This is the chilling response Dr. Jenner gives Rick when he says he’s grateful, way back in season one. This is the most poetic and haunting thing about the season seven premiere. The rest, well…

So Negan is an asshole. Not an average asshole, an exceptional asshole. He’s king asshole. As a matter of fact, he displays traits of every kind of asshole you’ve ever known in your life. That’s what makes him so loathsome, and what makes seeing him with the upper hand so gut wrenching. When we last left our heroes, they were kneeling in front of him and wondering who was going to get a thumping from Lucille.

As it turns out, it was Abraham. I was figuring this for a while now, only because of how chipper he was about life after getting things going with Sasha. I always found Abraham to be a confident and capable character; a little too redneck for my tastes but ultimately a likeable and a loyal member of the group. Michael Cudlitz is a great actor and there was a lot of potential for his character so it was sad to see him go. Then again, us comic nerds have been salty about him going out for a while now.

Of course the scene was brutal and sad but after the initial blow and Abraham’s final words of defiance, it was just a lot of off screen smashing. For something that was teased up and down and discussed in every dank corner of the internet for months, it seemed a bit...tame. But then Daryl decides to sucker punch Negan and that’s when I realized I spoke too soon.

Glenn’s death in issue 100 of TWD comic will go down in modern pop culture history as one of the biggest “Oh Shit” moments. It was cruel and heartbreaking and pretty damn graphic. It painted Negan as a much darker villain than the others, and it really drove the point home that even the most good and right things like love and family and new beginnings can be destroyed on a whim in this world.

And that point was made again when Negan made Glenn pay for Daryl’s little tantrum. One particular image stood out in the comic and they did it justice in this episode, and that’s the only good thing I can say about it. I was kicked in the stomach all over again, regardless of how much I had a feeling this was going to happen. And to add insult to grievous injury, Negan parades about with his bravado and bad jokes and they just have to sit there and take it.

After the blood was spilled, Negan takes Rick on a ride and the episode takes a bit of a nosedive. Their little roadtrip was supposed to be Negan breaking Rick down and making him realize he’s not going to be the hero or win this time around. But really, Rick just rolls around on the floor with some walkers while Negan talks shit, and we are tortured (as is Rick) with the idea of the rest of our heroes getting clobbered in the dome. I thought maybe they were going to triple down on the shockers and have Negan chop Rick’s hand off, but that was a red herring for when they got back to the others.

As if killing off two major characters and ending a handful of possibly engaging storylines wasn’t enough, Negan wants Rick to chop off Carl’s arm in a sadistic God and Abraham moment. It was intense and wholly unnecessary but I did like seeing Carl throw shade at Negan and when the moment came, he was ready to lose an arm for his people.

At this point, Rick is thoroughly broken and agrees to Negan’s terms, which were kind of nebulous but the gist was that both Alexandria and Hilltop would produce for Negan. Everyone packs up their stuff and leaves our heroes to ponder their ruin. This is the first time in nearly an hour that any emotional weight began to settle. Even though we all saw some beloved characters go out in a cheap and violent way, we were too busy watching Negan strut around and loudly crack wise. It’s only in his absence that the characters start expressing emotion, even though the episode was full of reaction shots.

Maggie, probably another Carol in the making, wants the group to get ready for war and she’s going to drag Glenn’s headless body to Hilltop alone. Of course, they won’t let this happen and in solidarity, collect their dead and console each other. It’s here that we realize who we lost. If it wasn’t for Glenn, there would be no Rick. He was there from episode one, and we watched him grow from an unsure kid to a loving husband and a capable fighter, someone who saw good in people and believed in the idea of home and second chances. Abraham was an angry and broken man without a sense of purpose, but after joining the group became a tireless warrior, a loyal ally, and someone who also believed in second chances, who hoped in his last days at another chance at love.

We understand all this, so I’m not sure we needed to see an alternative vision of the future, with all our heroes sitting at a table together in Alexandria. It feels like just a LITTLE too much salt in the wounds.

But that’s it. That’s the whole episode really. Just a whole lot of brains and barking Negan, with a few extra kicks in the nuts in case the first two weren’t enough.

We saw nothing of the Kingdom or Morgan and Carol. The deaths of Glenn and Abraham are what’s going to motivate our heroes, but the Saviors also have Daryl, so they need to be careful with their war plan.

But at this point, I think Daryl’s gotten off too easy because of his popularity. He’s essentially responsible for Glenn’s death so I would say to Rick, go hog wild, and if they kill him in retaliation so be it.

As always, I’m onboard to see how all this plays out, even if the fanboy in me is sad and the TV viewer in me is upset. See you next week...