‘The Walking Dead’ Season 6 Finale Introduces Negan In A Deadly Ending [EPISODE 16 RECAP]

It’s finally here, “Walking Dead” fans. The Season 6 finale aired on AMC Sunday night, introducing viewers to big bad comic book villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). But Negan didn’t make his grand entrance until barely 10 minutes remained. So, what happened up until that point? We’re recapping episode 16, titled “Last Day on Earth.”

The finale starts with a man whistling while someone imprisoned appears to drift in and out of consciousness. Who is imprisoned? And who is whistling? That’s not revealed just yet.

The cameras then cut to Morgan (Lennie James) searching for Carol (Melissa McBride). He finds a sign that says “You Are Alive,” along with a horse. It appears to belong to the man Rick and Morgan ran into last week, but he’s nowhere to be found. Morgan takes the horse and continues this journey to find Carol. Fingers crossed he finds her before the Savior that she shot. He looks the worse for wear, but he’s still clutching her rosary beads as he walks through fields searching for her.

Meanwhile, in the woods, a man is bloody and running from a group. He doesn’t make it far, though.

“You broke the rules and some people had to die,” the leader of the men says. It sounds as if the bloody man on the run was part of a group that tried to fight back against the Saviors. But it appears as if that didn’t turn out well. The Saviors surround him and begin punching and kicking him while he begs them to stop.

The Saviors drag the man out to the middle of the road and leave him there as an example for the next people they cross.

An RV carrying Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Carl (Chandler Riggs), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Aaron (Ross Marquand), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) pulls up. Glenn (Steven Yeun) never came back and they couldn’t wait to get Maggie the medical attention she needs. They took off for the doctor at the Hilltop Colony, but the Saviors are blocking their path.

“What the b----?” Abraham says when they find the road blocked.

Everyone exits the RV and Rick offers to make a deal. But he’s not the one making it. The leader of the group tells him they can go on — right after they kill one of them and take everything they have. Rick counters by saying he’ll let all of them live if they hand over their belongings. But that’s not the terms of the agreement. Since they can’t come to an understanding, Rick orders everyone back into the RV — but not before he asks the Savior if he wants today to be his last day on Earth. The Savior fires back that Rick should be extra nice to everyone in his RV, because it could be one of their last days on Earth.

Abraham turns the RV around and they plot their next route. Just like before Saviors block it. The third route is the same situation. Finally they come across a road that is not blocked by Saviors. However, this time there are walkers in chains stopping them from crossing. But there is something different about the walkers. One of them is wearing Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) vest and has a piece of her hair. Another walker is wearing Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) jacket and has one of his arrows sticking out of his chest. Before Rick and the others can clear the road, Saviors begin shooting at them. Rick is able to break the chain of walkers and get everyone back in the RV to keep driving. But once inside they realize that the Saviors want them in that direction. They were shooting at their feet, not at them or the RV.

Elsewhere, Morgan finds Carol curled up in a ball on a doorstep. She’s injured and weak, but still tells Morgan she told him not to come.

Morgan ignores her and brings her inside to treat her wound. She needs stitches and antibiotics, and Morgan says they can start the journey back in the morning. However, Carol’s not interested in returning to Alexandria.

Morgan leaves her inside to take care of a hanging walker that is making noise and attracting others. When he returns he finds that Carol is gone and quickly jumps on his horse to go after her. Unfortunately for Morgan, the injured Savior gets to her first.

The Savior holds a gun to Carol and tells her it’s getting harder for him to breathe due to his gunshot wound. He’s got big plans for his final few breaths, though. He promises Carol that he’s going to watch her die a slow death as payback for what she did to his friends. And he means business. He shoots her in the arm, and proceeds to shoot her in the leg when she begins to laugh. She wants the Savior to kill her, and he’s about to give her what she wants when Morgan shows up.

Holding a gun in his hand, Morgan tells the guy to walk away. The man ignores him and Morgan is forced to shoot him — repeatedly.

