The Walking Dead Season 7, Episode 8 recap: Biggest WTF moments

4. Negan’s Creepy Family Dinner

We sort of knew that Negan was going to keep up this weird charade that he has going with Carl. His whole schtick appears to be bullying Rick into submission and he’s enjoying every single moment of it. Just like how last week’s episode ended, with NEgan carrying around Judith and taking Carl under his wing with his whole ‘cool stepdad’ act, this week started out with a clean-shaven Negan sitting down to break bread with his surrogate family. It was weird, it was unconformable and it sets the stage for the eventual battle that will happen between Negan and Rick.

But what this also does is show that Negan is starting to imprint himself on the people of Alexandria in a way that will live on long after he’s gone. Specifically, Carl is getting a heavy dose of Negan, who is starting to almost serve the same purpose Shane did in his life before that whole thing came to a grinding halt. It’s really going to come down to not who kills Negan but who is most deeply affected by him that his legacy weirdly lives on in their psyche.

Shane failed to totally rub off, but Negan is here to stay even after he’s dead.