Poor Scott Gimple. The man is never going to live down the sixth-season finale of The Walking Dead unless he really, honestly follows through on his promise to write a seventh-season opener that justified the cliffhanger. I don’t even know if that’s possible.
It is possible, however, that it wasn’t Scott Gimple’s idea to end the season on the cliffhanger that saw Negan bash an unknown victim’s head in with his baseball bat, Lucille. Comments from the cast and crew have been confusingly contradictory, and it’s possible that Scott Gimple had not originally envisioned ending the season on that cliffhanger. It may have been last-minute meddling from AMC or someone else above.
In either case, Scott Gimple is the one who is being scapegoated. He’s the one who will have to pay for it over the next six months. He’s certainly paying for it on Twitter, where his @mentions have been absolutely brutal since the season finale. He’s tweeted four times in the two weeks since the episode aired, and none of the tweets have had anything to do with The Walking Dead. Nevertheless, Twitter has made them about The Walking Dead in sometimes funny, and sometimes unnecessarily cruel ways.
Here’s a sampling, starting with a completely innocent tweet about airplane mode:
https://twitter.com/j_sandcastle/status/721803416754753536
https://twitter.com/phil_addison04/status/721805475742932997
https://twitter.com/HEEL_Saylor/status/721804035708293122
@ScottMGimple you should go up to him like you are going to tell him and then wait until October to give the answer.
— Big Shooter (@BiggieShooter) April 17, 2016
Here, he tried to plug the Kickstarter for Aisha Tyler’s directorial debut. It did not go well.
@ScottMGimple @aishatyler I hope it doesn't end on a pointless cliffhanger that makes ppl want to thump your eyeballs.
— D (@DMarie2101) April 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/YaBoyRonJovi/status/718957983447781377
https://twitter.com/arcr131213/status/719329023168552960
@ScottMGimple @aishatyler I'm not taking any advice from gimple after that finale. Horrible.
— D (@Usingforminecra) April 14, 2016
Here, all he was doing was talking about his selection of protein bars. Surely, Twitter couldn’t take issue with that, could they?
@ScottMGimple and then as you were about to eat it, screen fades to black and you have to wait 7 months to find out how it tastes
— Billy Mosetter (@Mosetter27) April 9, 2016
@Mosetter27 😂 Thank you, that is amazing! Someone should snatch the bar from him, beat it with a bat, then give to him to eat! 🍫
— Gen. Raven, Space Force (@RavenMartinez73) April 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/RachelTacoSass/status/718644239589093376
@ScottMGimple Is there footage of this from the protein bars perspective so we don't know which ones you actually bought?
— Joe M (@neogreenlantern) April 9, 2016
In his next tweet, he posted a picture of his protein bar.
@ScottMGimple A metaphor for the empty feeling your finale gave us?
— J Musselman (@jmuss67) April 9, 2016
@ScottMGimple you can't eat away your sadness for destroying the season finale. It's food, not love
— Crypto Chanterelle (@Bognetter) April 9, 2016
@ScottMGimple hope you enjoyed it, it looks great, just don't tell us how great it was for 6 months.
— Dawson (@andy_dawson) April 9, 2016
@ScottMGimple Oh man we didn't get to see you eat it. Or did someone else eat it? Or it didn't get eaten at all? Anyway. I feel cheated 😉
— Clark Taylor (@ClarkZero) April 9, 2016
People on Twitter are straight-up cruel, and sometimes hilarious. But mostly cruel. Scott Gimple would be wise to stay off of Twitter until October, or at least never, ever look at his @mentions, if he values his self esteem.
