Negan goes for the kill in The Walking Dead’s bloody season 7 premiere

Caution: spoilers ahead.

It’s been a long journey for fans of AMC’s "The Walking Dead." After the cliffhanger season-ender last April that introduced the baseball bat-wielding Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the world finally gets the answer to the question everyone has been asking for months now: “Who dies?”

That answer can be found in the premiere episode of season 7.

“The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” has the longest title of any TWD episode so far, one that pays tribute to words spoken to Rick by another character way back in the Season 1 finale.

This person, Dr. Edwin Jenner, warned Rick that he will regret choosing to continue living in a world beset by all kinds of madness and the zombie apocalypse.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan gets season 7 off to a bloody start. Photo: thewalkingdead.com

Right off the bat (literally), this episode begins where we pretty much left it off: Rick and his friends helpless and at the mercy of Negan and his group, called The Saviours.

There is a noticeable splat of blood on Rick's face that clues viewers in to the fact that the deed is done: somebody has been killed.

Negan proceeds to drag Rick inside the RV and give him a sharp lesson on why he and his people “belong” to him now. The episode unfolds with Rick recollecting the events of the past few hours: tough man Sgt. Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) is chosen as Negan’s victim, his skull crushed by the crazed leader’s barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat he affectionately calls Lucille.

The beating is both brutal and devastating to watch, and if that wasn't already too much to bear an even bigger bombshell happens a few minutes later when fan favorite Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) is chosen as the second victim due to intervening circumstances.

The next morning, Rick is brought back to the scene of the crime, where the victims' bodies and the remaining survivors are still surrounded by the Saviours. Negan is still not fully convinced that Rick understands that he now works for him, and brings down even more trauma on the former sheriff’s deputy to know he means business.

The episode ends with everyone in tears and shambles, with Negan leaving them to pick up the pieces.

So yes, "The Walking Dead" has returned and is back with a vengeance. — BM, GMA News