After one of the most shocking moments in the shows history, The Walking Dead went into its usual mid season hiatus with audiences begging for more. The episode, known as "Coda", was viewed by almost 15 million viewers breaking all previous viewership records the show held. The season one finale was viewed by only 5.97 million viewers in 2009. The most important thing about these viewership numbers being that as each new episode premieres at 9pm on Sundays that this milestone was achieved running directly against Sunday Night Football.
Not only was the show breaking viewership records during its midseason finale, it was also breaking viewers' hearts as they killed off a primary member of the core group of characters. SPOILERS AHEAD. After what seemed to be a successful and peaceful prisoner exchange, Beth seemed to be safe in the arms of her friends. However, with a momentary lapse in judgement and rush of boldness, Beth then assaults one of her captors leading to a misfire of her captor's weapon to hit her in the head causing her death. As expected, fan response was intense. No one could have predicting just how intense, however, as fans began writing petitions to return the character Beth to the show and change the end of the episode to a dream or a vision of another character. Unfortunately for fans, even on a show where the reanimation of corpses is extremely common, a bullet to the brain remains the final nail in the coffin and show runners have no plans to change their current course.
No one knows what to expect when the show returns February 8th at 9pm to AMC. How will the group react to the death? Will this incite the travel North Abraham so desires? The only way to find out will be to tune in and see where the group's new insane path takes them.
