You know which scene.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or you’re Jodie Foster in Nell, you know that there were two very significant, and very violent deaths on The Walking Dead.

And a lot of people think the show has gone too far. 

I’m going to defend the show (in as non-spoilery a way as possibly, just in case Nell is reading this and hasn’t watched yet).

Yes, the scene was incredibly graphic — and deeply upsetting. I felt sick after watching, even though it was arguably the worst-kept secret in the show’s history. But it was important, and not just because the scene stayed (relatively) faithful to the comic. 

It was important because anyone who thinks The Walking Dead is still just a “zombie show” is wrong.

The show is about your moral compass, and how the needle doesn’t always point due north. It’s ever-changing, based on the world around you. The line between right and wrong, good and evil, is always moving — and it’s always moving towards the darkness. (Season One Rick would never have gone on a mission to kill Negan’s men. And Season Two Shane is looking pretty sane right about now.)

The show is about the futility of redemption. In this world, you can’t ever give someone a second chance. (Daryl should have killed Dwight when he had the chance. Glenn should have killed Nick when he had the chance. Rick let Andrew live, and Andrew got Lori and T-Dog killed. And so on.)

There are plenty of thinkpieces about how The Walking Dead needed to go dark to illustrate that Negan is a different kind of villain. That he’s the penultimate Big Bad, that he makes The Governor look about as harmless as the cat Michonne stole from the restaurant that time. 

And yes, they did. But it’s bigger than just one character. They had to show that Negan exists because this world exists. 

The Walking Dead had a larger point to make: The walkers aren’t the only ones without any humanity left.