He rushes over to Carol, but Carol isn’t grateful that he saved her. She truly wants to die, but Morgan tells her it’s not her time. It’s then that two men wearing what appears to be armor show up — could they be from the comic book safe haven the Kingdom? One of the men was the guy Morgan and Rick ran into who was looking for his horse. Morgan says he found the horse and his friend needs help.

“Then lets get you some help,” he says, shaking Morgan’s hand.

Back on the road, Abraham’s next route takes him to a road that is blocked by a large wall of logs. When they turn around they discover that the original group they ran into has caught up to them. They taunt Rick’s group, pushing the man they were torturing over a bridge and hanging him.

With Maggie burning up and getting worse, Rick knows they can’t keep playing this game much longer. Unfortunately, there are no other options on the road. But Eugene has an alternative. He says he'll drive the RV while the others travel on foot with Maggie. It’s a risky plan, but the only one they’ve got.

Unfortunately, they don’t make it to the Hilltop Colony. While in the woods they begin to hear whistling. Rick tells everyone to run, but that’s exactly what the Saviors want. Rick’s crew heads right into their trap.

Rick, Carl, Abraham, Sasha, Maggie and Aaron are completely surrounded by a large group of people. What’s worse is they already captured Eugene. He’s kneeling off to the side of the RV.

Rick makes one last attempt to negotiate, but the Savior they originally ran into on the road tells him it’s time to listen. They strip them of their weapons and force them to kneel on the ground — Maggie included.

Rick is shaking at this point, and the situation turns even grimmer when Dwight (Austin Amelio) brings in the others. Daryl appears to have been shot in the arm and is bleeding badly. Dwight makes Daryl, Rosita (Christian Serratos), Glenn and Michonne kneel beside their friends.

With everyone lined up, it’s time to meet Negan. He exits the RV holding a bat and smiling.

“P------ our pants yet?” Negan asks. “Boy, do I have a feeling we’re getting close.”

Once Rick is identified as the leader of the group, Negan takes the time to introduce himself and explain the situation. He tells Rick he does not appreciate him killing all of his men, and that it’s “not cool.”

“You have no idea how not cool that s--- is,” Negan says, adding that Rick shouldn’t mess with the “new world order.”

Negan says they now “work” for him. The rules are that Rick’s group must hand over half of everything they have. That’s their job, and if they fail or fight back, then the Saviors will knock down their door.

Now, he doesn’t want to kill them — but he does he need to punish them because they killed a whole lot of his people.

“This is Lucille,” he says, showing them his bat. “And she is awesome.”

The lineup of them kneeling on the ground is so that he can pick one of them to kill. He goes down the row, looking at each of them and making some small talk. He tells Carl (Chandler Riggs) to lighten up, and tells Maggie she looks like he should put her out of her misery. That causes Glenn to jump out of line and yell for Negan to stop. Dwight pulls him back in line, but Glenn talking out of order isn’t a death sentence. Negan understands it’s an “emotional moment” and tells Glenn that the “first one is free.” However, he warns them that if anyone else tries that again he will shut it down.

Rick tempts fate when Negan figures out that Carl is his son, but Negan doesn’t kill him.

“Do not make me kill the little future serial killer,” he threatens Rick. “Don’t make it easy on me. I got to pick somebody.”

The whistling starts again and Negan confesses that he simply cannot decide who he wants to kill. That’s when he starts a deadly game of "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo." He goes down the line, saying the entire rhyme before finally picking his victim.

The camera does not show who Negan chooses. Instead the camera is behind the victim. He cracks Lucille down on the person’s head and blood runs down the screen.

“Taking it like a champ,” he says when the victim remains conscious. He then takes Lucille and repeatedly pounds it into the person’s head.

The Season 6 finale of “The Walking Dead” ends on a black screen with the sound of Negan pounding a skull.