The TV Column

Anxious Walking Dead fans will get relief today

Jeffrey Dean Morgan will portray the evil sociopath Negan when The Walking Dead returns to AMC today. Negan’s weapon of choice is his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan will portray the evil sociopath Negan when The Walking Dead returns to AMC today. Negan’s weapon of choice is his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.

It's finally time, fellow Walking Dead fans. The Season 7 premiere is upon us. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. and AMC will answer the burning question, "Who did Negan kill?"

As intended, the Season 6 cliffhanger plunged viewers into outraged ignorance -- the most since "Who shot J.R.?" kept Dallas fans speculating during the long summer 36 years ago.

For the record, J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) was plugged twice by an unknown assailant on March 21, 1980, and we didn't find out it was Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby) until Nov. 21.

In The Walking Dead, the cliffhanger went down April 3, so we haven't had quite as long to wait to find out which survivor is leaving as a bloody pulp. J.R. survived his gunshots. Nobody will survive Negan's barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat, Lucille.

I've gotten email from several readers saying they can't recall exactly who it was kneeling in the dark at the end of last season. Here's a reminder.

The 11 survivors awaiting their fate at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are -- as they were lined up in the last scene, from left -- Glenn (Steven Yeun), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Daryl (Norman Reedus), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), the pregnant Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), Aaron (Ross Marquand), Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt).

We were introduced to Negan in the Season 6 finale, "Last Day on Earth," when Rick and his group were attempting to get Maggie to the Hilltop Colony doctor. They were ambushed by a large group of Saviors, who made them line up in front of Negan.

Negan says that Rick's group must pay the price for killing a lot of the Saviors, and he is going to arbitrarily pick someone and bludgeon them to death with Lucille.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe," Negan taunts as he walks the line before stopping in front of an unseen victim. "You ... are ... it," he pronounces, and after warning everyone not to say or do anything, he begins to bash someone's head in.

The screen goes black amid blood-curdling screams. Who has died? We'll find out tonight.

Warning: Spoiler-ish stuff follows.

Fans have spent the summer in frenzied speculation about which of their favorites has bitten the dust. In a teaser for the new season, we see Rick still on his knees after Negan has killed someone. In a raspy, barely audible voice, a stunned Rick says to Negan, "I'm going to kill you. Not today. Not tomorrow. But I'm gonna kill you."

Many fans have pointed out in chat rooms that the blood splatter in this teaser was on the right side of Rick's face. That would eliminate the four folks following Rick's name in the above list (to his left).

Others notice a bloody blanket on the ground in the teaser. Daryl was wearing a blanket and is Rick's right-hand man. Negan asks if he has killed Rick's right-hand man.

And some claim to spot an engagement ring in the pile of gore left behind, indicating Maggie was the victim. She was the one nearest Rick.

Finally, readers of the comic book series claim to have inside knowledge because of who Negan killed in the comics. The TV series, however, has taken liberties from the comics in the past.

What's ahead for Season 7?

Producer/director Greg Nicotero said in an AMC interview, "The hardest thing Rick had to deal with was that he was completely helpless. Rick is a broken man, and we've never seen him like this."

Producer/writer Scott Gimple adds, "The characters that survive are going to see a much larger world than they found even at the Hilltop. We'll see how Negan has brought order to the world. And it's not necessarily an order a lot of people would favor."

Negan, as it turns out, controls a number of groups. "Thing is," he says, "I am everywhere."

Meanwhile, in another part of the Walking Dead universe, Morgan (Lennie James) rescued Carol (Melissa McBride) from the Savior member following her. Then they ran into members of yet another group, The Kingdom.

The Kingdom members decide to take Morgan and Carol, who had severe arm and leg wounds, back to their group for safety.

There will be 16 episodes in Season 7, which will be divided into two parts. After the first eight there will be a hiatus, and the final episodes will return in February.

Marathon. Meanwhile, the AMC Walking Dead marathon continues all day today leading up to tonight's premiere. If you want to relive the 90-minute Season 6 finale, it comes on at 6:30 p.m. The episode was first seen by 18.4 million viewers.

And if you want to commiserate with fellow fans, The Talking Dead with host Chris Hardwick follows at 9 to dissect all that went down in the season premiere. If past examples hold true, the recently deceased cast member will join him.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 10/23/2016

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