For the last 10 years, fans of The Walking Dead TV show series have tuned in for gorey stories of zombie attacks and human survival after an apocalyptic event changes the world forever.

The series focuses on a large ensemble cast of survivors trying to stay alive as they are under near-constant threat of attacks from zombies known as “walkers.” However, with the collapse of modern civilization, these characters also encounter other human survivors who have formed groups and communities with their own sets of laws and morals, sometimes leading to open, hostile conflict between them.

The series centers on sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, who wakes up from a coma. While in a coma, the world has been taken over by walkers. He becomes the leader of a group of survivors from the Atlanta, Georgia, region as they attempt to survive. 

In Season 9, Rick Grimes wanted a change from killing groups after groups. His son Carl wrote him a letter saying to stop killing and try to live a better life. Rick only appears in the first 4 episodes and they are building a bridge so they can cross the river with all their supplies. In episode 4, Rick falls off a horse into a metal blade right into the stomach and a horde of zombies are chasing after the horse. Rick has to get out of it and gets to the bridge before the zombies do. Rick got there, but he was too late. He has no choice but to blow the bridge up with him on it. At the end of that episode, Janis picks Rick up in a helicopter. She found him at the end of a lake. 

So when Season 10 opened without Grimes the show felt different. The conclusion of Season 10 without Rick Grimes had me and other/fans feeling very strange because he has been a part of the show since Season 1 and his absence made the show feel different. 

Season 10 ended with Neagan and Lucile’s relationship hitting a major rough patch. They had been out at their favorite bar trying to enjoy their favorite song at a jukebox song, “You Are So Beautiful,” when an obnoxious patron was being too loud for them to enjoy it. One thing led to another and Negan ended up beating the crap out of this guy, who ended up being a parent at the local school where Negan worked as a gym teacher. Negan lost his job, the guy sued, and then Lucille ended up having to pay his medical bills while Negan sat at home playing video games and buying a $600 Happy Days jacket he couldn’t afford. (The same leather jacket he would end up wearing after the outbreak.)

Lucille finds out she has cancer. Trying and failing to get in touch with Negan and her friend Janine after her MRI, she realizes they are having an affair. Lucille doesn’t tell Negan that she knows about it, though she waits for him at home later that night with a gun by her side. Instead, she tells him she has cancer. He quietly breaks things off with Janine and turns his attention to taking care of his wife.

The show was very different with new characters and didn’t really have interesting storylines. But now with Season 11 scheduled to premiere in August as the final installment of the series, there is a chance for Rick to return. 

It would be a good ending if Rick came back and brought everyone back together and the group went back to where it all started back in Atlanta. It would be good to have Rick back for the final season because the show is mainly about him. He “made” The Walking Dead, meaning that the whole show has revolved around his story since the beginning. It would only be right to end it with him in the show.