After 12 glorious years and 11 action-packed seasons, the riveting apocalyptic journey, The Walking Dead, has officially come to an end. Well, except for the umpteen spin-offs and movies that are in the works! The final episode of the show was aptly named “Rest In Peace”, a very cliché name for a show where that is apparently not at all possible.
Below, you’ll see how The Walking Dead went out with a bang, with happy endings left, right, and center, and with the possibility of many adventures to come.
Death of Rosita
As the final episode came to fruition, tension started to rise between the survivors and the corrupt leader of the Commonwealth, Pamela Milton. After Pamela allowed the Walkers to gain entrance to the lower class section of the Commonwealth, all medical personnel were vacated to that where the rich people lived. This did not bode well for the main group as the horde of Walkers took their first victim of the finale, Jules. In the midst of trying to save her, Luke succumbed to a Walker bite on his leg, but the lack of doctors meant that an attempted amputation led to Luke becoming the second victim.
However, it was later in the final episode that the saddest of the deaths occurred, that of Rosita, who had been a mainstay of the franchise since the fourth season. Having joined alongside Abraham and Eugene, the three quickly became a major part of the main group, but having lost Abraham to the hands of Negan at the start of series seven, that only left Rosita and Eugene.
Rosita’s death came about how everyone would have expected it, trying to save everyone around her, seeing that is what she had been doing for so many years. While on a rescue mission to get back her daughter, Coco, alongside Gabriel and Eugene, Rosita fell from a drain pipe into a mass of Walkers. However, she was able to escape, with Coco strapped to her chest, heroically rising from the pile of undead, but the damage was already done. The Walkers had taken a chunk out of Rosita’s shoulder.
She later revealed her bite to Eugene, which led to a very emotional scene between two old friends. It was only after a dinner with the group, while celebrating their win over the Commonwealth, that Rosita announced her news to the adopted father of Coco, Gabriel, the devastating news. This led to her final scene, just her and Eugene with her last words “I’m glad it was you in the end”, the perfect goodbye for a long-standing character.
Negan & Maggie’s New Found ‘Friendship’
Not many people would ever be able to become acquaintances with the man who bashed open the skull of their partner in front of them, but somehow Maggie does with Negan. After the first meeting in the final episode of season six, with Negan having all the main characters in a circle around him and choosing who to kill, Negan finally became the big bad in the opening episode of season seven.
After a six-month cliffhanger between seasons six and seven, we finally found out who Negan chose to murder. First, it was Abraham who got bashed to death by Negan’s baseball bat ‘Lucille, and the second to succumb to death by bat was Glenn, whose eyes and brain were seen hanging out of his skull, right in front of his partner Maggie.
So, for Maggie to reconcile with Negan after everything that had happened before was a big moment in both their character arcs. After Negan was almost executed alongside his wife Annie it made him realize what he had taken away from Maggie all those years prior. This is where the unexpected apology from Negan came to fruition, “I know that I probably owe you more than this, but I am so sorry for what I took from you, what I took from your son”.
With the two no longer being enemies, but also not friends at the same time, Maggie delivered one of the most poignant speeches in The Walking Dead. “Glenn was beautiful. I’ll never love anyone like that again. I remember his smile. His goodness. The way he made me feel. But when I look at you… all I see is that bat coming down on his head. Blood running down his face. I hear him, I hear him calling for me. And I hear you mocking him while he’s dying. So I can’t forgive you. Even though I’m so grateful that you saved my son. Even though I know that you’re trying. I’m trying, too. ‘Cause I don’t want to hate you anymore. I don’t want to hurt like that. And I don’t want my son to see that anybody has that kind of hold over me. If you and Annie want to stay, you have earned your place. If I can’t look at you some days, if I can’t work with you, and if I can’t move on — that’s why. Because all I have are my memories. And I don’t want to remember Glenn like that.”
That was the final interaction between two stalwarts of The Walking Dead franchise until they join forces in their spin-off show, The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premieres in April 2023 on AMC.
Daryls Goodbye
Not many characters embodied a show like Daryl Dixon did with The Walking Dead. With his character, not even in the comics, Daryl was made just for the TV show, and what a decision that was by the writers. Come to the final episode, he was one of only two originals left in the show, alongside his best friend in the apocalypse, Carol.
Daryl takes center stage in the finale episode, convincing Mercer and other Commonwealth soldiers to join forces and arrest Daryl, and then with time for a speech as well, he says “We have one enemy… The Walking Dead”. The first and last time the title of the show is mentioned across all seasons.
This however is not the only big moment for Daryl. As the show jumps forward a year and everyone is living happily and Ezekiel is their leader, Carol and Daryl say their final goodbyes to each other. It was only right they had their own separate farewell after all the adventures they had been on together.
There was only one more goodbye for Daryl and that was to Judith. When Rick left the show, Daryl became a father figure to Judith, so it was always going to be hard to say goodbye. It was one line from Judith that almost got the viewer’s tears flowing, “I’ll keep an eye on Dog”. And that was that. Daryl jumped upon his trusty motorbike and drove through some peaceful autumnal woods en route to his own spin-off show, where he will be fighting more advanced Zombies in France.
A fitting goodbye to an OG survivor.
The Return of Rick & Michonne
There could not be a Walking Dead finale without the main couple themselves, Rick and Michonne. As we say goodbye to all the other survivors, we finally get to see Rick for the first time after his disappearance at the end of series 8 when he was helicoptered away by the CRM. It was also the first sighting of Michonne after she left part way through season 10, aboard a ship in search of Rick.
Even though we so the both of them, they are not together, because as the camera cuts between scenes, we see them sitting alongside separate fires, but they are connecting through word via a shared journal they have both been writing in at different times. As the scene goes on, we see Rick chuck away a bag that contains a said journal, which Michonne picks up later on. This means only one thing, she is on the right trail.
With their own spin-off show confirmed and the possibility of The Walking Dead hitting the big screen, this was a perfect cliffhanger for Rick and Michonne.
Overall, The Walking Dead went out with a bang, leaving many questions unanswered but many avenues left open to explore.
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