The opening scene of “The Walking Dead” season five premiere was one of the show’s tensest moments yet: Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, Glenn Rhee and Bob Stookey were placed in front of a trough, helpless to watch as four other unfortunate souls were clubbed in the back of their heads with baseball bats, and their throats slashed open with knives.
The baseball bat scene was one of the most sickening sequences of the entire night, and quite possibly the entire series. Thankfully, all four of the main characters involved in the scene survived with their heads and throats intact — but it could have played out very differently, based on a similar scene in the “Walking Dead” comics.
WARNING: Spoilers from “The Walking Dead” comics are ahead!
Unlike HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which faithfully adapts George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels almost to the letter, AMC’s “Walking Dead” often and deliberately deviates from writer Robert Kirkman’s source material, completely skipping scenes from the comics, or adding entirely new ones when inspiration strikes. Daryl Dixon does not exist in the “Walking Dead” comics, for example. Lori Grimes’ death on the show is much different than her death on the paneled page.
Likewise, Terminus is a wildcard, because it’s not in the comics. But there is a memorable baseball bat scene in “The Walking Dead” #100, and the writers were very much calling upon it during the season premiere.
In the milestone issue, Rick’s group encounters a new nemesis named Negan, who curses like a sailor and wields a baseball bat wrapped up in barbed wire. He calls it Lucille, and what he does with it is pretty much the worst.
Negan captures Rick and his allies, and decides to kill one of them via Lucille, as a gross display of dominance. But Negan doesn’t know who to choose, so he resorts to a classic technique:
Finally, the baseball bat points to one of the most beloved characters in “Walking Dead” lore. Seriously, MASSIVE SPOILERS if you keep scrolling down, as Negan chooses…
…Glenn!
And he doesn’t pull his punches (or bat-swings, as the case may be) either. Kirkman the writer and Negan the killer follow through on the promise, using Lucille to repeatedly bash Glenn’s brains in.
Unlike his comic book encounter with a baseball bat, Glenn survives the season five premiere. Still, there were two moments in the slaughterhouse scene where the Terminus batter very nearly clocked Glenn in the back of the head — a knowing nod to people who have read the horrific “Walking Dead” #100.
Thankfully, Glenn’s still alive, and the baseball bat has been abandoned. But does that mean Glenn’s safe? Hell no. Negan’s arrival on the “Walking Dead” TV series is all but inevitable; as far as the franchise’s villains go, he’s right up there with the Governor in terms of nastiness and significance. If Negan shows up, Lucille won’t be far behind.
Again, the “Walking Dead” show and comics don’t always line up; characters who die in the books often survive much longer on the show, and vice versa. It’s entirely possible that Glenn will make it all the way to the final episodes of the series — but it’s just as likely that he’ll become some baseball bat-wielding butcher’s cattle.
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