The Walking Dead aired its seventh season finale this weekend. Although it was overall a lackluster episode, there were a couple of fantastic scenes.
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season seven finale.]
Between Carl taking the lead and unleashing his inner badass and Shiva jumping to his defense, The Walking Dead wasn’t short on interesting, quick moments. Where the episode falters overall is the pacing and the dryness of it, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t salvage itself entirely.
Here are some of the best moments from the finale.
Carl becomes a badass
Let’s face it: Carl has been a badass for quite some time. He’s not the scared kid we first got to know in the first season, and this episode proved that. While being held captive by the Saviors, Carl basically decides he’s tired of being stripped of his freedom. Naturally, he reaches down for his hidden gun and starts blasting away. The look of shock on the Saviors’ faces is absolutely the best part about the entire thing.
Before the finale aired, Chandler Riggs, the actor who plays Carl, tweeted about how good the finale was going to be. He called it the opposite of last year’s finale, which saw the introduction of Negan and ended on one of the most controversial cliffhangers in the series’ history.
Unfortunately, most people did not agree with Riggs, but the actor has since followed up with more tweets. One very interesting one examines how the highly-talked about Shiva scene was filmed.
ok but here's the best part about filming that whole episode:
— chandler riggs (@chandlerriggs) April 3, 2017
when shiva came in clutch, it was literally a guy in a blue suit jumping off of a trampoline and tackling the guy lmaooo
— chandler riggs (@chandlerriggs) April 3, 2017
i found a picture omg pic.twitter.com/6njTO96Ysj
— chandler riggs (@chandlerriggs) April 3, 2017
Speaking of Shiva, though, the tiger’s brave and deadly attack on a group of unsuspecting Saviors is our next highlighted scene from the finale.
Shiva attacks
The scene above, which shows a stunt actor mid-flight as he’s ready to pounce on one of the Saviors, doesn’t do the scene much justice. The video below, however, captures the intensity of the moment in question.
Bonus points must be awarded to Shiva — along with King Ezekiel and the rest of the crew — for stepping in right when Carl needed saving. Watching the all-powerful Negan cower away from Shiva as Rick and Carl regain their bearings is just the cherry on top of this vengeful sundae.
Shiva hasn’t appeared in too many episodes this season, but when she does, she’s always the highlight when she saunters into the shot. Last night’s finale was no exception.
Eugene’s transformation
The best and perhaps most chilling part of the episode came when Eugene uttered three little words: “I’m Negan now.”
Although Eugene’s turn to the dark side, if you will, wasn’t too much of a shock, it was still chill-inducing to watch the character become something he vowed to fight against. The scene acted as a reminder that Negan is a powerful force to be reckoned with, and not just because of his sadistic, sociopathic tendencies, either. He’s charming — and he’s able to use that charm to get people to do what he wants.
Eugene is a perfect example of that happening. Although he didn’t want to join Negan’s army originally, he’s now become an enemy of the people he used to call his friends. The change was so revelatory, that it’s led to a couple of memes from The Walking Dead community, including using a classic line from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to capture the essence of two characters: Abraham and Eugene.
It will be interesting to see what Eugene does in the next season, although before that can happen, The Walking Dead needs to sort out some of its biggest issues.
The Walking Dead will return for an eighth season this fall.