I see you guys like this episode, I really don't and check my record on all previous TWD threads, I easily win the "Least bitching about TWD" award but I'm so frustrated with the bad handling of everything since season 8. Now here there are a couple of things that I would change about this episode so I wouldn't find it pretty fuckin awful and I do find it pretty fuckin awful, things that pertain to logic, as usual with TWD:
1 - Rick Grimes, who we know very fuckin well, is dying. He hallucinates about important figures from his life, his friend who he's killed and a father figure and an important moral compass for him, okay I'm sold on that. But Sasha? When did we ever see Rick develop any kind of emotional connection with Sasha? Rick's dealing with Sasha consisted of either yelling at her or planning murders! You skipped on having a Glenn hallucination? I mean I understand you can't get Carl cause the actor is on bad terms with AMC but Sasha?! Not Lori, not Glenn, not forgot-his-name RV guy!
I think a lot of this had to do with scheduling. They contacted Steven Yeun, but he couldn't do it. Angela Kang (showrunner) wouldn't divulge who else was on the list, but someone else did mention Steven. They were lucky to get Jon Bernthal to come back as Shane...he barely squeezed it in. Ultimately, the message was that Rick started out looking for his family (Lori and Carl) but when the group came to rescue him, he realized that they were all his family and he was at peace. So while having Lori or Glenn come back for a cameo would have been amazing, the character of Rick saw someone like Sasha as his family as well.
2 - It looks like it's just me but I found what happened at the bridge to be confusing as fuck. It looked like Rick had crossed the bridge to the other side so I didn't understand why he was in danger when the music started tensing up before he shot the dynamite, I still need to re-watch that scene cause I was pretty positive he made it across.
It was a little confusing. In the prior episode, Daryl told him to lead the walkers to the bridge. He refused. But given his condition, I think he realized that it was his only option. So he went out to the bridge, but it held, rather than crumble under the weight. Rick said like "[oh crap,] it held."
3 - Last episode Daryl suggested to Rick that he leads the walkers to the bridge and blow it up and Rick said no, so up to the end I thought Rick was gonna let them cross the bridge and find a way to deal with them further down but it's now clear that once they got to the bridge; it was no longer an option! That wasn't clear to me at all and played into the confusion of the previous point.
See above - it was his intent, but they built it strongly enough for it to hold, rather than crumble.
4- Rick's survival, that was plain fuckin dumb, that's just AMC realizing they need to milk Rick some more. Rick has taken a life threatening beating or two but nothing as bad as this, bleeding for a long time then falling off a collapsing bridge into the river and getting swept away! At this point I don't think Rick would die if he got shot in the head. But it's not just that; the moment of explosion was amazing because of Lincoln's acting and Daryl/Michonne's reactions, it would have been the perfect closure, such a waste.
I wanted him to be killed off and felt cheated when he was on the helicopter. But when Gimple announced the movies, it all made sense. It's a total win-win. The characters believe Rick is dead, which is the same as killing him off. The show has always been about watching these characters deal with the loss of others, and we should get to see some of that. We won't get the immediate closure, but you can be sure that he will live on the same way other characters have in this show, especially with Judith being a main character.
Fans get to continue to watch Rick in a Walking Dead universe movie series. He doesn't have to spend 6 months away from his family and can still give us the character that we love.
5 - I'm not buying what they've been doing with Negan, I was truly surprised when he didn't try pushing Maggie over when she opened his door but then I realized his breakdown was genuine! wtf! They haven't shown us when or how his character had changed that much!
I'm not that far into the comics, but I believe this is part of Negan's comic storyline. They accelerated Maggie's confrontation with him due to Lauren Cohan leaving and having limited time. There has also been 18 months in between last season and this season, so a lot happened in between that we just haven't seen.
If whatever they're doing for the next 3 episodes doesn't turn out to be mind-blowingly amazing and creative, and it won't, this will probably be the last season or the season before last IMO.
I'm expecting this show to end with Season 10, but given Gimple's announcement of an expanded universe, I don't think AMC has any intentions of saying goodbye to the franchise yet.