‘The Walking Dead’ Season 6 Finale: Will Baby Judith Die By Negan’s Bat? [Rumor/Spoilers]
Coming up on The Walking Dead Season 6 finale there is a pernicious TWD rumor starting to spread around the Internet. Many fans are assuming the finale will end with many of the main cast lined up on their knees before Negan. If the graphic novels are anything to go by, then at least fan favorite character will die during the finale. Some say the showrunners may kill Daryl Dixon off and risk a fan riot, while others believe Abraham, Glenn, Tara, Heath, Carl or someone else is at risk. But would Scott Gimple really surprise and shock everyone by killing baby Judith?
[Warning: The following article contains multiple potential spoilers.]
“The community goes on alert,” wrote a member of the Spoiling Dead Fans on Facebook. “An amber alert; possibly Judith? When I read how disturbed Rick and Maggie were about the last episode I had this feeling. Now I am more convinced its her; I am referring to episode 15.”
As evidence for this The Walking Dead rumor, many cite the Entertainment Weekly quote from Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln where he states he felt angry and sick just from reading the planned script.
“I felt sick to my stomach when I read the script. It was the first day in the whole six years of working on The Walking Dead that I was late for work because I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was so angry and frustrated and I felt sick. And that was just after reading it.”
Lincoln was not alone in this feeling of disgust, with Maggie actress Lauren Cohan explaining how filming the Walking Dead finale was the “hardest” scene she has ever done.
“The word ‘finale’ gives me a physical reaction because it’s the hardest day on set that I’ve ever had in my life. I never even imagined that as an actor you could have that experience. It’s one of the most raw experiences that I think any of us have ever had. Andy talks about being late to work; I didn’t want to go to work that day. It took a really, really long time for everybody to feel okay again after the finale, let’s put it that way.”
Obviously, the TWD showrunners have something truly terrible planned for the Walking Dead Season 6 finale, since the actors and actresses never expressed these type of reactions even when Carol executed Lizzie. The mere idea that a baby could be executed is also not without merit since that is the direction the graphic novels took. Plus, previous showrunner Glen Mazzara mentioned years ago that the TWD writers were all pushing to kill the baby.
In the comics, Judith’s death took place at the same time as Lori Grimes. Instead of dying from child birth, Lori was fleeing the prison with her baby in her arms when The Governor ordered Lilly Caul to kill Lori. The resulting shotgun blast killed Judith in addition to her mother.
TWD: Baby Judith Lives!
Not everyone believes this Walking Dead rumor has any merit.
“The one person I’m 100 percent sure it won’t be is Judith,” wrote another member of the Spoiling Dead Fans. “Negan wouldn’t even use Lucille on a baby. Plus, when the line up takes place Judith won’t be near it.”
One piece of evidence in favor of this viewpoint is the fact that Negan of the comics is reluctant to harm children. Even after Carl Grimes stages an attack on The Saviors, Negan takes Carl under his wing and attempts to groom the boy as his second-in-command. So, for Negan to actually use a barbed wire bat on a baby would seem out of character, although the TV version of Negan could be different in this regard.
Regardless, there is one major piece of evidence backing those who believe Judith lives. Back in 2012, Mazzara explained to the Los Angeles Times why baby Judith needs to be alive.
“If they are just staying beaten up every week and there’s absolutely no win, it’s going to feel very, very bleak for the audience. That baby’s survival right now is a necessary win because otherwise it is too bleak and that’s not something I’m interested in doing. I don’t think people will tune in. They’ll tune in for an exciting horror show, but they’re not going to tune in for a very, very bleak thing that you can’t imagine these people are able to survive. I just don’t believe that the show can get that bleak.”
Last year, TWD executive producer Gale Anne Hurd was also asked by a fan why the Walking Dead‘s Judith was still alive and her answer was along similar lines.
“Because we don’t like to follow the comic book exactly and we felt it was very important to have that innocence and that hope. It’s a very, very bleak world. We’ve seen that and as long as there’s an innocent child, a baby that they can all care for we thought that that was keeping hope alive,” she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “The same way that the romantic relationship between Glen and Maggie you can still have love. You can still find your soul mate in this apocalypse so that was really an important message of hope that we felt, you know, we see in every episode.”
Do you TWD showrunner Scott Gimple is planning on killing Judith during the Walking Dead Season finale?
