The season finale of The Walking Dead doesn’t arrive until early April, but the storylines are already coming together for what looks to be a heartbreaking, emotional and bloody season finale. It’s too early to say exactly what will transpire, but the tea leaves suggest that things do not look good for either Eugene or Sasha.
Let’s take a look at the evidence we have, so far:
— Eugene is now a Savior, and from the looks of things, Eugene is not an unwilling one. In fact, given the opportunity to kill Negan, Eugene demurred, saying that what the Alexandrians did to Negan’s men was just as bad as what Negan did to Abraham and Glenn. It appears that Eugene has gone to the dark side.
— The best friend that Eugene has in Alexandria is Rosita. The two were together with Abraham since before they met Rick and moved to Alexandria. One of the reasons that Rosita has been acting so obnoxious this season is that Rosita feels responsible for Eugene’s abduction.
— Rosita recruited Sasha in an effort to kill Negan. Sasha agreed, so long as she could take the shot. Rosita, who wouldn’t have it any other way, gave Sasha a sniper rifle.
— It looks likely that Sasha will leave the series at the end of the season, as she has joined the cast of Star Trek: Discovery.
— Negan has signed on for at least one more season of The Walking Dead, one in which we’ll likely learn about the heartbreaking backstory on his bat, Lucille, and explore the origins of his sociopathy.
— Lennie James — who plays Morgan — says that a major character will betray Rick this season.
Let’s take all of these elements and mix them up with what Scott Gimple told TVLine about the season 7 finale
“This season’s finale has darkness and light, real horrific moments, betrayal, and real moments of beauty, redemption, love and friendship. It’s sort of the panoply of human and Walking Dead experience.”
Gimple also added that there will be “losses” in the season finale, losses that may be necessary as the cast of The Walking Dead has grown to a nearly unmanageable degree with the addition of so many new colonies.
Based on what we know, a picture is coming into focus. That picture looks something like this: Sasha and Rosita invade the Saviors’ camp. While in The Sanctuary, Rosita finds Eugene with the intention of rescuing him. When she finds him, she tells Eugene they have to leave quickly, because Sasha has a sniper rifle trained on Negan and all hell is about to break loose. Eugene betrays Rosita, rats her and Sasha out to Negan. Negan uses that information not only to avoid being shot by Sasha, but to capture Sasha and horrifically kill her, hopefully in a much less brutal fashion than he did Glenn in the season premiere.
That’s essentially how I see that storyline playing out in the season finale, and it makes sense, especially in light of the fact that the storyline has no real counterpart in the comics. There is no Sasha in the comics, and while Dwight and Rosita are close, Dwight isn’t abducted by Negan for a lengthy period of time. This storyline is essentially untethered from the comics, which gives Gimple the freedom to do whatever he chooses. Having Negan kill Sasha (and for it to be Eugene’s fault) would fulfill the element of betrayal promised all season, and more importantly, it would reignite the audience’s fervor for a war against Negan going into the eighth season.
