Fans of The Walking Dead who have been paying attention have a rough idea of what’s coming in the back eight episodes of season seven. Rick Grimes and Co. will begin building up their alliances so that in the eighth season, Rick’s army will be in a position to take on Negan’s army of Saviors.
Here’s the partial synopsis:
Rick’s group will find out yet again that the world isn’t what they thought it was. It’s much bigger than anything they’ve seen so far. While they have a singular purpose — to defeat Negan — it won’t come easy … We’ll see Rick and the group tested in ways we’ve never seen before. We’ll see treachery from people we trust. [emphasis ours] Rick is confident as he will see his group and many others band together with the common goal of taking down Negan. But no amount of planning will prepare the group for all-out war with Negan and his army.”
The key line here is “We’ll see treachery from people we trust,” and it’s that particular development that Lennie James — who plays Morgan on the show — recently spoke to in an interview with NME, essentially confirming that someone from Rick’s side of the ledger will go to Negan’s side and vice versa:
“On one level, it’s very obvious that we’re getting ready for war, and everyone who knows the comic books knows that we’re about to go into a couple of years of war. I don’t know how long that’s going to pan out in the television series, but it goes on for a while in the comics. So we’re about to go to war, and the second block [of eight episodes] is about meeting the protagonists and certain events that are going to decide what sides people take. And it’s not going to be a clear division of labour, let me say. There are some people who go to the dark side who are going to take you by surprise, and there are some people who are going to come over to the light — and that’s all a matter of perspective.”
Who will come to the “light” side from Negan’s camp? That seems fairly obvious. The show has been setting Dwight up as a good guy acting against his own preferences practically since the beginning, and I’m sure he’s only one more humiliation away from switching sides. If Negan were to kill Dwight’s former wife, for instance, he’d no longer have any incentive to continue doing Negan’s dirty work. She’s the only reason, in fact, that he’s chosen to keep himself alive for this long.
Who might go to the “dark side,” however, is more difficult to predict. Gregory may switch sides, but he’s so self-interested and oily that it wouldn’t come as a “surprise” at all because no one trusts him. It could be Eugene, who has been abducted by Negan, and who Negan might better appreciate than did Rick. But that doesn’t feel like a “major” betrayal. It wouldn’t be Sasha or Maggie or Rosita, all of whom lost loved ones to Negan. It certainly couldn’t be Daryl, who already knows what it’s like to be among the Saviors. It would be a huge surprise if Jesus flipped, but he has no motivation to do so. There’s absolutely no way it’s Michonne, and while I could see Carl going soft, I couldn’t see him flipping. Meanwhile, viewers aren’t really invested enough in either Tara or Aaron to be surprised by anything they do. (AMC: Tara is now best friends with the zombies, and they have tea parties together every day! The Walking Dead Viewers: ¯_(ツ)_/¯)
In my mind, the person most likely to flip — though not likely enough that it wouldn’t be a surprise — is actually Carol. She’s already refused overtures from The Kingdom to fight Negan. It was the guilt she felt after killing Saviors in the sixth season that caused her to abandon Alexandria. She also doesn’t want to get involved in a war, but if Ezekiel or Richard pushed her too hard, she might switch alliances just because Negan might be nice enough leave her alone in exchange for her loyalty. Carol just wants to bake cookies and live out the rest of her days alone. After all, Carol hasn’t yet seen what Negan is capable of. In the long run, having Carol on the inside might be a benefit to Rick. Once Carol finds out what she’s dealing with in Negan, she could become a double agent in season eight.
However, one other hint about the seventh-season finale might ruin any theory about Carol switching sides.
“I hope people aren’t disappointed by the end, but there’s one point in the finale that myself and Melissa [McBride] were reading as we sat next to each other on a plane, and both of us kind of screeched when we got to this one point. It’s such a sexy moment, on all levels — it’s huge, it’s just so lovely. And both of us, when we got to the point of reading it, were like: ‘Oh my God!’ Like kids, excited by it. And to still be at that stage seven years into the show is a testament to the writers. It’s about the arrival of a character, and it’s lovely — really lovely.”
A really “lovely” “sexy” moment? That has to be Carol hooking up with either Morgan or Ezekiel, right? If that’s the case, it rules out Carol as the betrayer, which I guess only leaves Father Gabriel, who has tried to flip on Rick before. However, I have no idea why he would do so again, which means that — unless it is Aaron or Tara — whoever flips actually will come as a major surprise in the back half of season seven.
(Via NME)