Last night's midseason finale of The Walking Dead was one hell of an episode. After a somewhat lackluster fall season made up of capsule episodes, the 90 minute episode brought together the main cast, saw some horrifying character deaths, and had a hopeful ending for the first time since last season. And while we are all thrilled to see the ensemble share some moments together, it turns out that Daryl might have made a mistake that will put all of the survivors in danger.
When Daryl made his move to finally escape The Sanctuary, he unfortunately ran into a Savior called Fat Joey. This was poor timing for the Savior, and Daryl let out all of his pent up rage from his captivity by bashing in Joey's head with a pipe. And while this character death paled in comparison to Spencer and Olivia's, it may have grave consequences for all of the communities in the series.
In last week's episode "Sing Me a Song" we were privy to a conversation between two Saviors while Jesus and Carl hid in their truck. In their talk (via Comic Book), we learn that Fat Joey's job was to divert a massive hoard of walkers away from the communities through some cleverly rigged explosives. And when the truck finally arrived at The Sanctuary, we heard Fat Joey and Negan have a conversation about a major setback- the diversions haven't been working, and Fat Joey needed more resources to keep them safe from the dead.
But now that Daryl has killed Fat Joey, he may have unknowingly screwed over all of the communities. Walkers have been a non-entity in Season 7, but this may soon change due to Joey's death. Because if another Savior isn't as smart as the recently deceased Joey, then there will be nothing stopping the swarm of walkers from being at the communities' gates.
Having zombies once again pose a threat to the survivors would be a great way to make the back half of Season 7 interesting. We already know that the communities are planning on (finally) revolting against The Saviors, and having the dead further complicate this mission would be a great way to keep the stakes at an all time high. And with Alexandria, The Hilltop, and The Kingdom all without any firearms (besides Rick's recently returned revolver), it will be much harder to dispatch a large sum of walkers. I can practically hear the dramatic Walking Dead music already.
Unfortunately, we have quite some time to wait until The Walking Dead returns to Sunday evening. So at least we have the final hopeful moments from the midseason finale to hold us over until the apocalyptic drama airs new episodes. Hold on to the joy, Walking Dead fans, because it doesn't happen often.
The Walking Dead will return to AMC in February.
