'The Walking Dead': Rick Might Decide To Let Negan Live

When All Out War comes to a close with Sunday's The Walking Dead season 8 finale, don't expect the story to end with the death of Louisville Slugger-swinging villain Negan.

Here's what Walking Dead insider Johnny O'Dell had to say about Rick's future decisions in Skybound's weekly mailbag:

The next huge decision he'll make regarding killing someone might go in the other direction. Carl's letter and last words have to sink in eventually, right?

Carl's full letter to Rick, written to him on Carl's deathbed, urged Rick to "find peace with Negan, find a way forward somehow."

A similar letter was penned by Carl and read to Negan over walkie talkie by Michonne, who wants Carl's last words heard by every letter recipient he wrote to.

"Maybe you think we're a lost cause and you just wanna kill all of us. I think you think you have to be who you are," Carl's letter to Negan reads.

"The way out is working together. It's forgiveness. It's believing there doesn't have to be a fight anymore because it doesn't. I hope my dad offers you peace. I hope you take it. I hope everything can change. It did for me."

Before signing off, Carl tells Negan to "start over," telling him "you still can."

A fed up and pissed off Negan told Michonne he would refuse surrender — even if Rick and company begged for it on their knees. Saying it will be done when they're all dead, Negan obliterated the walkie talkie.

Negan is moving forward with a plan meant to lead Rick and his people into a trap and totally annihilate them, eradicating the rebels Negan tried so hard to save.

Rick, having shed his murder jacket and its resulting bloodlust-ing persona after slaughtering a pack of escaped Savior POWs in a dive bar in 8x14, was ashamed when he caught an image of himself, caked in blood, reflected back at him in a cracked mirror.

He isn't on the path Carl wants him to take, but Rick's mindset seems to have shifted after turning to and finally reading Carl's last words.

Rick's betrayal and murder of the Saviors in 8x14 inspired him to read Carl's letter, tells executive producer Tom Luse, who said Rick "realizes that violence for violence's sake is not enough so he reaches out to Carl for guidance."

Since their first face-to-face in 7x01, after Negan brutally executed Abraham and Glenn, Rick has promised to kill Negan.

"I'm gonna kill you," Rick promised. "Not today, not tomorrow, but I'm gonna kill you."

Rick meant what he said when he spit those words again in 7x16 as he stared down a kiss from Lucille.

"I told you already, I'm gonna kill you. All of you," Rick growled to Negan and his merry band of Saviors. "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but nothing is gonna change that. Nothing. You're all already dead."

But Rick's circumstances have changed: his dead son, with his dying wish, invoked in his father a path forward that isn't the simple bloody eradication of their enemies. There has to be something after.

Carl's dying visions of an idyllic future even included a reformed and smiley Negan, who gardens and gently interacts with a young Judith Grimes.

Rick made a simple promise to Carl on his deathbed: "I'll make it real. I will."

Long time fans of the television series might have a hard time seeing a situation where Rick forgives instead of kills, but the show has set Rick on a course mirroring that of his comic book counterpart:

In the comics, during a tense standoff with Negan outside the Hilltop's gates, Rick uses his words to appeal to Negan — convincing him the warring factions of survivors could carve out a future together instead of fighting.

"Let's do this right," comic book Rick tells comic book Negan. "Let's work together."

Negan asked if Rick was proposing the groups "hold hands and sing songs."

"I'm proposing you stop f—king everything up so that we can live," Rick said matter-of-factly, telling him the resisters are fighting for "a world without Negan."

Surprisingly, Rick's words got through to the villain, who then reconsidered his entire philosophy.

Now that Negan was on board and willing to shove aside his a—holery, Rick flashed a blade and swiftly slashed Negan's throat.

With Negan incapacitated and Dwight having assumed control of the Saviors, the war was over.

Later, visiting a wounded but alive Negan, Rick told him his plan for the future.

"We're going to undo all the damage you did... and with you out of the way, we're going to thrive," Rick said. "I'm going to keep you alive... I'm going to make you watch what we become so that you can see how wrong you were... how much you were holding us back."

"You're going to rot in jail until you die an old man, Negan," Rick told him. "You're f—ked."

Whether or not Rick follows this path in the television series remains to be seen, but executive producer Scott Gimple warned viewers the finale "might not be what people are expecting."

"It might not be what some of the characters even want," Gimple added, confirming the end of the war, but "it is a conclusion, and they have to deal with its aftermath."

The Walking Dead airs its extended season 8 finale Sunday, April 15 at 9/8c on AMC.