Last Day on Earth (The Walking Dead)

"Last Day on Earth"
The Walking Dead episode

Negan confronts Rick and the group for killing his men.
Episode no. Season 6
Episode 16
Directed by Greg Nicotero
Written by Scott M. Gimple
Matthew Negrete
Original air date April 3, 2016 (2016-04-03)
Running time 65 minutes
Guest actors

"Last Day on Earth" is the sixteenth and final episode of the sixth season and the 83rd episode overall of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on April 3, 2016.

Plot

Rick and the group try to get Maggie to Hilltop for medical attention, but find that every one of the routes that they take are blocked by the Saviors. Meanwhile, Morgan finds Carol injured from a cut on her stomach and patches her up. While Morgan goes outside to kill a walker that is making a lot of noise, Carol flees from the building. Morgan then grabs the horse and goes out to find her again. Roman (Stuart Greer), the Savior that survived her attack finds her and pushes her to the ground. The Savior proceeds to shoot Carol in the right arm and leg with Carol's gun, stating that she will suffer like his friends did. Morgan shows up just in time to save her, shooting and killing Roman and encounters the mysterious survivor that Rick tried to shoot in the previous episode and offers them help.

With time running out, Eugene volunteers to be bait to distract the Saviors by taking the RV by himself to a route blocked by the Saviors while the rest of the group gets Maggie to Hilltop through the woods on foot. However, they end up being surrounded by the Saviors and captured. The Saviors disarm Rick's group and line them up, kneeling on the ground. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) himself appears and introduces himself to the group. He tells Rick that he is unhappy with him for killing his men while also informing the group that henceforth they will work for Negan, demanding that half of Alexandria's supplies will now belong to the Saviors. Negan states that he doesn't want to kill any of them, but in order to punish and send a message to Rick and his group, he decides to bludgeon one of Rick's members to death with a baseball bat wrapped in barbwire, which Negan calls "Lucille". When Negan says that maybe he will put Maggie out of her misery, Glenn lunges for him, but fails and Dwight kicks him back to his spot. Unable to choose, Negan taunts the captives with a game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe before landing on his target. From the seemingly unknown victim's point-of-view, Negan proceeds to beat them, stating to his men to cut out Carl's remaining eye and feed it to Rick should anyone try to stop him. Blood starts streaming down the screen while the screen fades to black with the audio of the victim being beaten playing in the background.

Production

On November 10, 2015, it was announced that Jeffrey Dean Morgan had been cast as Negan and would make his debut in the season finale.[1] This episode is the third in the sixth season to air in an expanded 90-minute time slot.[2] Director Greg Nicotero confirmed that they filmed two versions of Negan's introduction – one for broadcast with toned down language and the other for the Blu-ray and DVD release which has swearing to match his speech from the comics.[3]

Reception

Critical reception

Despite mixed reviews for the episode itself, Jeffrey Dean Morgan received acclaim for his performance as Negan.

This episode received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. While Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance as Negan was praised, the episode was mostly criticized for its pacing, plot, and cliffhanger ending. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 45% rating with an average score of 6.7 out of 10 with the critical consensus: "Despite Jeffrey Dean Morgan's deliciously evil turn as Negan, the meandering "Last Day on Earth" — and its manipulative cliffhanger ending — make for a disappointing season finale."[4]

Matt Fowler of IGN gave it a 7.3 out of 10 in his review and commented, "For all that 'Last Day on Earth' was really about, and what was important about it, it went on too long. And then failed to deliver a satisfying exclamation point. Instead, we got another fake out/cliffhanger. A technique this show is absolutely over indulging in. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was terrific as Negan though."[5] Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, the lowest grade given by the site for the show to date, and commented, "The problem is almost everything else. We'll get to Negan and that so-idiotic-it's-actually-kind-of-hilarious cliffhanger in a second, but before we do, let's unpack the many ways 'Last Day On Earth' went wrong. Even the title is bad—not on its own."[6] Todd VanDerWerff of Vox gave the episode a negative review, calling it the worst episode of the show so far, and commenting, "The extra-long episode spent its first hour dramatizing all the excitement of your GPS insisting that you take a road you already know is closed, and the last half-hour sank some nicely spooky moments with a too-long monologue and a completely botched cliffhanger." However, he gave a positive review on Negan's introduction.[7]

In response to the backlash the cliffhanger received, showrunner Scott M. Gimple said:

If you approach it from a place of skepticism or with the idea that there's some kind of negative or cynical motivation behind it... it's difficult to convince you otherwise. I do think we've done enough on the show and we've delivered a story that people have enjoyed [to warrant fans giving] us the benefit of the doubt. I truly hope that people will see [the Season 7 premiere] and feel it justifies the way we've decided to tell the story.[8]

Ratings

The episode received a 6.9 rating in the key 18-49 demographic with 14.19 million total viewers.[9] This was a significant increase from the previous episode "East", which received a 5.9 rating and 12.38 million total,[10] but also significantly lower than the ratings for the season 5 finale, which was watched by 15.8 million American viewers with an 18–49 rating of 8.2.[11] Including live+3 ratings, episode was watched by 18.42 million Americans.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (November 10, 2015). "Walking Dead Casts Major Comics Villain Negan". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ Ross, Dalton (March 21, 2016). "The Walking Dead to get expanded 90 minute season finale". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  3. ↑ Ross, Dalton (April 4, 2016). "The Walking Dead director Greg Nicotero says the actors don't even know who died". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Last Day on Earth". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  5. ↑ Fowler, Matt (April 4, 2016). "The Walking Dead: "Last Day on Earth" Review". IGN. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  6. ↑ Handlen, Zack (April 3, 2016). "The Walking Dead season finale swings, misses". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  7. ↑ VanDerWerff, Todd (April 4, 2016). "The Walking Dead season 6 finale: "Last Day on Earth" is the worst episode the show has ever done". Vox. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  8. ↑ Ausiello, Michael (April 4, 2016). "The Walking Dead EP Defends Cliffhanger Ending, Teases Season 7's 'Boundary-Pushing' Death Scene". TVLine. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  9. ↑ Porter, Rick (April 5, 2016). "Sunday cable ratings: ‘Walking Dead’ finale scores its best rating of 2016". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  10. ↑ Porter, Rick (March 29, 2016). "Sunday cable ratings: ‘Walking Dead’ hits season low on Easter, NCAA strong for TBS". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  11. ↑ Bibel, Sara (March 24, 2015). "'The Walking Dead' Season 5 Finale is Highest Rated Finale in Series History, Garnering 15.8 Million Viewers". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  12. ↑ http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2016/04/10/cable-live-3-ratings-march-28-april-3-2016/

External links

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