There will be Walking Dead spoilers ahead. Read on with care!
We’re all still reeling from the premiere of The Walking Dead. So much death, gore, and heartbreak. And it turns out that while we were busy crying over the victims of the deadly Lucille, and screaming incoherently at the television when Negan was pressuring Rick to chop off Carl’s arm, we missed a subtle twist of the knife.
We’ve shed a lot of tears over Negan’s second victim, Glenn Rhee. Everyone loved Glenn, as he symbolized hope for the group. Glenn’s final words were, “I’ll find you,” to his wife, Maggie. While the headline to Abraham’s final moments is that he went out with the classic, irreverent Abraham-ism of “Suck my nuts,” Vanity Fair pointed out that he also made sure to send a signal to the woman he loved. Take a look:
Did you catch it? In his last moments, he flashes Sasha a peace sign. Why is that a big deal? If you remember back in Alexandria, flashing each other a peace sign was kind of their thing. Abraham first sent the signal to Sasha in the season six premiere while he was drunk on the porch after Reg’s death. After that, the two started to get to know one another more.
Later, when Sasha told Abraham they’d no longer be patrolling together, she flashed the sign as she walked away. The two never got a chance to really start a relationship, but that little hand gesture seemed to operate as a signal between the two of them to show their affection for one another while they were still figuring stuff out.
We’ll never officially know all the emotions that lined Abraham’s dying peace sign—I doubt Abraham himself knew—but it was absolutely supposed to be meaningful. Michael Cudlitz made the choice to flash the peace sign since the way the season six finale was shot (a first person view of Negan, meaning Abraham doesn’t take his eyes off him) prevented Abraham from turning to look at Sasha one last time. Cudlitz called it an “unspoken, very loaded peace sign,” and said that it was a way for Abraham to “say goodbye, specifically to Sasha.”
Of course you’ve got to feel badly that Rosita didn’t get to take part any of Abraham’s final moments, but I imagine had he had more than three seconds before his death, Abraham would have shown Rosita that he still cared for her (and hopefully apologized for how things ended between them).
Still, the moment is sweet, heartbreaking, and reminds us all why Abraham was such a wonderful addition to the group. His mustache was long, his attitude was brash, his words were crass, but if his final moments were any indication, he was a giant softy on the inside. We’ll miss you, Abraham.
Did you catch the peace sign? What do you think of Abraham’s last gesture to Sasha? Tell us in the comments!
Where will The Walking Dead go from here?
Feature Image: AMC
Gif credit: Vanity Fair
