After months of speculation, "The Walking Dead" finally revealed the victim of Negan's brutal head bashing at the end of season 6.
Despite cryptic warnings and hints by the series' cast and directors, however, fans were caught unprepared with the confirmation of their worst fears. True to actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan's statement that Negan will end multiple characters, the season 7 premiere did kill off two series regulars by its end.
After leaving the fans in suspense for half a year, the show made the eager viewers wait for another twenty minutes before revealing who Negan's first victim was.
Fan speculation on the trajectory of the blood splatter and Negan's statement in the promo about Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) right hand man proved correct as Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) was the first defiant victim of Negan's bat Lucille.
A few minutes later, the series executed the brutal beatdown of Glenn (Steven Yeun) as it appeared in Robert Kirkman's comic book, complete with Glenn's eye popping out of its socket.
A review by Forbes Magazine's Erik Kaine rightfully described the episode as difficult to sit through.
"The actual murders were hard to watch. Negan takes great pleasure in introducing both Abraham and Glenn to his bat, Lucille. It's amazing this stuff is on television at an hour when families are still watching TV. It's too much, and I'm one of the many desensitized TV viewers out there who can stomach almost anything," he wrote.
#TheWalkingDead was also one of the top trending topics on Sunday as fans alternated between expressing their anger at Negan, mourning the loss of Glenn and Abraham, and trying to cheer up other fans with funny gifs of cute animals to cleanse their palate of the horror.
Meanwhile, AMC has released the promo for episode 2 — entitled "The Well" — which takes the focus off of Rick's group and shifts the attention to Morgan (Lennie James) and Carol (Melissa McBride), who were last seen in the company of two armored men on horses who both promised to help with Carol's wounds.
"Following a number of familiar faces, the group's introduced to a new well-established community that seems too good to be true," the synopsis read.
