Did You Catch That Negan Reference on This Week's Episode of The Walking Dead?

As you likely already know, this week on The Walking Dead marked the final episode before the devastating season six finale that will finally introduce Negan. Based on testimony from the cast and one of the showrunners, we're in for a pretty unsettling, tumultuous debut. In the meantime, we've only seen very sparse references to the awful villain. This week, for instance, a tiny bit of foreshadowing made its way into the opening credits. Now, our job is to figure out what it means.

In the first few minutes of this past Sunday's episode, called "East," it's business as usual inside the walls of Alexandria. Carol has just slipped away in the dead of night. Sasha and Rosita are on duty for patrol. Rick and Michonne are all cuddled up in bed, eating an apple for some reason. Carl inspects a strange etching on a gun in the armory. Glenn and Maggie take quite the steamy shower together. Hey, wait just a damn minute. Let's rewind. Carl inspects a strange etching on a gun in the armory?! Upon closer inspection, it looks eerily like a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

Hardcore fans of The Walking Dead will immediately know that Negan's signature weapon is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. He names it Lucille, and it makes an appearance in the official promo for the finale, which touts the first footage of the villain. So, what does it mean that it's appearing on Carl's gun? The small moment could have dire implications.

One thing we haven't yet considered: maybe Carl will be the one to die. As you can see in the promo for the episode, Carl is among the group that goes out to meet with the Saviors. Does he somehow get captured? It's possible. Something else to consider: Glenn and Maggie's shower scene comes directly after Carl finds the gun. Could this be yet another hint that Glenn will die next week? Of course, there's still the possibility that we could be stuck with the worst cliffhanger of all time, but we're really hoping that's not the case. In any event, we're just days away from the epic conclusion, so only time will tell.