More than one person is dead – and that’s not the worst thing that happened on the Season 7 premiere.

We pick up in the same scene we left off – with the fine members of Alexandria kneeling before Negan and scared out of their mind. One thing is different though, it appears someone (we think) is already dead. Rick has blood on the side of his face and tells Negan “I’m gonna kill you. Not today, not tomorrow, but I’m gonna kill you”. Negan is not happy at this back talk so he takes Rick’s hatchet and drags him into their trailer.

He drives them into a walker infested area, throws the hatchet out of the trailer and then basically plays a game of “Go find my hatchet” with Rick. Rick looks to be heartbroken because he has lost someone but we can’t really feel his pain because we don’t know who died. He throws Rick to the walkers and its one really scary game as Rick has to fight off walkers with his bare hands until he makes it to the top of the trailer. There’s an upside to this game though because as Rick is lying atop the trailer, his mind goes back to the scene as Negan tells him to "think about what happened".
Gene Page/AMC

Rick and his people are kneeling before the fire and Negan is trying to decide who to kill. He finally makes a choice and its Abraham. He bashes his skull into a pulp and the Alexandrians start sobbing. Its hard to relate to their pain as it wasn’t a beloved character whose brain matter was lying on the floor. But then it gets worse – Darryl gets angry and throws a punch at Negan. Negan calls his act a “no no” and says he will not be tolerating that kind of behavior. He wants to teach the people a lesson so he brings Lucille down on Glenn’s head. Now, now we are moved.

Glenn tries to speak and he finally says “Maggie I will find you” before Negan finishes him off.. Rick’s thoughts get interrupted as Negan starts shooting at the roof of the trailer. Rick jumps and literally hangs on to a walker dangling from the bridge to avoid being eaten by tens of walkers below. This is all just a game to Negan where he can play the big bad boss as he shoots at the walkers so Rick can jump down and go get his hatchet. Rick does this (not easily) and gets back to the trailer with the bloody hatchet.

Gene Page/AMC

After wiping the hatchet on Rick’s jacket and giving one of his power speeches, he drives them back to where the Alexandrians are. There he tells his “adoring crowd” that he doesn’t like the way Rick looks at him. That Rick doesn’t get it. To finally break Rick, he ties a belt around Carl’s arm, collects a pen from his right hand man Simon (who has this really pervy mustache that makes him look like he’s going to be sleeping with underage girls or walkers) and draws a line on Carl’s arm. He tells Rick to cut cleanly on the line (“like a salami slice”) or he will kill everyone kneeling, kill Carl and then Rick years after. Rick finally gets it and starts to beg but Negan is not having it. He starts to count down from 3 and a tear filled Rick finally picks up the axe when Carl says ‘just do it dad”. Before the hatchet comes down on Carl, Negan stops him and tells Rick that he owns him and everyone else and he’s finally seen the look he wanted in Rick’s eyes.

Negan doesn’t just think he’s King, he fancies himself God and pretty much just played out the Abraham and Isaac scene from the bible. He tells Rick that he will take Darryl with him because Darryl’s got guts if Rick tries anything, he will make him cut Darryl into pieces. At this, Negan and his followers drive off and the Alexandrian 8 are left with their misery.

Maggie (who is still sick) breaks the silence by trying to walk away. She says she will find her way to the Hilltop by herself and the rest of them should go back and prepare to fight. Did she really say fight? Fight Negan? They will all die a horrible horrible death. Rick’s response to this is  “They have Darryl, they have an army. We will die… all of us”. Couldn’t have put it better myself. The episode ends with the Alexandrian 7 trying to bury their dead while Negan’s voice echoes “Bet you thought you were all gonna grow old together, sittin’ around the table at Sunday dinner and  a happily ever after. No Rick, it doesn’t work like that. Not anymore”.

The season 7 premiere was a little shocking heartbreaking for those who haven’t read the comics but those who have were prepared for it. We waited months and (14 minutes after the premiere) to finally see who died and it wasn’t all that heartbreaking because a. the cliffhanger was drawn out so much that our minds had drawn up the worst and b. we’ve already dealt with Glenn’s death in that big mislead.

Now, all I want to know is how Rick will get out of this mess.