Okay...first let me get the good out of the way.
I thought the episode was great for the most part. The build, and tension, to the end of the episode where we're all just waiting for the payoff...Rick getting a glimpse of just how much trouble they're really in, before they do get them surrounded and now he knows just how much trouble they're really in.
Brilliant.
Secondly I LOVED JDM as Negan. He was absolutely 100% spot on gold. Brilliant. Fantastic. Everything I wanted out of the character. A great deal of the dialogue in that final scene is straight out of the comic and he hit it out of the park, no pun intended. Just fantastic.
Andrew Lincoln....Brilliant. His hopeless, crushed, defeated look was absolutely perfect. He absolutely caught and showed the gravity and the horrible nature of the moment they were in. He was absolutely everything I wanted out of Rick to that point. Amazing work.
I loved that they went with Carl not being afraid of Negan and Negan being intrigued by it. Brilliant call and so well done. Excellent move here. I am looking forward to the next arc of this between these two for sure.
I LOVED that Abraham showed absolutely zero fear the entire time of Negan or the situation. I loved it. You need at least one of the main characters to show that defiant backbone. The look that they simply can not be forced to fear someone or something. I loved that. Great job.
So all around I felt that the second half of this season and this episode did just the perfect job of building to the moment. Building the tension. Getting the hearts pounding, the goosebumps coming, and our breathing to be just out of control and....
****ed it all up in 2 seconds.
Seriously one of the single dumbest decisions and moves in TV ever. Absolutely, completely, and totally destroyed the moment with that ******** cliffhanger ending. As some others have mentioned already, and I agree 100% with you folks, they killed the moment. They killed the impact of the single biggest, most iconic, most important character defining moment in the entire run of this show (Or the comic) in order to be cute and hope they draw a ******** rating for their season opening.
Seriously the producers of this show just completely ****ed up their entire build and wasted the big moment for Negan. They won't get that back. It doesn't matter how they do the season opener for Season 7 they can not recreate the tension, build, and moment that they had right there. They completely screwed the moment, the Negan character, the pain and anguish of the situation. They completely screwed the fans. Absolutely stupid.
I'd be lying if I didn't say I hope, I really do, that they draw the worst rating for their show ever when it returns in October. I mean I absolutely hope it draws a pitiful, piss poor, terrible rating. It's exactly what they'd deserve if it does. Just absolutely stupid as hell and I can not convey that enough.
Now onto the obligatory discussion of who it is since the writers chose to be **** heads.
As was mentioned they made it clear it's not Rick or Carl by what Negan said. So we can put them on the shelf, not that anyone should have honestly believed they were an option to begin with. You can put Michionne, Sasha, Maggie, and Rosita on the shelf as well because it's clear by the way they had JDM play Negan that they're going to portray the character correctly and therefore they're not having him beat a woman to death with a baseball bat.
You can throw Aaron out because it has zero impact to the overall life of the characters. As the producers have said (even though they're on my **** list right now) the death is going to change the lives and directions of the people. That means it's definitely a main character. So you can shelve Aaron here.
That's going to leave Daryl, Glenn, Abraham, and Eugene. I'll say right now that you can shelve Eugene because it most certainly wont be him. He is too important to the next part of this story. I realize they went out of their way to make you believe that he's the guy with the hug and him giving Rick how to make bullets but it simply won't be him. It won't hit everyone hard enough. It would hit Abraham, Rosita, and maybe Rick really hard but it wouldn't really hurt Daryl and Glenn and everyone quite the same. So shelve him here as well.
Could go with Abraham here because he is the only guy who showed absolute defiance to the mystic and power of Negan. He showed him absolutely zero fear and even almost dared Negan to pick him by the way he sits straight up to look him in the eyes. So there is potential here that they'll go with Abraham. Tie that along with the fact that Abraham just admitted that he's ready to have children and move on to a family and such and I can see this happening. The only hang up I have here is what they'd do with the Sasha character who hasn't been that long getting over her spell of going absolutely stupid over the loss of Bob and Tyrese. So I can't see them really killing Abraham here and putting her into another potential tailspin. So I'll shelve Abraham here as well.
Now that gets me back to the two I felt like all along it's coming down to. Glenn and Daryl. As everyone knows from my posts here I've been leaning really heavy toward Daryl all along. I still have the feeling that's where it's going. I still feel like they're going Daryl. There is the emotional loss to the fans (Although they've ruined that to a large degree now with this cliff hanger ****) but it would be a HUGE loss to the core of the group as they've had Daryl with them since the beginning. And with him getting shot last episode and we see that he's alive and it appears he'd dodged death again I feel like it's still going to be him.
But let me make the case now that I do see where they could finally go right along with the comic and make it Glenn. They had a great moment for Glenn last night wanting to fight for Maggie. That moment alone might buy him not being the one. Cause I mean he was the dude with the biggest out burst that makes it kind of easy if Negan picks him. But I think now for all the reasons they picked Glenn in the comic book they may very well pick Glenn in the TV show.
It's emotional. It's a HUGE loss to the original group and to Maggie in particular it will push her toward that leadership role. It's a loss that she will be so heavy with grief about. And they've built this so big as well with Rick telling her all through the episode that there is still more, still better, for her. Making her believe that everything will be fine and Rick is going to do everything again, as he always has. She believes in him. Which she will again, after a brief emotional outburst being pissed off at him for Glenn's death.
The tone has been set for it to be Glenn. I would not be surprised if they finally went the way of the comic book and went right down the line with what happens.
I'm still leaning toward Daryl but I have about convinced myself that it could very well be Glenn.