The Walking Dead Season 7 Finale: 3 Ups & 5 Downs From 'The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life'

2. Most Of The Episode Had No Tension

For a season finale, the episode was lacking in a lot of suspense. It wasn't until Sasha was unveiled and shots started being fired that we felt any tension, which meant that for around 40 minutes things just sauntered along at a fairly languid pace.

These have been issues throughout the season, but felt particularly pronounced here given the episode's billing, which comes from a couple of different points. One is the episode length, which is something The Walking Dead often struggles with; once again, they didn't use the extra time to their advantage, meaning rather than being on the edge of your seat as war approached, it was all very quiet.

Another problem is Rick. Andrew Lincoln's great, but Rick's wrapped in incredibly thick plot armour, and Carl's isn't much thinner, which largely ruins the scenes with Negan and Jadis because you know they can't die (and once again, the series hints at Rick losing a hand (or hands) and doesn't go through with it). It weakens the villains, because how can Negan be a ruthless leader when he so frequently allows Rick to live. That goes for Michonne too; she's not as untouchable as Rick, but there was no way they were going to have a random character kill her, and definitely not off-screen.

The Season 6 finale was an incredibly tense episode of the show, and a very good one up until that fade to black. This one thankfully doesn't have a cliffhanger, but it also feels pretty empty as well.