The seventh midseason premiere of The Walking Dead airs this Sunday on AMC, and it may finally bring a little normalcy back into our lives. The midseason finale — as promised by creator Robert Kirkman — didn’t leave any major unresolved cliffhangers, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t leave a few questions going into the back eight episodes.
What’s the biggest question we have?
Is it, “Who is the spy wearing the boot?” No, I think we have that one figured out. We think the boot-wearing spy is a member of a new community that lives in a junkyard, and we’ll likely be introduced to that new group in the second episode of this season. The junkyard community, we expect, will end up mostly playing red shirts in the oncoming war with Negan.
Will Rick be able to form an alliance with The Hilltop? The trailers suggests that’s an issue that will be taken up immediately, and the answer is yes, almost certainly. The question isn’t whether The Hilltop will join Rick Grimes, but whether The Hilltop’s nominal leader, Gregory, will also join them. He’s a coward. He’s afraid of Negan, and he’s not likely to rock the boat and endanger his own life. However, Maggie is well situated now to take over as leader of The Hilltop, and together with Jesus and Sasha, the three of them should be able to convince the rest of The Hilltop to join the alliance against Negan with or without Gregory.
Will Rick be able to convince Ezekiel’s The Kingdom to join the alliance? That’s a tougher question, because Ezekiel seems dead set against going to war against Negan. His people have suffered enough, and he’s already gone to great lengths to protect them by, for instance, posing as an old-timey King with a tiger to provide them with comfort. He also keeps The Kingdom’s arrangement with Negan hidden from his people because he doesn’t want to scare them. Ezekiel has no desire to confront The Saviors, and his people would be surprised even to learn that there’s a threat. In fact, Richard has already been unable to convince Ezekiel to fight, so I’m not sure how much a stranger like Rick could bring to the table. The lynchpin here may be Carol, who seems to be the only one that might be able to persuade Ezekiel to go to war. Ezekiel has a crush on Carol. However, Carol has shown no thirst for war herself. She seems content living alone in a house away from The Kingdom.
Where will Daryl go? Now that Daryl has escaped The Savior’s compound, it’s only a matter of time before Negan sends out a search party. The first place he’s going to look is Alexandria. Daryl is not safe there, and he puts everyone else in danger if he returns. The obvious place for Daryl to stay is on The Hilltop with Maggie, who is already hiding out from Negan. However, we do know from the trailers that Daryl gets as far as The Kingdom, so maybe he ends up hiding out there with Carol? Would that make Ezekiel jealous?
What about Eugene? He’s in the Savior compound with Negan now, and Negan knows he can make bullets. Will Negan put Eugene’s skills to good use, or will Eugene be able to scout out the compound for weaknesses and report back to Rick? Based on the glimpse we get of him in the trailer playing with fire surrounded by Negan groupies, Dwight seems to be having a great time.
Who among Rick’s circle will flip on Alexandria and side with The Saviors? Lennie James — who plays Morgan — said that there are some “surprising people” who betray Rick and “go to the dark side.” Who? Could it be Carol? Or maybe it’s the entire Kingdom? Maybe instead of going to war with the Saviors, the Kingdom aligns with them in order to maintain the peace. Or it could be Dwight, who decides he prefers the easier life among the Saviors, where he’s more respected (and based on the trailer, beloved by the women in the Savior compound).
When will Dwight flip? It’s inevitable. It’s not a question of if, but when. There’s only so many times Dwight can suffer watching Negan sleep with his wife. His relationship with Negan showed signs of strain earlier this season; he’s bound to break at some point.
Will we see the Oceanside community again? Tara promised not to sell out the women of the Oceanside Community, but that colony has a lot of weapons that might come in handy as Rick builds his alliance against Negan. We’ll definitely see them again.
Who will die this season? Sasha. Definitely Sasha. Maybe Eugene, too. But definitely Sasha.
None of those questions, however, compare with the most important one we have going into the midseason finale.
Will Negan have a beard again?
Those who have seen the trailers and TV spots for the back eight episodes may have picked up on something. Or rather, on the lack of someone. The most important character in the back half of season eight is nowhere to be found in those spots. There’s no Negan. It’s not as though the series doesn’t spend time in the Savior compound — Eugene is in one of the trailers at the Savior compound, and Dwight is also featured. Why wouldn’t the trailers show Negan?
Easy.
AMC is trying to generate a mystery around one of the series’ biggest missteps in seven season: They let Jeffrey Dean Morgan shave his beard. Afterwards, Negan wasn’t the same. He looked more like Ray’s older brother in Everyone Loves Raymond than he did the fierce bad ass that dominated the first eight episodes. Will AMC correct the mistake? Will Negan regrow his beard? Or will he continue along in the series as the far less menacing clean-shaven leader of The Saviors? That’s the question everyone wants to know.
Tune in Sunday to find out.
