Andrew Lincoln Calls 'The Walking Dead's' Midseason Premiere Deaths "Horrendous," Teases "Appalling" Season Finale

Andrew Lincoln's thoughts on last night's deaths, the rest of season six, and Negan.

Image via AMC

The Walking Dead returned last night to make your Sunday nights whole again. If you were too busy catching the drugfest that was Vinyl's series premiere last night or just aren't caught up on TWD, then beware of the spoilers ahead. 

TWD's season six midseason premiere picked up right where we last left off in the very "stressful" meeting between Daryl, Sasha, Abraham, and The Saviors, whom have made the first mention of upcoming villain Negan, to be played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Right off the bat the bodies start piling up only for Rick's group to find itself following the same fate. In a nightmarish sequence most annoying kid ever Sam gets chomped by walkers bringing Rick's future bae Jessie down with him and prompting Teen Angst personified Ron to draw a gun on Rick. In a moment of satisfaction he gets sliced by Michonne, but not before he shoots Carl's eye out. That's a lot to take in and much like yourself Andrew Lincoln has some feels about those deaths, Negan, and this season's finale.

Lincoln told Variety the cast actually laughed when they read the gory script for last night's episode. "This is an impossible scene, thank you! How are we supposed to do this?" the cast said according to Lincoln.

He called Jessie's shocking death "horrendous." "Jessie was one of the first people in Alexandria to touch Rick, to open him up to a viable community and make him empathize with them and their plight," Lincoln toldVariety. "But she also allowed him to open up a part of his heart that he'd kept shut down for a long, long time, and to trust and to dare to even feel that way for another human being after the loss of Lori. So to have to go through this trauma and witness this in such shocking fashion is appalling, but it's almost like it gets overridden—everything just gets worse and then worse and then worse, so much so that he has to hand what he thinks is his dying son over to someone who he doesn't know, and he's powerless."

Lincoln later toldVariety, "I would love to see a bar watching that episode." Not nearly as bad reactions as watching Glenn die, but still enough to get a kick out of, if you're into that Andy.  

On what lies ahead for Carl and Rick:

"I also dig, particularly, the relationship—which is almost a triangle—between Negan, Rick and Carl. I think that’s a really interesting psychological battleground; the father figure and a parent that cares desperately about and would give his life for his son, sometimes can be smothering and not value the son enough or not listen to the son as a true leader in his own right. Whereas someone else may offer that, which is very interesting. All of this ground is the stuff I've been waiting for, certainly in that relationship. I think it's really interesting; it's touching upon the same moral ambiguity of "The Grove" and episodes like that."

He also talked to Variety about season six's finale saying, "It's different and we're gunning towards one of the best, most appalling and brilliant season finales we've ever attempted. It made me physically sick when I read it, and if we've done it right, you will [be] too." 

Part of the reason viewers will be sick? Negan is set to make his debut in the finale, exciting fans of the comic. Lincoln described Negan saying: "He's unashamedly psychotic. [Laughs.] He's unapologetic about his means, his ways of getting his points across and getting thing done."

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