THE WALKING DEAD
No Turning Back to The Way It Was
Season 11, Part 2 Teasers

2/11/2022

Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan | © AMC
We survived everything for what? To keep fighting and killing each other?"
—Daryl Dixon

Suddenly the end of The Walking Dead is looming. When I saw the full trailer (below) three weeks ago, I got really excited for something again and I had to write about it. As usual, I didn’t get a chance to post it and now I’m way behind. Still, I didn’t want to waste all I had written. I love these trailers and how they make me feel. I’ll never forget how “Last Day on Earth” was terrifying and the ending made sick to my stomach, a feeling that persisted. A few months later, the Season 7 trailer dropped at Comic-Con and renewed the dread of anticipating who wouldn’t survive until “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” finally aired and deepened my relationship with this series forever.

There have been so many times I’ve wanted to talk about The Walking Dead over the past few years. I think the last thing I wrote in length was about the show's Most Haunting Moments. I adore the series through and through, and wanted nothing more than to continue writing about it, but life finds a way to bring nothing but chaos. I know I’ve said it a number of times before other series finales—S.H.I.E.L.D. and SPN in particular—but one day I’ll get to where I need to be again, even if it is after TWD is gone. 😭


The end has been a long time coming, but I also can’t believe it’s almost over. I also can hardly believe that TWD made it this far; the show deserved so much and got so little in the way of recognition, which happens far too often. Many of us stuck by it through everything, not because we felt obligated but because we were intrigued by the story, the characters, the relationships, the breakdown of society and how we will do anything to survive and try to claw our way back to humanity. What was there to abandon? Because we didn’t agree with choices that the writers made? That’s not how it works if you love the entirety of a series and care about story beats and character development.

Disagreement doesn’t require abandonment in one fell swoop. I’ve heard silly arguments by former fans retconning their own memories about their time watching TWD, people I know and love and who make it their business to discuss in length their collective distaste every time they get together, not giving a rat’s ass that I’m in the room with them. I find it pathetic that they can’t give it up and move on, endlessly and vehemently repeating that their break with the show had been years in coming—that the series should have ended after season 2 or after the Governor or after “so-and-so” died—merely to convince themselves and others that they made the right choice. These people feel incredibly wronged by the show. I get it…sort of. I always understood there would be tremendous suffering by the characters, but that this show was about hope, and hope is a powerful thing. Characters die, yes, and it can be the saddest thing, but it’s what they do while they’re alive that keeps them with us, their sacrifice that turns the tide, or their senseless death that compels another to do what we could only imagine. This is the journey we take with a show like The Walking Dead.

Us fans whose love can never be shaken, though our hearts and souls are tested regularly, will always be grateful for the way The Walking Dead made us cry, made us cheer, made us cower, made us furious, and gave us awe-inspiring performances. We persisted through the so-called “bad years” when others gave up on the spot. We went through it together and ended up stronger on the other side, able to withstand any storytelling choice the writers could throw at us, even losing Rick Grimes (the delay for his movies is interminable, though). For me there were no bad years, only the lowest of lows, where the characters were completely broken, where fans like me keenly felt their devastation as if they were family, and where the performers were a collective brilliance like I’d never seen in anything before. I wouldn’t change the experience. All of this is why The Walking Dead to some is now their worst TV experience and why it will always be one of my best.

So, for the one of you who hadn’t seen this yet, enjoy. ☺️


My goodness, there was a lot of goodness (and nerve wracking stuff) going on there! I missed the original trailer drop while I spent an entire day doing business taxes and trying not to go crazy. Then I didn’t watch the next day because I was bogged down with more! My Mom’s MS is also ever-present so taking care of her takes a lot of time, too. Include trying to get away from selling on Amazon and instead selling art on RedBubble, making journals for Amazon KDP, and very soon creating design packages for Creative Fabrica and you’ve got a recipe for never getting back to blogging until I find success somewhere and I can finally relax. Good thing that, even though TWD is moving on, there will be more of the wider Universe to relax with.


Reminder! The Walking Dead Season 11 Part B starts this Sunday if you have AMC Plus and February 20th if you don’t. I can’t always avoid spoilers, so I finally bought a year of AMC Plus when it was on sale. I’m not having a random tweet tell me what happens a minute after the end because I forgot to turn off notifications.

I'll make a small commission if you purchase through one of these Amazon links. Helps to keeps the blog running (good for me) and won't cost you anything (good for you).

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