The Day Will Come When You Won't Be

Plot

Having been brutally overpowered by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his gang of Saviors, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the group kneel helplessly before Negan as they suffer a heavy loss that leaves everyone traumatized. Approached by Negan, a shaken and shell-shocked Rick threatens him. Unfazed, Negan smiles and asks Simon (Steven Ogg), Negan's "right-hand man", for Rick's weapon – a hatchet. Rick and Negan continue to stare at each other until Negan eventually grabs Rick and drags him inside the group's RV.

Thrown to the floor, Rick watches as Negan slams the axe into the table and sits in the driver's seat. His back to Rick, Negan mocks him for claiming he will kill him. Negan tells Rick that his best chance is right now, with the axe. Coerced, Rick grabs the axe and charges forward, but Negan turns around with an assault rifle directed at Rick. Negan orders Rick to drop the axe and hits him in the stomach. Sitting back down, Negan challenges Rick to think about his decisions, how they affected the group, and what can still happen going forward. He then starts the RV and proceeds to drive off.

As Rick sits in silence, Negan, while taunting Rick, drives through heavy fog and smoke. After a short drive, Negan stops the RV where a herd of walkers have gathered. Negan explains to Rick that he and his people "belong" to him now. He opens the door, throws the axe on the roof of the RV, and orders Rick to retrieve it. Amidst the fog, Rick fights through the swarm of walkers and climbs to the top of the RV. He realizes they're at the smoldering wall of logs that the Saviors previously used to block their path and notices the hanging man (Kevin Patrick Murphy), who was thrown off the overpass by Saviors and strangled to death by a chain wrapped around his neck, has turned. Remembering what happened the night before, Rick breaks down.

In a flashback to the previous night, Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) is revealed to be the victim selected to be beaten to death by Negan using "Lucille". As Negan warns none of Rick's group to move, threatening to cut out Carl's (Chandler Riggs) other eye and feed it to his father, Abraham, prepared to die, discreetly makes a peace gesture to Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) and is slammed by Negan, with Lucille, in the head. Negan laughs as Abraham sits back up and defies him, but continuously beats Abraham's skull into a bloody pulp until there is virtually no head left. Upon seeing her reaction, Negan intimidates the horrified Rosita (Christian Serratos), assuming she was with Abraham, by ordering her to look at his bat, which is now covered with Abraham's blood. Enraged, Daryl (Norman Reedus) leaps up and punches Negan, but is subdued by two Saviors, including Dwight (Austin Amelio). In retaliation for Daryl's transgression, Negan reminds the group that he would not tolerate such behavior. Rather than Daryl, however, Negan chooses to beat Glenn (Steven Yeun) to death, in retribution for Glenn's earlier attempt to stop him from killing Maggie (Lauren Cohan). After two hits to the head, Glenn, brain-damaged, murmurs to Maggie his dying words — "I'll find you" — as she cries in heartbreak. Negan offers sympathy for what is happening, but happily reminds the group that he takes "no exceptions" and proceeds to bludgeon Glenn's skull into a bloody mess.

Back in the present, Negan becomes impatient with Rick for not returning the axe to him. He shoots bullets up through the roof of the RV. Immediately, Rick picks up the axe and jumps off the RV, grabbing onto the hanging walker. However, Rick drops the axe in the process and falls to the ground. Rick picks himself up, finds the axe, and makes his way back to the RV. After congratulating Rick, Negan drives back to the clearing where the group awaits.

Back at the clearing, Negan hauls Rick out of the vehicle and explains to him that the purpose of their trip was to change the way Rick looked at him. Seeing that Rick has still not submitted, Negan orders his men to point their guns at everyone's heads and ties his belt around Carl's left arm. Negan then orders him to lie on the ground and draws a line on his arm with a pen. He gives Rick an ultimatum: if he refuses to cut off his son's arm with his own axe, every member of his group will be killed, along with everyone else back in Alexandria. Hesitant, Rick begs Negan to take him instead of Carl. Impatient, Negan begins counting down from three, but Rick, quivering and crying, continues to plead and struggle with his choice. Finally, an anguished Rick raises the axe to carry out the task, but Negan, pleased with his submission, stops him at the very last second. After reiterating the new world order, Negan takes Daryl prisoner. He tells the group they will be back for their first offering in one week.

