Season 7 of The Walking Dead
was released on Netflix on September 8 of this year (2017). It's been a ritual of mine to binge watch the previous season of The Walking Dead as soon as it comes out. It took me a little over 36 hours to catch up. In case you didn't already know a war is coming.
It has been said that The Greatest Story ever told
is a about Jesus of the Bible. It's one I'm sure your familiar with. It not, allow for a brief recap.
God is made up of three parts: God the father, God the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. The world at first was perfect, but after a period of time, man sinned and the world entered a fallen state. Years passed, thousands of years, until God (father) sent Jesus (son) to redeem the fallen world from an occupying power that had come to rule it. Jesus dies, to serve as the sacrifice for man's sin, and is resurrected triumphing death. He then returns to Heaven promising a return, but the evil force still remains on earth.
If Jesus, the Christ, is the savior of the world--then the opposite of him could be described as the Anti-Christ, the destroyer of the world.
“The Walking Dead is more akin to the Bible’s narrative than you might think.”
The Walking Dead is about Rick Grimes, an Atlanta police officer who was shot in the line of duty causing him to enter into a coma. When he awakes, the world is upside down--as zombies have taken over. Rick sets out to find his family encountering other survivors along the way and it has been all about survival ever since.
Over the first 7 Season seasons we have learned to love the cast of characters that The Walking Dead has given us: Rick, Andrea, Michonne, Daryl, Maggie, Hershel, Beth, Carol, Carl, and Merle.
Later Seasons brought with character names such as Abraham, Ezekiel, and Jesus--this is where the allegory begins to form and take place and it's not too much of a stretch to suggest that Rick acts as the "father" and Carl serves his role of the "son" or "christ". Who then could be the anti-christ?
Negan
was first mentioned in season 6 episode 8.
Abraham, Sasha, and Daryl stumble upon a motorcycle gang on the highway.
"What the holy shit."
The biker gang leader says, “Your property now belongs to Negan.”
The Walking Dead's world has fallen. Every person is sick and upon death all will turn into Zombies. Around every corner, in the woods, and down the road Walkers, the name the zombies have been come to be known as, serve a constant reminder that the world needs saving. Zombies take life. They give nothing back to it.
Negan has come to be the occupying power of The Walking Dead's world. He takes and doesn't give.
““For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.””
Negan first appears in The Walking Dead's finale of Season 6 in episode 16.
Negan is the leader of a powerful and growing more powerful by the episode group called the "Saviors." The group is taking over The Walking Dead's world. In Season 7, the three good groups: Rick's 'Alexandria', Maggie's 'Hilltop', and Ezekiel's 'Kingdom' are under the Savior's thumb. They give to the Savior's whatever they have: food, vehicles, and weapons.
““Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.””
In episode 7, of Season 7 of The Walking Dead, Carl breaks into Negan's home known as the Sanctuary, and Negan welcomes him.
Carl is tempted
with all the pleasure that Negan has.
Is this not unlike Jesus being tempted by Satan in the desert?
Matthew 4:8-9 says, "the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Like the good Son of the Bible Carl resists.
"Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" - Matthew 4:10
If Negan is not a savior
who then can redeem The Walking Dead's world?
It was John Milton's character of Satan in famed poem "Paradise Lost" who said, "It is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."
Negan is a tyrant. Negan is to be served. When Negan passes by his people they bow down to him.
Negan demands to be worshiped, or else they perish.
Season 7
Serves to remind us that a war is coming, but will it bring new Heaven or and end to The Walking Dead's world?
““You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.””
Can
Rick and Carl lead the people through the battle with Negan and the Saviors? Are they willing to fight?
“What is holding Rick back?”
"His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." - Matthew 3:12
If Rick takes action against the Saviors good people will die in the process. Is it worth it?
I don't know if I teared up more from Rick and Daryl's embrace or the return of the mighty Colt Python.
The Walking Dead's Season 7 has been criticized as being a really slow burn. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 63% on their scale.
Phrases such as "coke bottle" episodes have been used to describe the in-depth world building techniques used by the show during the season. The audience got know the characters better, but the plot moved on at a snail's pace.
“With all the critique of TWD’s Season 7—it did solve the last final question: good is worth fighting for.”
“And then we have the Season 7 Finale.”
Dwight, Negan's right hand man, shows up on Rick's doorstep. He offers to help, but does act as The Walking Dead's Judas?
He said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me." - Matthew 26:21
The last book in the Bible, Revelation, is about a final battle when good triumphs over evil and a new world is established.
On The Walking Dead season finale, Ezekiel warns Morgan that the Saviors are "a dragon with many heads". The prophet John wrote in Revelation 13:1 that he saw it "rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."
“Sasha, in the coffin, resurrects life back into Rick.”
Take note that it was Carl, the son, who took the first shot and started the rebellion against Negan.
"With justice he judges and wages war." - Revelation 19:11
But then Rick is betrayed by yet another ally when Jadis of the Scavengers shoots him and knocks him down to the ground.
Negan has the upper hand once more.
Rick remains hopeful. When all is in doubt he keeps his faith.
Just as Negan is swinging his famed bat "Lucille" at Carl, in attempt to punish Rick for his short lived uprising, something stops him.
Isaiah 11:6 says, "In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all."
Ok, it was a tiger and not a lion; referencing the old Biblical adage: "and the lion will lay down with the lamb". Indeed an odd play by Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead comic books upon which the TV show is based, to name the tiger Shiva.
In Hinduism, there is such a thing called "The Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity", this idea is very similar to the aforementioned Christian idea of the "Holy Trinity" (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit). Hindu's "Great Trinity" consists of Brahma - the creator, Vishnu - the maintainer, and Shiva - the destroyer.
Was naming Shiva a deliberate action by Kirkman only to cause confusion to the many metaphors and Christian allegory contained throughout The Walking Dead's narrative?
““A little child will lead them all.””
Go get some Carl.
Season 7's Finale was titled, "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life"; below in the trailer The Walking Dead's Season 8, Rick says, "When I first met Jesus (referring to a character on the show) he said, "My world was about to get awhile lot bigger."
Take that for religious subtext.
The Season Priemere for The Walking Dead is on October 22, 2017. Can't wait.