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‘The Walking Dead’ Spoilers: Rick’s Long-Term Plan To Attack The Saviors And Kill Negan Is Being Set Into Motion

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 10:30 PST, Nov 13, 2016

The Walking Dead is moving steadily toward an all-out war, with spoilers indicating that Rick is plotting an attack that will leave the Saviors destroyed and Negan dead.

The show had been building toward to entrance of Negan for the entirety of last season, and his debut came with the brutal murders of two major characters. But despite the relative calm between Negan’s crew and Rick at the moment, there are signs that a major war is coming to Alexandria.

[WARNING: Potential Walking Dead spoilers are ahead.]

Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead finally returned to the major characters after shifting the focus to Carol and Morgan in the Kingdom and Dwight and Daryl in Negan’s makeshift dungeon. The Daily Telegraph noted that this week’s episode showing Negan’s entrance to Alexandria will be the beginning of the battle that will play out between the two sides.

“Ultimately, this episode will also show us whether the producers intend to have the second half of the season as All-Out War between Negan, Alexandria, The Hilltop and The Kingdom, or whether they just sow those seeds to finish that storyline in season eight,” the report noted.

As fans of The Walking Dead have found out over the past few seasons, show runners are never in a hurry to rush the conflicts. That is why viewers spent the entire first half of last season waiting to see if Glenn was able to escape with his life after being surrounded by a horde of walkers (he was) or if Glenn was able to survive the arrival of Negan that stretched between the end of last year and the beginning of this season (he wasn’t).

Fans of The Walking Dead are now seeing Rick at his lowest point, seemingly broken by Negan’s brutal rule and appearing ready to give in. But the show’s comic book counterpart showed that Rick’s fear in the face of Negan was really an act in order to catch the Saviors off-guard.

“Rick opens up to his girlfriend Andrea (in the TV series, it would be Michonne) about what he’s really plotting,” Digital Spy noted. “He says the secret plan is to convince the Saviors the Alexandrians really are intimidated by them – and then to attack when they least expect it.”

If The Walking Dead the television show were to follow, that could mean Sunday’s episode is laying the groundwork for the war that will play out over the coming weeks and months.

If there is a protracted battle between Rick and Negan, it’s not a given that Rick would come out on top. Though Andrew Lincoln’s character has been the center of The Walking Dead since its first episode, Bustle speculated that Rick’s death could be the shock the show has been building toward for quite a while now.

For a show that (like Game Of Thrones) practically advertises itself on the fact that any character can die at any time, it has actually been a while since the last truly surprising death. For the past several years now, there has been a seemingly untouchable core group of characters who, no matter the situation, always seem to be wearing a cloak of invincibility: Rick, Carl, Carol, Daryl, and Michonne. Glenn used to be a part of his group, and the writers’ willingness to stick to the source material and kill him off is definitely to their credit… although his death can’t really be counted as “surprising,” considering millions of comic book readers knew it was coming.

It’s unclear if The Walking Dead spoilers will come true and if the television show will continue to follow the track of the comic book toward a battle between Rick Grimes and Negan. The showrunners have known to deviate from the source material as they see fit, but all signs point to a long war ahead.

[Featured Image by AMC]

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