Glenn Died On 'The Walking Dead' Season 7 Premiere & It Was Devastating

Even though it was the one death everyone saw coming, when it happened it was even more vile and shocking that anyone could expect: Negan killed Glenn on The Walking Dead and none of the other characters will ever be the same. The audience might not be either, actually. But Glenn wasn't Negan's only victim of the night; when Negan took out Abraham, it seemed like maybe the worst had come. Maybe it was over. But unfortunately, no one got off that easy this time.

After Abraham's death, Daryl rushed at Negan ready to fight, but that turned out to be a dire mistake. Negan wanted to leave Rick and his entire crew without any fight left in them. He wanted them to be totally under his control, and to do that he couldn't allow Daryl's outburst to go unpunished. However, while Negan is an eye for an eye type of person, his sense of justice is twisted and cruel. He decided to kill Glenn to teach everyone a lesson. It was so abrupt that even though rumors had been swirling for months that Glenn would be the one to go, it still came as a surprise. In a moment, Glenn was gone just like that.

Though Abraham's death was violent, Glenn's death was even worse. The first blow left him conscious, but grievously injured; he was covered in blood, one of his eyes bulging out. He even managed to say a few final words to Maggie, a promise that he would find her. Even up until his final moments, Glenn was only concerned about Maggie. And though everyone will be impacted by Glenn's death, it wasn't until Maggie's reaction that things really, finally hit home. She's lost every single person in her family, and now she's lost Glenn too.

The show managed to shock its audience with a death so many people had anticipated, but it also wrung every last bit of gore and drama out of it that it could. The characters were being tortured, but it felt like the audience was being tortured too, and this could have one of two effects in the long run. Either suffering alongside the characters will make the audience more invested than ever (or at least definitely counting down the days until Negan gets his comeuppance), or it'll sever their connection to the show for good. It's hard to voluntarily put yourself through this much turmoil on a weekly basis, especially when things show no sign of improving.

R.I.P Glenn. He truly was a beautiful cinnamon roll – too good for this world, too pure.