Though The Walking Dead's globe-spanning fanbase is dead-set on the arrival of Season 8 in October, let no one forget that Season 7 still has some interesting details to offer, even though it ended months ago. The feature-filled Season 7 Blu-ray set is releasing soon, and understandably, the brutal season premiere gets its share of attention. But it's not necessarily the skull-crushing deaths that provided the most interesting and heartbreaking piece of info, but rather Rick's fully imagined flash-forward. In the episode's commentary track, star Michael Cudlitz fully confirms assumptions that Sasha was indeed meant to be eating for two in the brief scene.
Also, which people may or may not care, this is the future of what may have been, and you can see a little baby bump on Sasha, which not everybody gets all the time. But Sasha, in the future, in Rick's 'What Could Have Been,' we are having a future where Sasha and Abraham could do that.
Just the way he worded that made me stomach go all wobbly. "A future where Sasha and Abraham could do that." No need for him to even go into any speculative details about the hows and the whys about Sasha having Abraham's child, since that scenario was so far beyond the realm of possibility. By the point when Rick is having that hopeful faux-premonition in the episode, the only thing Abraham was capable of achieving was rigor mortis. The best surgeons, magicians and warlocks couldn't have given Abraham a second chance at blinking again, much less getting someone pregnant.
And it turns out the episode was originally intended to give audiences an even large look into this non-future, though the moments that were filmed weren't used within the show itself. (The scene did get added to the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray, thankfully.) Here's what showrunner Scott Gimple said about it during the same commentary track.
There was more shot for that future stuff. In the end, though -- thinking about what happened, thinking about what could still happen, and invoking that, which was the plan -- just having that piece there, I felt really it was one of those moments in the editing room where you think, 'Ah, I don't think that'll work.' And you throw it up there and you're like, 'Holy shit. It works.' And to give that to the audience without expectation, and yet justify it, I really was impressed by that.
The scene as it was in the episode was definitely a lovely touch, as seeing Glenn holding an iteration of a child he'd never know was heartbreaking in and of itself. The extended take gives us even more of Glenn and Baby Rhee, and it also took Abraham and Sasha away from the picnic table, where it's far more obvious that Sasha is glowing with pregnancy. I almost wish this big would have been included for that reason, since it gave us one of Abraham and Sasha's last happy moments together, even if it wasn't real.
And I don't know about you guys, but for me, that dinner scene (and the unaired bits) take on even more emotional heft in the aftermath of Season 7 as a whole. Back when fans were murmuring about Sasha's baby bump in the premiere, there was some speculation that this may have been a nod to Sasha actually being pregnant, or becoming pregnant later on. That clearly wasn't the case, as Sasha made quite the impossible choice at the end of Season 7 to sacrifice herself in an effort to take Negan down. At least, I really hope that wasn't the case over the course of the rest of the season.
The Walking Dead's Season 7 Blu-ray set will be released everywhere on Tuesday, August 22. Beyond all 16 episodes from the season, the set has the expected assortment of extras to keep fans busy, including 9 different featurettes that range from behind-the-scenes looks at the season to an "In Memoriam" extra to ones focused specifically on gross walkers, badass female characters, and the big, new locations that were introduced. Further, there are a selection of deleted and alternate scenes, as well as audio commentaries with different members of the cast and crew. (Those last two were kind of obvious, given the nature of this story.)
After everyone is finished catching back up with everything Negan destroyed in Season 7, don't forget to mark your calendars for The Walking Dead's action-centric Season 8 premiere, notably its 100th episode, which will hit AMC on Sunday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. And for everything else hitting primetime before and after that date, check out our summer premiere schedule and our fall TV schedule.
