

Negan isn't killed, of course, though it appears he was at least grazed. The good guys (for lack of a better shorthand) fire hundreds upon hundreds of rounds into the side of the building, shattering glass but not really aiming at any discernible targets once Negan and his goons have leaped out of the way. The gunfights that ensue after Rick opens fire on Negan are as silly as they are inexplicable. They drive right into our heroes' explosive trap. He sends out some of the guards right before the good guys arrive on a false-flag mission. Oh, and Dwight is in on the plan, of course. Which is fine-all's fair in love and war-but still a little odd. Rick was just doing his best to sound noble while not actually meaning any of it. I guess the whole "only one person needs to die" thing was never actually part of the plan. The rest of Rick and company's plan involves simultaneously taking down Savior satellite outposts as well as drawing a huge herd to the Saviors' fortress and blowing open the gates with explosives. He could have holed up inside and sent a proxy (Eugene, perhaps.) I guess his plan was to use Gregory to "order" Hilltop's members to stand down, though why he thought that would work is beyond me.ĭaryl at least looks cool riding his bike.

The show could have avoided the painfully bad shootout that followed by just not having Negan come out to begin with. And since he only wanted to kill one guy, having sharp-shooters take Negan out the moment he walked outside would have made perfect sense.īut that would have been too easy. He knew that this would afford them the perfect shot. By now, Rick would have known that Negan would come out with his little hip-swoop move and start talking crap in the most annoying way possible. See, Rick spent all his time making speeches and none of his time devising a plan that actually made any sense.

And you know something else? Rick shoots with the accuracy of a Storm Trooper from Star Wars.
#THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 8 EPISODE 1 RUNTIME MOVIE#
But, like that fake old black white movie in Home Alone, he starts shooting before the count is up. He gives them one last chance to forsake Negan and switch over to Team Rick and starts counting down from 10. In the end, Rick "tricks" Negan and his men. There's no reason one of the dozens of rebels couldn't have popped him at such close range. This is one of those incredibly frustrating moments that have come more and more to define The Walking Dead. Because there's really no good explanation as to why nobody shoots Negan the moment he showed his smug face. Despite being heavily armed, despite having multiple weapons with scopes and a clear shot, despite coming to do this very thing, nobody opens fire on Negan. It turns out, he had nothing to be afraid of. He's soon followed by his lieutenants, including the coward, Eugene, and the traitor, Dwight. If you guessed Negan, you win. The Big Bad walks right out there like he hasn't got a care in the world. (They go and kill several lookouts right after that speech, so it's more like "only five people have to die" but who's counting?) And who should walk out onto his doorstep in plain view of all these heavily armed rebels? Who gives them all the perfect chance to take him out then and there? Who swaggers like he's the king of all he sees, never once worried that maybe Rick had given orders to shoot him on sight? Earlier, in Rick's speech, he made clear that only one Savior had to die: Negan.
