That WALKING DEAD Cliffhanger Sucked Ass and Jeffrey Dean Morgan Talks About It
I've been a fan and defender of The Walking Dead since the series first started. Season six was easily one of the most intense seasons ever, and it was leading up to something huge! I was excited for the season finale! I knew the villain Negan would be introduced, and I knew someone would die. What I didn't know is that there would be absolutely no payoff at the end of the finale. Fans were left with one of the most frustrating and uncalled for cliffhangers ever.
Don't worry about any spoilers with this article because there are absolutely no spoilers to be given! Yeah, someone died, but the show's own season finale wouldn't even tell the audience who it was! I absolutely hated that about this finale. It was a long, drawn-out tease with no payoff. They played with our emotions for an hour and a half and then slapped us in the face and faded to black. Those greedy bastards.
Don't get me wrong, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was great as Negan, and he's going to be perfect in the role. It was just they way they handled that death. I don't understand why they ended it without telling the audience who he had killed. I think they did it so their season seven premiere ratings will explode. But you know what? I hope the identity of the character that died leaks online before then.
Morgan recently did an interview with EW in which he talks about the fans' frustration over the unnecessary cliffhanger. However, he believes that the showrunners made the right decision.
“Well, I didn’t know it was going to be a cliffhanger until I watched the show. That’s just how it was done in my world. I don’t know if any of the cast knew exactly how it was going to end, which kind of caused a lot of the uncertainty and emotion that was going on. That said, in talking to Scott and Robert [after the finale], I think that their explanation was that it was the end of the story for that season, and that Rick has lost control and there’s Negan, and Negan has all the control.
“And I think that’s where they wanted to end the story, and it’s not about the death of that person, and then the death of the person is going to kick off season 7, and season 7 will be a big part of, obviously, who is on the receiving end of Lucille? I understand the fans’ frustration, I get that; that being said … I have to trust these writers and showrunners. They know what they’re doing; a lot of people watch for 6 seasons, and I believe that they’ll be back to see who met Lucille and as the story continues to grow.”
I'm still not sold on it, and what Morgan says doesn't make it any better for me. They still could have had a major cliffhanger by revealing who died at the last second. After all the time that fans have invested in this show, that would have given fans the satisfaction and payoff they were expecting. Instead, as a fan, I feel like I was taken advantage of. I didn't need that kind of stupid-ass cliffhanger to get me to watch next season. What the showrunners did with the season finale shows me that they have a lack of respect for their fans.