One of The Walking Dead's best episodes set up the beginning of the end for the hit zombie show. At its height, The Walking Dead was one of the best shows on television, delivering intense drama with compelling characters and shocking reveals. Viewership steadily declined during the show's later seasons, as the story fell into the same patterns over and over again.
"No Way Out" Is One Of The Best Episodes Of The Walking Dead
"No Way Out" Delivers Drama, Death, And Plenty Of Zombie Carnage
"No Way Out" picks up after the season 6 midseason break, which finds Rick and several other survivors navigating a herd of walkers that have overtaken Alexandria. In this tense sequence, Alexandra Breckenridge's Jessie Anderson and her two kids are killed by walkers, and Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) gets shot in the eye.
While all of this is happening in Alexandria, a group of Saviors intercept Daryl (Norman Reedus), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) on the road. The Saviors demand that Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha hand over their weapons, announcing that all of their property "now belongs to Negan."
In the end, Daryl kills the Saviors with Abraham's RPG launcher, setting off a chain of events that will eventually lead to one of The Walking Dead's most controversial moments. Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha later arrive at Alexandria just in time to save the community from the herd of walkers, but their encounter with the Saviors will come back to haunt them.
After "No Way Out," The Walking Dead Couldn't Afford To Fail Negan
The Walking Dead Teased Negan's Impending Arrival For Several Episodes
"No Way Out" was a fantastic episode of The Walking Dead on its own, resolving many of the lingering plot points from the first half of the season. The episode set up Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as the show's next major villain, placing a lot of weight on his eventual appearance, which didn't come until the end of the season.
The Walking Dead had already angered some fans earlier in season 6 with the fake-out death of Glenn (Steven Yeun) in the season's third episode.
After learning of another settlement known as Hilltop, Rick and his group agree to take out Negan in exchange for some of Hilltop's supplies. This leads them to preemptively attack the Saviors while they're sleeping, dealing them what they initially believe to be a crippling blow. The Walking Dead then does an excellent job of building up to Negan's arrival.
Rick has come to believe that he and his people can stand against any threat, and it looks like he might be right, until Negan shows up and pulls the rug out from under him. Jeffrey Dean Morgan does most of the heavy lifting to make Negan's arrival a success, but the final episode of season 6 doesn't work as well as it could have.
Negan's Arrival Was The Beginning Of The End For The Walking Dead
Even Jeffrey Dean Morgan Couldn't Save The Walking Dead From Itself
Despite the fact that Jeffrey Dean Morgan makes an excellent Negan, The Walking Dead's season 6 finale and season 7 opener ultimately marked the beginning of the show's fall from grace. Between the oddly constructed cliffhanger at the end of season 6 and Glenn's brutal death at the start of season 7, many viewers stopped watching The Walking Dead altogether.
All eleven seasons of The Walking Dead are currently streaming on Netflix.
The season 6 cliffhanger and season 7 premiere left their mark on popular culture, but The Walking Dead never regained the momentum it had leading up to Negan's arrival. After the dark and divisive season 7 opener, "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be," The Walking Dead went back to business as usual as Rick and his group adjusted to their new normal.
With new settlements, escalating conflicts, and plenty of zombie gore, The Walking Dead fell back into its same old patterns. Rick and his group suffer at the hands of a new foe, lose some friends, but eventually triumph in the end. Rinse. Repeat. The show still delivered some solid episodes in its final seasons, but it was no longer the pop culture juggernaut it had once been.
The Walking Dead Could Have Easily Ended In Season 6
But That Doesn't Mean It Should Have
The Walking Dead could have made Negan its final villain and ended on a high note, but that would have left many stories from the comics unexplored. While The Walking Dead may have faltered a bit in its later seasons, it still delivered some great episodes and introduced some compelling new characters.
The universe of The Walking Dead has continued to expand in various spin-offs, some of which have proved more successful than others. Ultimately, it's likely that most of these would not have happened if the show had ended in season 6. While The Walking Dead may have been a better show overall if it had ended there, it would have robbed fans of some pretty fun stories.
Understandably, some viewers may have developed Walking Dead fatigue, but for those who haven't, Daryl Dixon, Dead City, and The Ones Who Live continue finding new ways to explore the zombie apocalypse with characters we've come to love. These various spin-offs may never achieve the popularity that The Walking Dead enjoyed at its height, but they continue to be a fun diversion for die-hard fans.