After the group reels from shock and grief, Maggie, still weak and sick from pregnancy complications, staggers over to Glenn's body. Although Rick tells her that they need to take her to the doctor at the Hilltop, Maggie insists that Rick return to Alexandria to prepare to fight the Saviors. Sasha volunteers to go with Maggie and protect her. Abraham and Glenn's bodies are removed from the clearing, while Rick envisions an idyllic scene of the group peacefully eating dinner together, Glenn and Abraham included; Glenn holds his son and Abraham sits with a pregnant Sasha. Back in harsh reality, Rick picks up his axe and prepares to head back to Alexandria. He gets into the RV and glances in the side view mirror as he drives away. In it, he sees a walker drop to the ground and begin to eat Abrahams pool of brains.

Development

"The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" covers events of "Volume 17", "Issue #100" of Robert Kirkman's original comic book series: Negan's introduction and his killing of Glenn. Kirkman worked with the show's producers to "transfer" comic-character deaths to other characters in the TV series; Dwight and other Saviors kill Abraham in the comics, but Dwight kills Denise in the episode "Twice as Far".

Kirkman and the showrunners wondered if Glenn's death was necessary, since Abraham had already been chosen for Negan's fatal beating. Glenn was the first character cast for the series whose fate was uncertain in the comics; Kirkman wrote "Issue #100" knowing that Steven Yeun was playing Glenn in the series, which made writing that issue difficult. Kirkman and the showrunners discussed options which would have spared Glenn's life, but "pulling the thread on this sweater just pulls too many things apart"; Glenn's death in the comics drives several characters' plotlines (Maggie in particular) and they considered it "essential" to the episode.

Critical reception

"The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 70% rating average with a score of 7.1 out of 10, based on 47 reviews. The site's consensus reads "The flashback-laden "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be" is slow to deliver the payoff from last season's finale -- but ultimately delivers with sadistic acts of gut-wrenching violence that will push Walking Dead fans to their limit".

Matt Fowler of IGN rated it 6 out of 10 in his review: "It crossed a line, but not one of gore. Or death, even. Not necessarily. It basically broke the final shred of trust in the show to service characters over gimmickry." Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C-, the lowest grade given by the website to the show thus far: "The show is so stupid that it thinks we're stupid, prays we're stupid; cross its fingers and hopes like hell that its legion of loyal, obsessive followers will rend their garments at the horrible death of a fan favorite, but still be back next week." According to Stuart Jeffries of The Guardian, "This was, to put it mildly, uncomfortable viewing: 45-plus minutes of torture porn mingled with something even more unpalatable ... this wasn't so much entertainment as psychic evisceration for us." Todd VanDerWerff of Vox wrote, "I've had a lot of issues with The Walking Dead of late—especially with that genuinely terrible season-six finale—but I probably still would have called myself, in general, a 'fan' of the show until tonight". Brian Lowry from CNN also criticized the episode: "Nevertheless, its most admirable qualities have increasingly been overshadowed by its more distasteful ones—not merely in demonstrating just how brutal humanity can be, but by toying with its audience." Jeff Stone of IndieWire wrote in his review, "It was miserable, and tedious, and made me feel bad. Not in an emotionally compelling way, just in a 'I could be watching something of value' way", and he graded the episode D-. Kristi Turnquist of The Oregonian was also critical: "The most shocking reveal was just how low executive producer and showrunner Scott M. Gimple and Walking Dead comics creator Robert Kirkman are willing to go for the sake of sensationalism and torture porn."

Some critics reviewed the episode positively. John Saavedra of Den of Geek! gave it four out of five stars: "Anyone hoping for an incredibly bloody hour of murder and mutilation the likes of which we'd never seen before on The Walking Dead should be pretty pleased with the season-7 premiere". Steve Wright of SciFiNow gave the episode a five-out-of-five rating in his review: "Sometimes, shows need a game-changing moment to jolt the formula and stop things from getting samey. If any show was in such dire need of one, it was The Walking Dead, and it has definitely got that. Welcome back." Mick van Hesteren of IGN Benelux rated it 10 out of 10 and called it a "meesterwerk".

In reaction to the criticism about the amount of violence in the episode, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd said that in light of the negative feedback, they tamed some of the more gruesome scenes that were in episodes being filmed for the second half of the season. Hurd said that "this is not a show that’s torture porn….Let’s make sure we don’t cross that line". Executive producers Scott M. Gimple and Greg Nicotero countered this, stating that the violence in this episode was purposely over-the-top for the narrative, as that the "awfulness of what happened to the characters was very specific to that episode and the beginning of this whole new story", but that it did not reflect a baseline of violence they wanted for the series.

Ratings

The episode received a 8.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic range, with 17.03 million total viewers. It was the most-watched series of the night, with its second-best ratings.