'Walking Dead': 10 Key Moments From the Season 7 Premiere 

'Walking Dead': 10 Key Moments From the Season 7 Premiere

Who died? Better question: how many people died? Here's how the season seven premiere played out.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the season seven premiere of AMC's

After months of grueling speculation about who Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) killed in the Walking Dead season six finale, viewers finally got their answer in Sunday's season premiere ... or answers, plural, as it were. It turns out, Negan's baseball bat Lucille is a vampire bat, and her thirst can't be quenched with only one set of brains.

Who died? More like, how many people died? The season seven premiere delivered the painful answer, but only after a painfully long wait. Read on for more about those deaths, and other goodbyes we shared during the return of The Walking Dead.

The episode begins with the same clip released during New York Comic-Con a few weeks ago: Rick (Andrew Lincoln), his face splashed with blood, wallowing in the aftermath of losing his as-yet unidentified friends. Negan approaches, and Rick issues a trembling warning: "I'm going to kill you." Needless to say, Negan doesn't like this, and makes the vague threat of cutting Rick's right hand — a terrifying notion considering Rick's hand is indeed cleaved in the comic books. But Negan has other plans in mind...

Negan takes Rick on a quick road trip to further assert his dominance over Alexandria's leader. He snatches up Rick's hatchet — or "ax," as Negan prefers — tosses it out into the misty morning, tosses Rick out into the misty morning, and commands Rick to retrieve the weapon. Easy enough, right? Oh, did we forget to mention the herd of walkers surrounding Rick, Negan and the RV? Yeah, that's fun.

Rick retreats to the top of the RV, and while he's collecting himself, he reflects back upon the horror he just witnessed. Finally, we see it: Negan's eenie-meenie-miney-moment, revealed in all its gory. He brings Lucille down upon Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), and the military man musters one final one-liner before he dies: "Suck my nuts." Negan gleefully continues smashing Abraham's head in, tickled at the man's last words. Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) is helpless but to look on, as Negan gloats about Abraham's death in front of his ex-girlfriend, Rosita (Christian Serratos). From here, things go from bad to worse. (Here's how Abraham's death played out in the comics.)

Furious over Negan taunting Rosita, Daryl (Norman Reedus) lurches up to his feet and punches Negan in the face. As a punishment, Negan decides he needs to kill another member of the group ... and without any further warning, he brings Lucille down upon Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), caving in his skull and bursting an eye out of its socket in one single move. "Maggie, I will find you," Glenn says, somehow managing words even after the strike. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) tearfully watches as Negan keeps bashing Glenn's head in over, and over, and over, and over again — fulfilling one of the single most iconic moments in the history of the Walking Dead comic books.

After Rick retrieves the ax, Negan brings him back to the lineup. It's morning now. He drops Rick in the middle of the circle, pulls Carl (Chandler Riggs) over, and tells Rick to cut off his son's arm — or else the Saviors will kill every single Alexandrian, ending with Rick. Rick begs Negan to stop, offers himself in Carl's stead, but it's no use. Negan wants Carl's arm, and he wants Rick, his new servant, to bring it to him, as a sign of obedience. His patience gone, Negan starts counting down from three, prompting a tortured Rick to lift his ax up in the air ...

... and Negan catches Rick's arm, stopping him in the final moment. Turns out, Negan just needed Rick to prove that he's going to follow the Saviors' rules to the letter. Mission accomplished. Both Rick and Carl get to keep their arms, but Rick's psyche? That thing's a total mess, splintered into countless pieces, thanks to countless strokes of a baseball bat. 

Although Negan doesn't kill Daryl for standing up to him earlier, he decides that the bow-wielding bad boy must be punished nonetheless. So he captures Daryl, tossing him back into the van, much to Rick and Dwight's (Austin Amelio) chagrin, for very different reasons. Negan tells Rick that he will show up at Alexandria's doorstep in a week to collect supplies from the group. If they don't have enough, or if they try anything funny against the Saviors again, they'll kill Daryl. Prep your riot gear accordingly.

The Saviors leave, abandoning our survivors, leaving them with nothing but an RV and the dead bodies of their loved ones. Maggie is the first to rise, despite her ailing condition, and despite the fact that she just watched her soulmate's brains ooze out of his skull. She says she will take Glenn to the Hilltop on her own. Obviously, Rick and the gang aren't about to let a very sick pregnant woman lug her dead husband all the way to the Hilltop on her own, but she's insistent — she doesn't want anyone else's death on her hands.

But Maggie won't be alone. Not to be lost in the shuffle of sorrow, Sasha stands up and promises that she will bring Maggie to the Hilltop, as well as Abraham and Glenn's bodies. The sight of Sasha standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Maggie, the first of the group to rise, is a testament to two of the show's strongest remaining characters — and with that, it's not just two lives we've lost, but two additional people who are splintering off from the main group in order to find some semblance of peace.

As the group drives away, Rick remembers something Negan said to him: "Bet you thought you were all gonna grow old together, sitting around Sunday dinner in the happily ever after." With that, Rick literally imagines that Sunday dinner in the happily ever after. Abraham's there. So is Glenn. So is Glenn's unborn baby. And then it's gone — the dream, the vision, Abraham, Glenn, all of it — and all we're left with are Rick's weeping eyes, empty and broken by a baseball bat.

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