The date of my review will show that I'm watching this just after the start of Season 7, so it's true that I won't experience the excruciating pain of waiting a year to find out who Negan kills. But a horrible cliffhanger which cynically assume that the viewers of Season 7 will be increased by this (and Season 7's viewing figures show this is sadly right) isn't enough to rate the whole episode 1. I get you're all angry, but apart from the cliffhanger, it's great. Sure, it feels like a lead-up to the finale rather than the finale, but it's still mightily effective as an episode of the Walking Dead.
It maintains tension throughout and instead of exploding in a massive fight, Negan uses his sheer numbers to stress Rick out more and more, and you can see that this really gets to him. This makes it a gruelling episode as the outcome is inevitable and Rick knows it, even though he tries to give Maggie hope. And watching a man die hanging from a bridge knowing he could be saved affects everyone.
The whistling scenes near the end of the episode are terrifying. It's at that point that you realise how big Negan's group really is. And the Negan scene as well, while dragged out (the 'I can't decide who to kill' line is pushing it) is also very tense.
So yeah... That's it. It's not an incredible final episode, it drags on too long for what it is and it's a bit of a cop-out, but a 1/10 episode it is not.
It maintains tension throughout and instead of exploding in a massive fight, Negan uses his sheer numbers to stress Rick out more and more, and you can see that this really gets to him. This makes it a gruelling episode as the outcome is inevitable and Rick knows it, even though he tries to give Maggie hope. And watching a man die hanging from a bridge knowing he could be saved affects everyone.
The whistling scenes near the end of the episode are terrifying. It's at that point that you realise how big Negan's group really is. And the Negan scene as well, while dragged out (the 'I can't decide who to kill' line is pushing it) is also very tense.
So yeah... That's it. It's not an incredible final episode, it drags on too long for what it is and it's a bit of a cop-out, but a 1/10 episode it is not.