a great adaptation of The Walking Dead Issues 112 to 114.

One of my favorites things about season 7 was how Glenn and Abraham’s death carried throughout the entire season. There has never been a death as impactful as those two and it worked extremely well. Usually, when a character dies, they are forgotten and then MAYBE will have a name drop in a later episode. However, Glenn and Abraham’s deaths were motivators for Rick and the people of Alexandria to stand up against the Saviors. Their deaths also had a huge impact on the finale and Maggie uses Glenn’s death as a reason to start a war.

A big highlight of this season was Negan and he was portrayed perfectly by Jeffery Dean Morgan. Morgan brought a lot to the character and was a great adaptation of the comic book version without being a complete copy. Morgan can make Negan intimidating without any words, just menacing glares. Another character that shined this season was Morgan Jones who was portrayed by Lennie James. Morgan’s character was so interesting and has progressed so much throughout the seasons. Morgan and Carol and two very complex characters and I can’t wait to see how All Out War will affect their morals and their characters moving forward. After the battle, the two characters sit on a porch and look at each other. There is no dialogue, but you can tell they are both struggling with killing people again. However, they feel like they need to in order to protect themselves and the people around them.

Overall it was a slow season but after the finale I believe the build up will be worth it as All Out War will kick off in Season 8.