Fans surprised by twist in Rick Grimes’s final episode of ‘The Walking Dead’

The Walking Dead said goodbye to Rick Grimes Sunday night and he went out with a banga>…literally. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) spent most of the episode seemingly near death after impaling himself on rebar at the end of last week’s episode. Rick freed himself and continued trying to lead the herd of walkers away, during which he constantly slipped into dream sequences that brought back fan favorites from seasons past. Shane (Jon Bernthal), Hershel (Scott Wilson), and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) all appeared in Rick’s dreams to help talk him through some issues and to tell him to wake up, each time with walkers approaching. Rick led the walkers to the bridge hoping it would collapse under the weight, thus saving the Hilltop, but no such luck. So Rick blew up the bridge with himself on it, appearing to die. Although Daryl (Norman Reedus), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) all thought they’d just witnessed Rick die, that wasn’t the case. As Jadis(Pollyanna McIntosh) was waiting for that helicopter that shows up from time to time, she saw Rick on the shore by the river, injured but still very much alive. The last time we see Rick, he’s being whisked away on the helicopter with Jadis telling him he’s going to be alright. It was a roller coaster of emotions for fans. Going into the episode, fans were not ready to say goodbye to Rick. “15 minutes till Rick’s last episode AND I AM SO NOT READY,” one fan tweeted. After believing Rick was dead then finding out he wasn’t, then finding out he was alive but having no idea what his future holds if he does survive left fans utterly confused but also optimistic. Another fan tweeted, “What the hell? Please let this mean he can come back in a future season!” After the show, that optimism was quickly put to rest when the show’s executive producer Scott M. Gimple said definitively on Talking Dead that that was the end of Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead. But that will not be the end of Rick Grimes. Gimple also said there’s still a lot of Rick’s story to tell, and that will be shown in a series of AMC original movies. There’s still plenty of story to tell going forward on The Walking Dead as well. After Rick was whisked away in the helicopter, the show skipped ahead a few years and it’s safe to say Rick’s legacy and penchant for killing walkers will live on. After the time jump, a group of people were surrounded by walkers and it wasn’t looking good for them. Suddenly, gunshots came from the woods, taking out multiple walkers. When the group ran into the woods, there stood a little girl of about 7 years old with a small Samurai sword on her back and a gun. She introduced herself as Judith Grimes.