'The Walking Dead' Season 8 Finale Is 'Very Satisfying,' Norman Reedus Says
"The Walking Dead" Season 8 has struggled to retain viewers, but there are still just over 6.6 million loyal fans still keeping up with the Alexandrians every Sunday.
It's almost over, though, with the 16th and final episode of the season airing April 15. Episode 16 is called "Wrath," with this synopsis:
"The communities join forces in the last stand against the Saviors as all-out war unfolds."
That suggests a lot will happen, while staying pretty darn vague.
Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) told Entertainment Weekly the finale is so big it's basically four endings in one:
"There are four things that happen that could be the finale, and they all go off at once at the same time. They head in different directions, and they're all individually as good as the next, and they're all very, very satisfying. I like that about it. I like that it's not just one person's story. There are probably four, maybe five, different directions that the show could've ended on and it went in all of them. It's very satisfying."
He said it. "Very satisfying." We've heard that kind of thing before, so call him out if you are not satisfied by the finale.
As EW noted, outgoing showrunner Scott M. Gimple had said something similar about the ambitions of the finale:
"It's very big. Probably currently a little too big. It was pretty amazing the scope of some of the things that we got to do. And yet the emotional intensity was insane. And it very much sets up the start of the next story."
EW asked Gimple exactly how much of the finale would set up Season 9.
"There is some. It certainly is not all setup. But the seeds to the next turn of the story are planted. And some of them are not. Some are subtly planted in as much that we know in many ways the next turn of the story."
"The Walking Dead" is based on Robert Kirkman's ongoing comic book series, so many fans already suspect they know how All Out War will end. But even if they're right, it sounds like that's just one piece of the puzzle. And the recent arrival of new character Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) has thrown a wrench into expectations about what storyline might be next.
Prepare for a few surprises, and hope that Reedus is right about the Season 8 finale being satisfying.
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