(Spoilers ahead for the March 11 episode of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and, potentially, a future episode of the show)
So that was a pretty strange note to end on, with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) taking inspiration from a bad idea Eugene (Josh McDermitt) had about using catapults to throw walker parts and other assorted gore over the walls of the Hilltops to freak out those inside.
Negan isn’t gonna do exactly that, though. because he wants to do more than scare the folks at the Hilltop — which at this point consists of pretty much all the good guys now that Alexandria and the Kingdom have fallen.
At the end of the episode, Negan assembles the Saviors in front of three chained up walkers and rubs his barbed wire baseball bat all over one of them, getting blood and other general grossness all over it. And he talks about using this weapon to destroy their enemies by inviting them to join the club of the undead.
What he’s suggesting, in case it wasn’t entirely clear because it’s a pretty strange idea, is for the Saviors to coat all their weapons with zombie gore — aside from bullets obviously, but since they’re running short on those anyway they’re gonna have a disproportionate number of folks wielding melee weapons and bows. And supposedly if they do this then they’ll be infecting anyone they hit, dooming them to become a walker themselves.
This is a thing Negan does in the comics just ahead of the Saviors assault on the Hilltop — which happens to be where we are on the show as well. And, yes, coating their weapons with walker blood definitely does infect those they wound with them.
From this point I’m going to talk about the true plot significance of this plan, at least according to the comics. This weird gore plan is key to how one of the big season-long subplots plays out. Though, as with all things “The Walking Dead,” how it works in the comics may not be how it works on the show. But potentially I’m about to spoil an upcoming episode, so I just want you to be warned.
So in the comics, the Saviors bring a bunch of chained up walkers to the Hilltop with them for the battle, so they can use them to keep their weapons fresh with the zombie blood and gore. But in general this tactic is not all that important to how the battle plays out, though a few minor characters end up infected because of it..
It is, however, very important to how Dwight’s storyline plays out. Dwight (Austin Amelio) is back with the Saviors as of this week, seemingly committed to his role as a mole for Rick and co. His cover is intact for now, but he ends up blown because of this zombie gore plan.
What happens is that during a key point of the battle Negan and Dwight end up facing off with Rick (Andrew Lincoln), and Dwight shoots him with a crossbow as Rick flees from the confrontation. But Dwight does not use a bloody arrow to shoot Rick, so he isn’t infected. And later on when Negan discovers that fact he knows that Dwight betrayed the Saviors.
I’ll avoid going through what happens next for the sake of not wallowing in spoilers, but that’s what you need to know about what Negan’s plan could mean in the upcoming assault on the Hilltop by the Saviors.
'The Walking Dead': The Most Shocking and Disturbing Deaths So Far
"The Walking Dead" has never been shy about gore and death, but some characters' demises hit harder than others. Now that the final season is upon us, let's take a look back at the carnage from past seasons.
Andrea's sister Amy (Emma Bell) was the first sympathetic named character to go, when a random walker bit her at camp.
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The death of Jim (Andrew Rothenberg) in Season 1 showed the characters how to treat a bitten person for the first time.
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Sophia (Madison Lintz) was beloved by all, but Rick did not hesitate when it came time to pull the trigger when she became a walker.
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Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) was the moral compass of the group, so it was upsetting on several levels when a zombie ripped his guts out.
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Shane (Jon Bernthal) was ready to kill Rick over his love triangle with Lori, but Rick acted first.
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T-Dog (IronE Singleton) gave his life to save Carol from walkers when the group tried to take the prison.
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Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) died during childbirth, prompting Carl to shoot her in the head to prevent her reanimation.
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Daryl's brother Merle (Michael Rooker) finally tried to be a good man by defying the Governor -- and it got him a bullet in the heart from the Governor himself and a new life as a zombie.
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Andrea (Laurie Holden) failed to see The Governor for what he was -- a bad guy -- and paid the ultimate price.
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Hershel (Scott Wilson) wanted peace, but The Governor took his head to prove a point to Rick.
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Tyreese (Chad Coleman) let his guard down for a just a moment, but long enough to get bitten by a walker.
