The Walking Dead: Who will Negan kill in the mid-season finale?

It’s the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead, so someone has to die ... and preview video shows Negan spattered in blood. So who will he kill? Will it be Spencer, Rosita, Olivia or someone else?

AFTER starting with a bloody explosion of violence, the first half of season seven of The Walking Dead looks set to finish with more death.

It’s something of a tradition to have a mid-season cliffhanger and a shocking death — from Hershel to Beth and others, the mid-season break has not been kind to characters.

But who will it be this time? And what sort of cliffhanger will we see?

As is usual, this will be a longer episode, getting towards the 90 minutes, with plenty to wrap up.

From the preview videos, we know we are (finally!) going back to The Kingdom, where Ezekiel’s top knight Richard will be chatting with Carol and Morgan, before going off to some secret cabin in the woods. His secret weapons store maybe? Will he ask them to form an alliance with Rick and Alexandria? Let’s hope so!

Michonne and her captured Saviour find somewhere shocking, judging by the look on Michonne’s face. Given that Negan is in Alexandria, could she perhaps stumble unwittingly upon an escaped Daryl on the road?

Because Daryl has got out of his cell — can he get out of the Sanctuary? And who is helping him? Is it Jesus, Dwight or Sherry — or a combination of them?

We also see Rosita with her bullet. One shot, one chance to kill Negan. Well, we know that won’t happen but what will be the implications for her? Will she be the one to die?

Rick and Aaron get the supplies from the boat and arrive back in Alexandria in time to hand them over to the Saviours.

We also see Carl and Judith and Olivia having dinner with a clean-shaven Negan. So he shaves in Rick’s bathroom, in another f ...-you moment for Rick.

More interesting is that we see Negan with blood spatter on his neck and chest. Whose blood is it? Lucille the bat is clean in this shot, so does this mean he recreates the legendary comic scene with Spencer, where Spencer tries to betray Rick and is killed by Negan?

Or does Olivia annoy Negan to the point he kills her? Or does she pay the penalty for Rosita’s attempt to shoot Negan? And what will this mean for Eugene? After all, Negan won’t want someone capable of creating bullets to be sitting around Alexandria.

Or, and this is more horrifying, has Negan killed Judith?

That seems unlikely, despite some internet chatter, as they are trying to show a more nuanced view of Negan, rather than making him a character of pure evil. Killing the weasel Spencer makes him sympathetic. Killing Judith makes him a monster.

So it looks like a fascinating end to this half-season, one that will have us eager to see what happens in the second half of season seven in February.

My prediction? Daryl escapes, Michonne helps him out, Spencer and Olivia get killed and Rick realises there is no way to deal with Negan. He has to be stopped ...

The Walking Dead Episode Eight, Hearts Still Beating, is exclusive to Foxtel’s FX Channel on Mondays at 1.30pm and again at 8.30pm.