The Walking Dead Series Finale Includes Heartbreaking Deaths and Also Hope: 'We're the Ones Who Live'

This post contains spoilers from Sunday's series finale of The Walking Dead.

After 12 years, 11 seasons, 177 episodes, The Walking Dead on AMC reached its finale, even as the zombie apocalypse rages on.

And what a heartbreaking, blood-soaked finale it was.

When the penultimate episode concluded with Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) shot by Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) and beloved characters all scrambling to save her, it was clear the 90-minute finale was going to hurt.

The episode opened with Daryl (Norman Reedus) busting into the hospital begging for help, only to be met by Commonwealth troopers who knock him out. Meanwhile, the hoard of walkers is coming. Thankfully, Judith wakes up long enough to find enough strength to get the doors shut and blocked before passing out on the ground once again beside Daryl.

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And then came the first two casualties of the night: Jules (Alex Sgambati) falls to the swarm and musician Luke (Dan Fogler) gets bit. His friends manage to get him to the hospital and gather around him as he bleeds out — but not before making sure they find the harmonica in his jacket pocket. He makes them promise to play. "Always."

Eventually, Daryl, Carol (Melissa McBride), Judith on a gurney and the rest of the group make it from the hospital and find Yumiko's doctor brother Tomi (Ian Anthony Dale), who gets to work on Judith. And it looks like the Little Ass Kicker will live to kick more ass.

Meanwhile, Rosita (Christian Serratos), Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) find Coco and the other kidnapped babies but have to take shelter in an ambulance amid the seemingly endless swarm. They exit and fight off the walkers before climbing a pipe and entering an open window a few floors up.

Gabriel, with a baby strapped to him, makes it to safety, as does Eugene and the baby in his care. As Rosita starts to climb, the walkers pull her down and she eventually falls. In true TWD fake-out fashion, it appears she's down for the count for a moment until she emerges, slaying walkers left and right. She makes her way atop the ambulance and leaps to the pipe and through the window.

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The next time we see her, Rosita is staring at a sleeping Coco. Eugene comes over and asks her if she's looking forward to summer, but Rosita remains silent as he rambles on about the benefits of infants learning to swim. Finally, he asks again, "I can't wait for summer. Can you?" She gives him a look. "Rosita, when you fell?"

She nods and shows him a bite on her back. Her fate is sealed. She's soaking in her final moments with Coco. "You're going to be fine," she tells Eugene. He responds: "I just love you so much."

"I love you too," she says, letting a tear fall.

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But there's another person whose fate needs to be determined: Pamela Milton.

Mercer (Michael James Shaw) offers to help the former Alexandrians escape while he and the Commonwealth citizens on his side face an inevitable battle. "People are dying and I can't just stand by," he says. "This isn't your fight. They aren't your people."

Ezekiel (Khary Payton) begs to differ. "Yes they are. And so are you," he declares. Aaron (Ross Marquand) chimes in: "We need to do more than just save ourselves." Quickly, the rest of the crew agrees they're going to stay and fight.

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When everyone surrounds Pamela, she declares Mercer a traitor. But he won't take it. "No, you are, Governor. You disappeared hundreds of citizens, led the dead to our doorstep. You shot a child. And now you've left thousands out there to die," he says, referring to the Commonwealth citizens trapped outside Pamela's gated community as the hoard approaches.

Gabriel marches toward the gate: "We're opening the gate and letting these people in and I'll kill anyone who tries to stop me." And Pamela urges her lieutenants to "shoot him."

But when Daryl insists, "We all deserve better than this. ... You've got one enemy: We ain't the walking dead," Pamela's army changed their tune.

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Mercer arrests Pamela as Gabriel opens the gates, letting the citizens in — and leaving the walkers out. Seeing zombie Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) at the gates, Pamela walks towards him, ready to let him kill her. But dying by suicide was more mercy than Pamela deserved, and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) shoots zombie Hornsby, freeing her.

"You have to help them Governor, all the people that are still out there!" Judith shouts. "It's not too late. It's never too late!"

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All the living make quick work of a plan to blow up the wealthy neighborhood within the Commonwealth, including Pamela's house, by blasting Living Colour's "Cult of Personality." They pour gasoline into the sewers and set explosives — and burn a good part of the Commonwealth to the ground in one of the show's biggest explosions ever.

