RICK THE WALKING DEAD DEATH SERIES

They know that neither amputation nor anything else can save her. But her heroism comes at a steep cost, as she reveals to Eugene that suffered a shoulder bite during the melee. She obliterates the monsters aiming to snack on her child, pulls a Spider-Mom and leaps off an ambulance onto a narrow pole without harming the baby strapped to her chest, and after falling into the mosh pit below, hops to her feet and leaves a path of zombie destruction in her wake. It’s fitting that-with all the talk this season of the future, protecting the kids, and a mother’s burden in bringing a child into this nightmarish world - Rosita goes into mom-surging-with-adrenaline-lifts-car-off-trapped-baby mode. Also in grave danger is baby Coco, who’s in an overturned crib just barely out of reach of a few hungry zombies. He was good people, a talented troubadour and a hero in taking down the Whisperers, but man, we haven’t seen such an outpouring of grief since Ralphie went blind from soap poisoning.

Or so it seems when Luke can’t survive his walker-bit amputation. The scenes in the hospital and out on the streets succeed in creating a tension this show hasn’t had in a while - the feeling that, moments before the curtain closes for good, absolutely anyone could kick the bucket. parentless and killing both his siblings would have been far too cruel.) As the survivors shoot and stab their way through the horde, Jules is a fast casualty, followed quickly by Luke, who gets his leg munched on and can only watch as his girlfriend disappears into a crowd of ravenous walkers. (Were all of those introductory flashbacks worth giving away that she wasn’t in any real jeopardy of dying? Anyway, leaving little R.J. Unlike the previous episodes that began with Judith’s narration, this one leaps right into the action as Daryl carries her to a hospital that’s about to be overrun with zombies.

RICK THE WALKING DEAD DEATH SERIES

Yet for all that was packed into this super-sized series finale, perhaps the one thing missing was the most important - satisfying closure. There were fireballs, flashbacks and flash-forwards, and finally, the long-awaited semi-return of Rick and Michonne. If you were hoping for an apocalyptic “Red Wedding,” you were likely disappointed by only one significant character’s death - though by the time she breathed her last, you were likely all out of heartstrings to tug on.

In a sense, Judith is also talking to us, the legion of Walking Dead watchers who’ve stuck with the series from the beginning, through good times (seasons one through four, early Saviors, Lizzie looking at the flowers) and bad (Glenngate, season six, late Saviors, all of Lizzie’s storyline before she looked at the flowers). “You deserve a happy ending, too,” Judith says to her Uncle Daryl, in one of the episode’s many poignant moments.

Rick the walking dead death