Walking Dead Star Andrew Lincoln Recap Moments From The Season 7 Finale

Throughout the first half of its seventh season, AMC's The Walking Dead has put Rick Grims (Andrew Lincoln) and friends through the query. The season began with the double homicide of Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun), brutally clubbed to death by smirking psychopath Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his "vampire bat" Lucille. The season spilt the cast off into several different directions and stories.

Although Negan typically prefers to use exaggerated instruments like hot irons or his trusty vampire Lucille to make examples out of people, the man certainly knows how to improvise on the fly, as he proved in the midseason finale. As the finale claims multiple lives, endangers others and even manages to galvanize the troops at long last.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Lincoln revealed that Negan clearly is getting to Rick and noted that he wanted to sleep for a week after the nine days spent filming the season 7 premiere. "These two guys are great leaders in their own right," he said before praising both Cudlitz and Yeun, the latter of whom he called a brother and a "devastating loss" for the show's cast and crew. 

Season 7 of The Walking Dead  broke for its usual midseason rift Sunday, offering Daryl's (Norman Reedus) courageous escape, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's shave face, and the deaths of Spencer Monroe (Austin Nicholas) and Olivia (Anne Mahoney) that urge Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the rest of Alexandria crew to finally decide to fight against Negan.

Between the Olivia and Spencer deaths, Eugene's abduction, and not even mentioning Rick and Aaron (Ross Marquand) fighting through a swamp filled with walkers, only to return to Alexandria and have the saviors beat Aaron down. But by the end of the episode, Rick has started to emerge. He agrees to fight back against Negan after the violence in Alexandria, reinforced by a pep talk with Michonne (Danai Gurira)

Alexandria will attempt to team up with the Kingdom and Hilltop Colony against Negan's Saviors when Season 7 returns to AMC Feb. 12, according to the executive producer Robert Kirkman and the sneak peak that aired during "Talking Dead."

Negan's the latest and greatest threat to Rick's life, but he's not the only strange force making moves, either. Earlier in the episode, as Rick and Aaron are attempting to find supplies, a mysterious someone with gigantic boots watches them from a distance. That same someone is on the outskirts of Alexandria by the end of the episode, in a post-credits scene, their identity, and intentions unknown.