The Walking Dead isn’t a show that usually has happy moments, which was true of one of the happiest moments we’ve seen all season.
Depression and The Walking Dead go hand in hand. It’s a show that has reminded us that we can’t ever have happy things, even when we do have happy things. There was probably no greater proof of that than the return of a dead character which was cool for about two seconds and then the wave of depression crashed into us.
If you haven’t seen the finale episode of The Walking Dead or don’t want it spoiled, then just stop here. There are massive spoilers ahead and reading them after this warning is all on you.
Alright, final warning.
A major crux of the episode involved Sasha and her flashbacks. We jumped all over the place as far as the timeline was concerned, from Sasha watching a video to her in captivity talking to Negan to flashbacks (or a dream) involving Abraham.
The first thing to take away from this was the return of Abraham. Michael Cudlitz’s character was killed off in the season premiere, and we circled back to that with the flashbacks. We were happy to see him return, but then quickly realized the soul crushing context of it.
Basically, Sasha and Abraham had just started a relationship when the latter says he’s accompanying Rick and the gang on an outing. The implication here is that said outing ends with the group’s capture by Negan and the subsequent death of Abraham.
So while we saw the return — and new scenes — of a character we’ve been missing all season, the context of it is textbook Walking Dead depression. It was sobering, and it was also something that lead to so much more weight being added to Sasha’s character than ever before.