“The Walking Dead” fans were recently left with one of the greatest cliffhangers to the show and possibly all of TV. Before the end of season six, Negan, the psychopathic new antagonist, was deciding on who to murder from Rick’s group.

Viewers saw Negan play “eenie meenie miney mo” as a malicious joke, his choice landing on someone unknown. Since then, fans have had to wait eight months until the big reveal.

During the summer, AMC released a Season 7 trailer to tease fans even more. The trailer showed characters that were away from Rick’s group at the time, but are associated with him, but this offered no answers. The trailer goes through the eeny meeny miney moe sequence while showing flashbacks of each character as Negan lands on them. It showed the best and happiest memories of each character, which will make viewers miss any one of them. In cruel contrast, it also shows Negan bash someone with Lucille, but still does not show who.

Relief from the unknown finally came on Oct. 23 when season seven aired. Fans were at the edge of their seats, filled with the anticipation that had built over the months.

The episode began with Negan speaking to the group. It doesn’t directly pick off the previous season, keeping fans in horrendous suspense.The camera is zoomed at Rick’s face and as soon as Negan comes face to face with him, Rick quietly says, “I’m going to kill you, not today, not tomorrow, but someday.” Rick is then dragged by his jacket across the gravel, and into the group’s RV. The camera zooms out and pans to the remains of an anonymous corpse.

The beginning of the episode was phenomenal. Suspense works well even in the seventh season, and even after eight months. Definitely a strong start to a season that will take the show into a new direction.The bittersweet relief of finally knowing who dies is met with absolute despair when Negan slays yet another character to “teach a lesson.”

Fans were heartbroken by the deaths of Abraham and Glenn.

Abraham’s death was tragic and gruesome. He got his head smashed in repeatedly by a baseball bat.

Still, Glenn’s death was the most devastating scene because it was unexpected.  Negan pounds Glenn with “Lucille,” Negan’s wire wrapped baseball bat, causing Glenn’s eye to pop out. They did an excellent job of recreating how Glenn’s death looked like in the comic into the show. Since viewers were under the impression that there was only going to be one death, Abraham’s death was sad but Glenn’s death was shocking.

Rick hasn’t shown fear since Season 2. The creators do a good job of showing what it would take to break Rick. He’s had to go through so many emotionally draining experiences in one night just to break him.

Negan takes and does whatever he wants. They show that when Negan throws Daryl into a van and says that he is his property now. Negan also says that Rick’s group and all their stuff now belongs to him. Negan appointed them as they were just mere property, which shows he is ruthless and truly does not care.

This episode was packed with gut wrenching scenes: the way they showed Glenn’s and Maggie’s love, the death of the characters, how ruthless Negan is, and finally the breaking of Rick Grimes.

I can’t wait to see what the creators will have in store for the rest of the season especially when there is such a ruthless villain.