"We kept you alive, after everything you've done, because we've all done things," Carol tells Pamela.

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Earlier in the episode, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) apologizes to Maggie for killing Glenn (Stephen Yeun), delivering a speech about how sorry he is, and how she needs to live on. "I finally understood what you must've felt," he says. "I am so sorry for what I took from you, what I took from your son."

Later, Maggie responds (and Cohan delivers one heck of a monologue): "I've been thinking about what you said. I want to thank you. I can stop wondering if you'll ever say those words and if I can ever forgive you. Because I know now: I can't. Glenn was a beautiful person. I'll never love anyone like that again. I remember this smile, his goodness, and the way he made me feel. But when I look at you, all I see is that bat coming down on his head, blood running down his face. I hear him calling for me, and I hear you mocking me while he's dying. So I can't forgive you, even though I'm so grateful that you saved my son. Even though I know that you're trying. I'm trying too. Because I don't want to hate you anymore. I don't want to hurt like that. And I don't want my son to see that anyone has that kind of hold on me. If you and Annie want to stay, you've earned your place. … Because all I have are my memories, and I don't want to remember Glenn like that."

Soon after, it's time to celebrate. The favorite characters gather for a meal much like the one Carl Grimes dreamed of just before his death. Everyone is hugging and laughing and eating and drinking.

Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) reunite and Magna (Nadia Hilker) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) kiss, rekindling their relationship. And Daryl looks out the window to the ground below and catches Negan's eye. They exchange a nod, and Negan walks away. For good. (Or, for now. As we know, he and Maggie will be reunited in New York City some way, somehow, for The Walking Dead: Dead City, coming to AMC in April.)

But Rosita is sitting alone at the dinner table, and Gabriel notices, and soon everyone knows what's to come. She enjoys quiet and beautiful farewell moments with Maggie, Carol, Daryl, Coco and Gabriel, who prays over her in a true full-circle moment for his character. "Receive her into your arms of mercy," he begins.

Finally, Eugene sits beside her. "I wouldn't be the man I am today if I hadn't met you," he says. She turns to him and smiles: "I'm glad it's you in the end," she says, referring to the fact that he will have to stop her from turning into a walker once she's dead.

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One year later, Eugene places flowers beside a plaque dedicated to Rosita and other fallen favorites. He and Max (Margot Bingham) have a baby — called Rosie — and they are all smiles as Ezekiel and Mercer are sworn in as Governor and Lieutenant Governor, respectively. Judith receives a compass and letter from Negan. Maggie wants to chat about the future.

And Daryl is ready to head out on a new adventure. He and Carol sit on a bench for one last chat. "I wish you were coming with me," he says in a fiction-meets-reality moment. (McBride was initially going to be costarring with Reedus on his spinoff.) "I'm proud of you. I am. You took Hornsby's job and made it your own... You made everything better. And you'll keep making it better."

"I'm allowed to be a little sad," she says. "You're my best friend."

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Judith and R.J. join them and hug Daryl as he prepares to mount his motorcycle. "I'll find 'em both," he tells Judith, referring to Rick and Michonne. "I'll bring 'em home."

Judith, the wisest child in the world, tells him: "Daryl, you deserve a happy ending, too."

Daryl and Carol exchange "I love yous," and he's off.

But that's not the end. Boom: It's Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira)! In alternating voiceovers, they alternate statements like "I think of the dead all the time. And about the living who I lost. I think about them all, every day," and "I tried to get to you and your brother again and again … but I still got you, and you've got me. "We'll always be together, even when we're apart. We're love and Love is endless.

"We are endless."

And then we see them: Michonne looking like a true warrior still on a mission, Rick scruffy and barefoot (and wearing a CRM jacket) forced to surrender to a helicopter. "You've been located and are instructed to surrender," a voice from the chopper says. "It's like he told you, there's no escape for the living."

But Michonne says in a voiceover: "Remember what I said. It's what he said: 'We're the ones who live.'"

The final shot is Judith and RJ looking out at the landscape. "We get to start over," she says. "We're the ones who live."

The Walking Dead spin-offs will air in 2023 on AMC and AMC+.