The Day Will Come When You Won't Be

"The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" is the first episode of Season 7 of AMC's The Walking Dead. It aired on October 23rd, 2016, at 9/8c on AMC, and on October 24th, 2016, at 9pm on Fox.

Plot Synopsis
Heavy breathing and stifled sobs can be heard in as Rick stares at the ground in shock.

"What? Was the joke that bad?" Negan taunts. "I'm gonna kill you," Rick says. "Not today, not tomorrow. But I'm gonna kill you." Simon hands Rick's axe to Negan and he drags him inside the RV.

Negan slams the axe into a table and sits in the driver’s seat, his back to Rick. He dares Rick to kill him with the axe. Rick grabs it and charges forward, but Negan turns around at the last second, an assault rifle pointed at Rick, and orders him to drop the axe. He starts the RV.

Negan drives through heavy fog and smoke; right through a herd of walkers, blood and guts splattering the windshield. He asks Rick if that reminds him of anyone.

Rick thinks about Rosita and Glenn.

Negan stops the RV; it’s swarmed with walkers. "You are mine. The people back there? They are mine. This? This is mine,” he says, pointing to Rick’s axe. He throws it outside and orders Rick to retrieve it. Rick doesn’t move. “Get my axe,” Negan commands, pointing Lucille at Rick’s face. Rick gets up. Negan pushes him out the door.

As Rick fights the walkers amongst the fog, he thinks about Sasha and Eugene. Aaron and Abraham. Maggie and Daryl. He climbs to the top of the RV and sees they’re at the smoldering wall of logs that the Saviors previously used to block their path.

Rick sees a walker hanging by its neck on the overpass — the captive the Saviors killed while Rick and his group watched.

Rick thinks about Michonne and Carl and breaks down, remembering what happened.

Flashback to the previous night: Rick’s group kneels as Negan deliberates over who to kill. “And you.. are..,” he says as he stops in front of Abraham. "It." Abraham flashes a peace sign to a devastated Sasha, and Negan brings the bat down on his head. “Suck.. my.. nuts,” Abraham says defiantly as blood drips down his face.

Everyone in the group cries as Negan beats Abraham’s head to a bloody pulp. When he’s finally finished, Negan orders a crying Rosita to look at Abraham. Enraged, Daryl leaps up and punches Negan in the face before he’s subdued by two Saviors. Dwight points Daryl's crossbow at his head and asks Negan if he can do it, but Negan has other plans. Dwight drags Daryl back in line.

As punishment for Daryl’s transgression, Negan turns and brings Lucille down on Glenn's head. Maggie stares at her husband in horror, his eye popped out from the force of the blows. Negan taunts Glenn as he tries to speak. "Maggie, I will find you," he says to his devastated wife before being bludgeoned to death. "Lucille is thirsty. She's a vampire bat!" Negan quips after he has killed Glenn and walks back towards the group.

Back in the present: Rick lies on top of the RV, axe next to him, haunted by Glenn and Abraham’s deaths. From inside the RV, Negan shoots at Rick through the roof and again orders him to get the axe. Rick picks up the axe and jumps off the roof, grabbing onto the hanging walker, but dropping the axe in the process. Walkers grab at Rick’s feet. Negan opens a window and shoots most of the walkers clawing for Rick, but then the hanging walker’s body detaches from its head, dropping Rick into the herd. Once again, Negan orders Rick to get the axe.

Rick finds the axe and makes his way back to the RV while visioning the remaining group remembers being struck by Lucille. “Atta boy,” Negan says, then starts the RV.

Negan drives the RV back to the clearing where Rick’s group awaits. He cleans the bloody axe and tells Rick that he is no longer in charge. “You can still lead a nice productive life producing for me,” he says. He hands Rick the axe, "I think you're gonna need it. I just got a feeling."

Negan pushes Rick out of the RV and drags him back to the rest of his group. He explains to Rick that the purpose of their drive was to change the way Rick sees him. “But you’re still looking at me the same damn way,” he says. Negan orders his men to put their guns to everyone’s heads, and tells Carl to lie on the ground. He draws a line on Carl’s arm and presents Rick with an ultimatum: Rick must cut off Carl’s arm, or everyone will die, including everyone in Alexandria.

Rick begs Negan to take him instead. Impatient, Negan starts counting down from three.

Two. Rick continues pleading.

One. "Just do it," Carl whispers.

Anguished, Rick brings up the axe, but Negan stops him at the very last second. “You answer to me, you provide for me, you belong to me, right?” he asks. “I provide for you,” Rick agrees, with a broken expression. Satisfied, Negan takes back the axe.

Negan tells Dwight to put Daryl in a van. He explains to Rick that if he ever tries anything else, he will force Rick to mutilate Daryl. “Welcome to a brand new beginning,” exclaims Negan. He leaves a truck with Rick’s group so they can transport the goods they are to produce for him. He says he will return for their first offering in one week.

Rick’s group reels with shock and grief as the Saviors leave. Finally, Maggie struggles to her feet. Rick tells her they need to get her to the doctor, but she insists that Rick head back to Alexandria and prepare to fight the Saviors.

