Guess what? We're still mad about The Walking Dead [1]'s awful season finale cliffhanger [2]. And if you weren't aware, the rest of the reactions on the internet [3] aren't quite favorable either. We've been spending time trying to figure out who Negan kills in the final episode [4]. We've obsessed over the slowed-down audio [5], pondered on the use of first-person perspective [6], and read and reread the creators' comments about the conclusion [7]. That's when it hit us, actually. Not all of this is adding up. Someone must be lying. Keep reading, because we've got a crazy theory about how that epic death is more set in stone than you think.
The Cast's Comments Leading Up to the Finale Don't Match Up to What We Heard After
In case you weren't aware, the cast was pretty shaken up about the finale [8], and they weren't afraid to talk about Negan's arrival [9]. What it boils down to is this: Negan's arrival scene is epic, to be sure. It's filled with impending dread. It's tense. But it's not that emotionally scarring. Based on the below quotes, it really seems like the script revealed his victim.
- Norman Reedus said, "I knew what was happening, and what was going to happen, and who was involved, but I got to tell you, I couldn't speak for like an hour." Not only is he implying he knows who dies — sure, his quote is admittedly up to interpretation because he could be referring to the scene as a whole — but it takes a lot to render someone speechless.
- It gets worse. In another quote, Andrew Lincoln noted, "I felt sick to my stomach when I read the script. It was the first day in the whole six years of working on The Walking Dead [10]. . . . I was so angry and frustrated and I felt sick." If you read details about Negan beating one of your costars to death, you'd probably feel sick too. But the rest of the scene? It's a stretch.
- Perhaps the most telling quote is Lauren Cohan's. Lauren said, "[Hearing] the word 'finale' gives me a physical reaction because it's the hardest day on set that I've ever had in my life. . . . Andy talks about being late to work; I didn't want to go to work that day. It took a really, really long time for everybody to feel OK again after the finale." This, after being lined up and hearing a round of "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe." [11]
OK, OK, we're not just using these flimsy quotes as sole evidence. As executive producer Gregory Nicotero said after the finale, the cast doesn't know who Negan killed [12]. In fact, according to him, "We had wrapped all of the actors. . . . We didn't have anybody there." It's puzzling, all these visceral, gut-wrenching reactions, and they haven't even filmed the worst part. This has us thinking one thing: the cast did read — and possibly witness — the full Negan kill scene. That would explain their horrified reactions.
In fact, to cover his tracks, Nicotero dropped another quote that directly contradicts [13] all the above blurbs. He said, "While we were shooting this episode, I'd never seen the cast more energized and more excited about the future of the show." Wait, is this the same shoot which Andrew Lincoln was late to for the first time ever? The same shoot Lauren Cohan didn't want to go to at all? What a strange thing to say.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Quote Pretty Much Confirms They Filmed the Full Kill Scene
Oh, but the trickery doesn't stop there. As we already mentioned, Nicotero revealed in his interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was alone when he filmed the scene, and they used a rig to simulate Lucille hitting a body. What's strange, though, is Jeffrey's statement about the cliffhanger. In an interview with Vulture [14], he admitted, "I didn't know it was going to be a cliffhanger until I watched the show." If you really think about it, that doesn't make sense at all. Morgan had to know it'd be a cliffhanger . . . if it went down the way Nicotero says it did.
Take a second to mull it over. There's one context in which Morgan's comment makes sense: they filmed the whole death scene, and decided to make it a cliffhanger later. How else would that explain his surprise? If he had filmed the scene all alone, without the other actors reacting and screaming around him, he would absolutely have an idea of how the ending would look. He would be able to assume it would be a cliffhanger. The fact that he didn't know about the cliffhanger suggests that they cut the ending short. Plain and simple.
The Only Obvious Conclusion: Someone Is Lying to Us
Between Nicotero's direct contradiction of the cast and Morgan's slip about the cliffhanger, one thing seems clear: we're being lied to. The easiest conclusion to jump to is that everyone in the cast knows who dies. It would explain all the horrified reactions of the cast that trickled out beforehand. And it's clear: playing dumb is the easiest way to get through the next six months. Instead of being like, "I know, but I can't say," they're just saying they're clueless.
Even if you think the rest of the cast is totally oblivious to Negan's victim, you have to admit Morgan's quote is pretty suspect. He, at the very least, knows. Someone knows. Someone's lying. And it's only a matter of time before the truth comes out.