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Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino) killed her sister Mika (Kyla Kenedy) before Carol shot Lizzie in the back of the head.
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Beth (Emily Kinney) finally had enough of Dawn, the tyrannical overlord of Grady Memorial Hospital, stabbing her with a pair of scissors as a parting gift. But Dawn immediately shot Beth in the head -- prompting Daryl to in turn shoot Dawn.
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Noah (Tyler James Williams) endured one of the most gruesome deaths in "Walking Dead" history thanks to Nicholas.
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Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge), Ron (Austin Abrams) and Sam (Major Dodson) all died within seconds of each other. Sam got eaten when the horde invaded Alexandria. Jessie died as she tried to save him. Ron then attempted to kill Rick, but got stabbed by Michonne and was subsequently eaten.
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Abraham (Michael Cuditz) was the one we had to wait six months to see murdered by Negan. He, of course, got his head beaten in with Negan's barbwire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.
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But Abraham wasn't Negan's only victim that night. After Daryl punched Negan, Negan decided he had to make another example out of someone in the group -- and he chose Glenn.
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Spencer (Austin Nichols) thought he could use Negan to kill Rick in order to assume control of Alexandria. But Negan had other plans, gutting Spencer in full view of everyone in the community.
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Olivia (Ann Mahoney) suffered plenty of indignities at Negan's hands, and he eventually repaid her by having her shot.
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Ole Dr. Carson (Tim Parati) made a critical error by saying mean things about Sherry to Dwight over and over again. So Dwight framed the good doctor for helping Daryl escape from the Saviors -- and Negan threw him into the furnace for it.
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When King Ezekiel's crew was short one cantaloupe in its tribute for Negan's Saviors, Benjamin was shot in the leg as punishment. Unfortunately, the shot hit an artery, and young Ben bled out.
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It turned out that Richard had tossed one of the cantaloupes because he wanted to start a war between the Kingdom and Saviors -- and he thought they would kill him for being short. They shot Ben instead, but Morgan strangled Richard the next day after Richard confessed.
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Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) used Eugene's suicide pills to kill herself while she was theatrically locked in a casket because of some ridiculous thing Negan was doing. When Negan opened the casket she popped out as a walker and saved Rick and the residents of Alexandria in a clutch moment.
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Morales (Juan Gabriel Pareja) returned in Season 8 after having been gone since Season 1, but that return was short-lived. Now a member of the Saviors, Morales was around again for about 10 minutes before Daryl shot him.
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Eric (Jordan Woods-Robinson) got shot during the Alexandrians' battle against the Saviors, and then bled out and turned into a walker after a tearful goodbye scene with his boyfriend Aaron (Ross Marquand).
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Shiva the tiger bit the dust while saving Ezekiel, Carol and Jerry from a bunch of walkers in Season 8. There were just too many and they swarmed and ate her.
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Carl (Chandler Riggs) died in the Season 8 mid-season premiere after suffering a zombie bite in the first half of the season.
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Gregory (Xander Berkeley) got his long-overdue death when he was executed by hanging for trying to murder Maggie in the Season 9 premiere.
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Jesus (Tom Payne) was killed when he tried to decapitate a zombie only to discover that zombie was actually a living man disguised as one -- this was Alexandria and Hilltop's first real contact with the Whisperers.
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Near the end of Season 9, the Whisperers made a big statement by killing 10 named characters at once and putting all their heads on spikes. The most notable among those killed were Tara (Alanna Masterson), Enid (Katelyn Nacon), Henry (Matt Lintz) and Tammy Rose (Brett Butler).
Siddiq (Avi Nash) was killed in Alexandria by Dante, who it turned out was a Whisperer infiltrator, because he discovered that Dante had poisoned the town's water supply.
Earl Sutton (John Finn) was killed during the battle with the Whisperers at Hilltop when he was bitten by one of their zombie horde. Over the course of this conflict, the Whisperers got his wife Tammy Rose and his son Kenneth as well.
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As the final season kicks off, we look back at some of the emotional devastation this show has wreaked over the past decade
"The Walking Dead" has never been shy about gore and death, but some characters' demises hit harder than others. Now that the final season is upon us, let's take a look back at the carnage from past seasons.