Rick says they will all die if they go after Negan, and insists on bringing her to The Hilltop for medical attention. Sasha volunteers to go with Maggie. “I’m taking him with me,” Maggie says in reference to Glenn’s body. She crouches next to Glenn, sobbing.

Sasha gently tells Rosita that she’s going to take Abraham. Rosita nods and the two women hold hands on top of Abraham's body.

The group gathers around Maggie, begging her to let them help her. "He's our family too," Rick says of Glenn. Maggie relents and lets them move the body.

Sasha, Rosita and Eugene pick up Abraham’s body while Carl, Rick, Michonne and Aaron carry Glenn.

Rick envisions an idyllic scene. In it, his group peacefully eats dinner together. Glenn holds his son. Abraham sits next to him.

Back in harsh reality, Rick prepares to head back to Alexandria. He picks up his axe as a walker approaches, but he ignores it and gets in the RV. Rick glances in the side view mirror as he drives away. In it, he sees the walker dropping to the ground and eating the remains of Abraham. The episode ends with the camera focusing on a broken Rick's eyes.

Co-Stars

 * Kevin Patrick Murphy as Male Survivor (Fresh Walker)

Uncredited

 * Unknown as Judith Grimes (Dream)
 * Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes (Archive Footage)
 * Scott Wilson as Hershel Greene (Archive Footage)
 * Emily Kinney as Beth Greene (Archive Footage)
 * Chad Coleman as Tyreese Williams (Archive Footage)
 * Lawrence Gilliard Jr. as Bob Stookey (Archive Footage)
 * Tyler James Williams as Noah (Archive Footage)

Deaths

 * Abraham Ford (Confirmed Fate)
 * Glenn Rhee

Trivia

 * Last appearance of Abraham Ford (Flashback/Corpse).
 * Last appearance of Glenn Rhee (Flashback/Corpse).
 * Last appearance of the Library Survivor (Zombified).
 * Despite being series regulars, Josh McDermitt (Eugene), Christian Serratos (Rosita), Alanna Masterson (Tara), Seth Gilliam (Fr. Gabriel), Ross Marquand (Aaron) and Austin Nichols (Spencer) are still listed under "also starring".
 * This is the the first episode featuring Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan) and Austin Amelio (Dwight) as series regulars. Morgan is added to the opening credits, while Amelio is listed under "also starring".
 * This is the first episode to feature more than the maximum of ten regulars in the opening credits.
 * This episode has the longest title out of any other in the series, with eight words.
 * This episode is currently the second most viewed episode of the entire series with an estimated 17.03 million viewers. The first being "No Sanctuary".
 * The title of this episode is a callback to Jenner's warning to Rick at the CDC in "TS-19".
 * One of the titles floating around for this episode was "Signs", though whether or not this was originally the title is not known.
 * This episode is the first season premiere to feature the death of a main character.
 * This is the first season to feature a death of a Season 1 character since the Season 3 finale, "Welcome to the Tombs".
 * This is the third time that two main characters die in the same episode. The other times were in "Too Far Gone", where Hershel and The Governor died, and "Four Walls and a Roof", where Gareth and Bob died.
 * This will be the first episode to consecutively have an uncensored version in home releases.
 * The episode depicts scenes of every character in the lineup being hit with the initial blow, with the exception of Rick.
 * When Abraham is chosen by Negan, Abraham shows a peace sign to Sasha as a final farewell. It's easy to miss at first sight, and it was Michael Cudlitz's idea to say goodbye this way since he couldn't look away from Negan (Due to how the Season 6 finale death was filmed).
 * Near the end of the episode, a Savior is seen taking a picture of the smashed head victims. This is proof that the photos seen on the walls in "Not Tomorrow Yet" are Negan's kills.
 * A number of deceased characters make appearances via archive footage in this episode. They are Lori Grimes, Hershel Greene, Beth Greene, Tyreese Williams, Bob Stookey, and Noah.
 * This is the first season premiere to feature no new characters since the Season 2 premiere.
 * This episode is 66 minutes long (with commercials), the first non-90 minute episode to be extended.
 * This episode sparked controversy among certain news sites, viewers and reviewers for the extremely graphic and brutal violence of Abraham Ford and Glenn Rhee's executions with some viewers claiming to be alienated and traumatized by the episode. News websites debated whether the violence in the episode had overstepped what was deemed acceptable for television.
 * As of this episode, Rick and his group have all lost their weapons (excluding Carol and Morgan). This includes both Rick and Michonne's signature weapons of the Colt Python and Katana.
 * This episode marked the end of the longest romantic relationship in the series between Glenn and Maggie (75 episodes since "Cherokee Rose" till this episode).

Goofs/Errors

 * When Abraham gets hit for the first time, he falls to the floor before getting back up. However during the POV shot in the Season 6 finale, the camera just looks at the floor after the first hit and then pans up at Negan again. This of course is probably due to the finale purposely being made impressionistic as confirmed by Scott M. Gimple.


 * After Negan and Rick's "little trip" in the RV. Negan rubs the hatchet on Rick's jacket to get some flesh and blood off it before cleaning it himself. In the next following scenes where Negan throws Rick in front of his group, the blood is no longer on Rick's jacket.