The Walking Death: Why Did 'The Walking Dead' Change Its Iconic Death Scene?

OK, you can come out now. After seven months and 16 episodes, #AMC's #TheWalkingDead rounds off another superb season of tigers, tantrums, and torture. However, it was the season finale that saw the show once again raise the stakes and veer off course from its #comicbook predecessor.

#GregNicotero is notoriously chop-happy with characters when he slips into the director's chair and "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" did him justice. The show can be fickle beast with its source material — we saw Denise Cloyd take an arrow to the eye instead Abraham Ford, while Hershel Greene lost his head outside the prison instead of Tyreese.

Now, as the Season 7 finale closes the cell door on the Sanctuary, why did that big twist that we all saw coming still manage to throw us off the scent?

Lifting The Bag On The Season Finale

Firstly, it was no big surprise that Sasha became a shuffler. #SonequaMartinGreen has landed herself a cushy role of Star Trek: Discovery and the death bell sounded its toll long before Negan set his attack into motion. While fans may not have been shocked by Sasha's death, there were left open-mouthed with how it happened.

The comics famously feature the iconic scene where Negan delivers a reanimated Holly to the Safe Zone and sends her wandering inside with a bag over her head. Negan then launches an attack with a Trojan Horse-style move, using the Alexandrian's shock to his advantage to launch "All Out War" on Rick and co. With Sasha tipped for show death and the season needing a blowout finale, many had clocked that the Holly scene would probably be Sasha's swansong.

However, while a reanimated Sasha turned up at Alexandria's door, it was not the doing of Negan. It was a tough pill to swallow, but Sasha became her own executioner, taking Eugene's "get out of jail free card," asking for a glass of water, and taking the poison pill. Sasha shocked us all by actually ending her own life with the pill so that Negan couldn't use her as a weapon.

This led to the show's big twist, which saw #zombie Sasha being delivered to the Alexandria Safe Zone without Negan realizing what he was doing. The charismatic maniac had just planned to barter with an alive Sasha, while her big sacrifice meant that she flipped the tables on the Sanctuary's leader who barely escaped with his life. It certainly kept us on our toes, but why did the show differ so drastically from its source on two accounts?

Fear Not!

Fans of sister show Fear The Walking Dead will know that unfortunately the spin-off had already pulled the Holly twist. Undoubtedly to try and bolster its ratings and make itself seem like a less inferior version, Fear took the bag on the head storyline in its second season. We saw lead Madison Clark desperately try and barter the release of her friends, which is a little tricky when you've shot and killed the bargaining chip. As a reanimated Connor was revealed, it gave our heroes enough time to gain the upper hand and escape capture.

Admittedly it was the right thing to do to not rehash the same storyline for both shows, but as one of the most famous moments from TWD's comic book history, you can't help but feel the moment was wasted on Fear The Walking Dead. Secondly, by not knowing that Sasha had turned, and by no longer killing her himself, some are left feeling that Nicotero robbed us of Negan's villainy here.

Perhaps the biggest problem with #JeffreyDeanMorgan's portrayal at the moment is that Negan seems just a little too nice. His relationship with Sasha seemed to be strangely blossoming and he even brought her breakfast in bed. I don't know about you, but I miss the eye patch madness of David Morrissey's Governor.

While the fallout of Sasha's death sets events in motion for the future of Rick's relationship with the other communities, her death will probably be soon forgotten. In a season where we lost big players like Glenn and Abraham, Sasha was just another notch on the baseball bat. Good try, AMC, but C-, must try harder.