‘The Walking Dead’ Finale Pulls a Fast One on Fans: ‘I Just Peed Myself a Little!’

The end of “All-Out War” brings twists that fans didn’t see coming and teases conflicts some aren’t happy about

the walking dead season 8 finale
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(Note: This post contains spoilers of the Season 8 finale of “The Walking Dead.”)

“The Walking Dead” hit fans hard with its Season 8 finale, bringing the “All-Out War” arc to a close in the most dramatic way possible.

The episode found Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his crew finally coming up against Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his Saviors in a final showdown, a setup that left plenty of fans anxious. In the penultimate episode of the season, Negan revealed that he’d found that his lieutenant, Dwight (Austin Amelio), was actually a double agent who was aiding Rick. Negan used Dwight to deliver false intelligence to Rick, with the plan of luring him into a trap and wiping him and his people out.

Of course, things on “The Walking Dead” never quite shake out the way everyone expects. At first, just about everyone was ready for something awful to befall Eugene (Josh McDermitt):

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There was more freaking out when Negan successfully executed his trap, starting with the whistling.

But just when it looked like Negan was about to take out everyone and win the war once and for all, those bullets Eugene made for them backfired. Fans, understandably, flipped, and a few forgave.

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But nothing was quite as hard-hitting as Rick and Negan’s final showdown, and how it played out. “The Walking Dead” pulled a fast one on viewers even as they watched it unfold, and it didn’t sit well with many watching.

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Things weren’t all hunky-dory, though. Even though Rick won the war, Negan survived, and the survivors chose peace over war. Not everyone on the show was happy with the decisions of Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira). More conflicts are coming and, this time, they’re from within Rick and his group — with Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Jesus (Tom Payne) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) plotting, in some way, against their leader. Not everyone was into it.

The season wrapped with one last heart-wrencher: a callback to the death of Carl (Chandler Riggs). Rick finally came around to what his son was trying to tell him about peace.

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