Like most serialized TV shows of its era, The Walking Dead ends a lot of its episodes with cliffhangers. It’s one of the few remaining shows on traditional broadcast television that fans regularly tune in to see on its scheduled airing. Unlike streaming shows, whose cliffhangers are paid off in mere seconds with the next episode, Walking Dead fans have to wait a whole week to see what happens next.
From kidnappings to shootings to a P.O.V. character death, The Walking Dead has given fans plenty of jaw-dropping cliffhangers over the years. Here are The Walking Dead’s 10 best cliffhanger endings, ranked.
10 Rick Hears A Voice On The Radio In The Tank
In the pilot episode of The Walking Dead, “Days Gone Bye,” Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma in a hospital and finds that the world has been overrun by the undead. Assuming his family has gone to the supposed safe haven in Atlanta, he rides a horse into the city.
There, he’s surrounded by walkers. He’s flung from his horse and escapes the horde by climbing into an abandoned tank. In the tank, he attempts suicide. Right afterward, a voice comes on the radio and he realizes he’s not alone.
9 The CDC Doors Open
On the back end of the first season of The Walking Dead, the survivors embark on a journey to the headquarters of the CDC in the hopes of finding a safe haven.
When they arrive at the headquarters in the episode “Wildfire,” there’s no answer at the doors. As a horde of zombies show up and the survivors decide to give up and leave, the doors swing open and a bright light shines from within.
8 Carl Gets Shot
In the season 2 premiere “What Lies Ahead,” the group got split up. Carl went into the woods with his dad and saw a deer. Rick watched in awe as Carl approached it.
And then, a hunter’s bullet ripped right through the deer, splintered into several pieces of shrapnel, and hit Carl in the chest. Before we could see the assailant or figure out if Carl would survive, the end credits began.
7 Sophia Was In Hershel’s Barn All Along
Throughout season 2, as Rick and the gang were holed up on Hershel’s farm, they searched for Carol’s daughter Sophia, who went missing at the beginning of the season.
In the mid-season finale, “Pretty Much Dead Already,” the group was horrified to discover that a zombified Sophia had been locked in Hershel’s barn with a bunch of other walkers the whole time. Right before the end credits, Rick pressed the barrel of his gun to the head of undead Sophia and squeezed the trigger.
6 A Horde Of Walkers Overhears Carl Killing Shane
In the penultimate episode of season 2, the conflict between Rick and Shane came to a head when the former killed the latter. Carl saw the whole thing, then seemingly pointed a gun at Rick, ready to exact revenge. However, he was actually pointing it at a zombified Shane.
When Carl shot Shane, the gunshot rang out through the woods and a massive horde of walkers overheard. This set up the intense undead invasion that would beset the farm in the season finale.
5 The Governor Captures Hershel And Michonne
At the end of season 4’s “Dead Weight,” when Walking Dead viewers were elated that the labored three-episode arc focused entirely on the Governor and no one else was finally over, the villain in question captured two fan-favorite characters.
He caught Hershel and Michonne at gunpoint, which spelled a grim fate for at least one of them (and that one turned out to be Hershel).
4 “They’re Screwin’ With The Wrong People!”
After the Governor destroyed the prison in season 4, Rick’s group broke up into several subgroups. They all spotted signs pointing to Terminus, another promise of a safe haven that was too good to be true, and began separately following them. In the season finale, “A,” they all reached Terminus, which turned out to be trap — duh! — run by cannibals.
The cannibals locked Rick in a train car with all his friends and he said, “They’re gonna feel real stupid when they find out...they’re screwin’ with the wrong people.” Since AMC didn’t allow F-bombs, the line didn’t have the same impact it had in the comics. But Andrew Lincoln’s delivery still gave fans chills.
3 Negan Kills...Somebody
After the introduction of Negan was teased at the beginning of season 6, the whole season built up to the iconic moment from the comics in which he finally appeared for the first time and beat Glenn to death with his baseball bat. Fans of the show were sure that Glenn wouldn’t be the one who got killed in the adaptation, and spent weeks guessing who it would be.
Even when Negan picked someone out of a line-up and beat them to death in the season 6 finale “Last Day on Earth,” we didn’t see who it was — because it was shot from their point-of-view.
2 Negan Declares War On Rick
After the season 6 finale ended with Negan beating one of Rick’s pals to death, the season 7 finale “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life” ended with Negan declaring war on Rick and his allied communities.
Some fans were disappointed that the war didn’t begin in season 7, and the show’s writers instead spent the season building up to its declaration, but at least the finale set up the “All Out War” story arc for season 8.
1 Rick Is Impaled On A Rebar And Passes Out
Right before Andrew Lincoln’s final regular appearance as Rick Grimes, he rode a horse out into a zombie-infested wasteland, fell off its back, and landed on a pile of rubble, with a rebar going through his body.
He passed out as two separate hordes of the undead descended upon him. The resolution of this cliffhanger the following week was a little far-fetched, but the cliffhanger itself was thrilling.
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