It’s February and that means The Walking Dead will return for the back half of season eight this month! Let’s take a look at the new trailer, “Nightmare.”
Before we dive into this discussion, let’s take a look at the new trailer for 8B!
It’s not a secret that I have a very big issue with The Walking Dead right now, and I’m not the only one. Even cast members haven’t liked this turn of events featuring the demise of Carl Grimes. The mid-season premiere will run 82 minutes, so be prepared for the writers to hit you hard emotionally with Rick watching his son die.
In the new trailer released by AMC, we see that Carl’s death seems to unite the group, forcing them all to Hilltop to deal with the aftermath. When Dwight points out that it might not be the best idea to all be in one place, Daryl says:
“All of us, together, will be their worst damn nightmare.”
Well, here’s the thing, they’ve all been fighting together anyway, and they’re losing, so I don’t see how a change in location will help or a ridiculously unstable Rick will help either, but okay, I’ll go with it.
Carl is seen smiling serenely as he takes off his Sheriff’s hat and tilts his face up into the sun. His advice in the trailer to his father harkens back to season four when Rick took off his gun for a while and tended the garden at the prison.
Carl tells him that he can be that way again, but more importantly, and I think he’s talking to Judith here and not Rick, he recalls Lori’s last words to him:
“Before mom died, she told me I was going to beat this world. You will.”
Sidenote: I think a lot of the voice over by Carl is actually Rick reading the letter from the last episode.
Beyond this, there’s lots of fighting and battle scenes. Carol is back with Ezekiel for some of it, Morgan is in the thick of things, and Dwight is with our group. Jadis is seen crying on a trash pile, and other members of the group make an appearance.
Negan gets the box Maggie sent back to him that contains a walker surprise. He’s pretty adamant that he’ll kill Rick and things will go back to normal.
“I stop people from dying. I am the answer.”
In the trailer, we see red-eye Rick tell him, once again,
“I’m going to kill you.”
Given that the writers use Carl’s death as a way to make Rick see his peaceful roots, I don’t know if he’ll actually kill Negan. Like most fans, I think they traded Carl for Negan. I believe it was the wrong move storytelling wise, and the writers need to figure out their endgame.
Like the tagline that flashes over the trailer:
Finish the fight
The Walking Dead needs to finish this season strong and it would be nice if any other major character deaths that happened were charted out more carefully.
What do you hope to see from the final eight episodes of season eight?
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on February 25th at 9/8c.