There's a gamble there, to be sure, but that's not something in their favour.

I hope not. Aaron is in the lucky position of being a well-played underwritten underused character. There's potential there.

I wondered that. As I understand, the arrow through the head that took Denise was given to Abraham in the comics. Could be they were saving him to substitute for Glenn. Certainly he's had something of a story and character development that would suggest there's an offing in store.

"The gamble of pissing off fans with a cliffhanger makes sense, too.
People mad at a finale ending with their favorite character death may
not venture back in a few months for season 7."

The episode was essentially a rerun of the season four finale.

For some, perhaps, but I think the annoyance in the main is with the cop-out, with not revealing who is dead.

Maybe a little self-pep speech?

They should have made a proper entrance of it:

The Eenie Meanie was making some sense at first, but at the end it was all over the place. It wouldn't surprise me if they kept their options open a little with the death. Gauge viewer reaction, see what strikes the balance between viewer upset and viewer engagement.

I hope so, though they'll probably make a mess of that. The appeal at the moment is it would be something new, that we don't yet know these characters.

I think he cut some of Michonne's dreads off, then stuffed them into a zombie's skull.

Having watched it knowing there was a cop-out at the ending, I think I was able to enjoy it more than I would have had I been left to exclaim, 'oh, come on! Fuck off with that!' There were some nice shots, and some good moments. Rick and co being rounded into Negan's set up was nicely done. Negan was menacing enough…

I think I know where they got inspiraton for the increasing numbers/menace of the saviours:

I'm thinking I might go back and give this another go. I watched the first three episodes a while back. There was a lot I really liked about it, but I found the woman's voiceover and elbowiness bothersome, and every time her wet drip of a husband/villain was on screen I could only get annoyed that they'd failed to…

I've yet to watch it. When I went to download it, there was a comment giving away the non-ending.

"Some of you seem to be forgetting this is just a dumb show about zombies."

The rubbishness of the third season and that godawful ''''special'''' have soured what I did enjoy of the first two seasons.

"who began to lament her existence, presumably while listening to Manic Street Preachers"

Oh, I know that. I was trying to think along the same ridiculous lines as Morgan.

To be sure, one story's contrivance is another's believable development. Willing suspension of disbelief, and all that.