Abraham Ford is gone but certainly not forgotten on The Walking Dead.
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Starting Season 7 by taking one, or two, or twenty for the team, Big Red bowed out in the premiere episode as Negan bashed his skull with his barbed wire wrapped baseball bat which he likes to call Lucille.
Since dying, Abraham’s name has only been said a handful of times. Sasha has mourned him at his Hilltop grave and characters have carried his legacy on but never more so than in Episode 7×11 which follow Eugene Porter around Negan’s Sanctuary.
On the following slides, we reveal the two major call backs to Abraham which you may have missed and why they’re very important to the current events of the AMC series.
Fire With Fire
When Negan questioned Eugene’s intelligence outside of the Sanctuary, Eugene immediately realized that he had to make himself valuable to the villain in order to survive.
Quickly, Eugene adapted to the situation and began spewing lies about his past. Claims of being involved in a 10-person human genome project under Dr. T. Brooks Ellis and having degrees in immunology, microbiology, and biochemisty. Ultimately, Eugene ended his spew of lies to Negan with his “weaponized diseases” nonsense which was what he told Abraham, in order to make Abraham into a friend.
“Fighting fire with fire,” Eugene said to Abraham, Glenn, and others in Season 5.
Brakes
“Pump your brakes, Red.”
The phrase was delivered to the red-headed wife of Negan named Frankie but has been used before by Eugene. In Episode 6×14, Abraham and Eugene trotted outside of Alexandria on a scavenging run which saw Eugene realize he can manufacture bullets.
In the episode, Eugene wanted to prove he can survive on his own so he told Abraham, “Pump your brakes, Red,” when a walker covered in previously molten metal approached.
This is not only a call back to Abraham but also proves to be the place which provided Eugene with the thought of pouring molten metal on the walkers outside of Negan’s Sanctuary to toughen them up.
Loyalty
What do these call backs mean? Eugene is remaining loyal to Alexandria.
Abraham was the biggest advocate for Eugene’s survival. However, Eugene always wanted to prove to Big Red that he was capable of surviving on his own, even if it meant the occasional cold, sarcastic, and insulting line of dialogue or biting someone’s privates.
Eugene has the memory of Abraham at the forefront of his memory and realizes that he has to serve Negan enough to survive under the circumstances. If he can convince the Saviors to trust his knowledge and abilities, he will become a valuable cog in their system which will be protected but also keeping the option to run back to Alexandria upon being saved wide open.
Of course, the possibility remains that Eugene is making Negan into his new Abraham, but that’s not the way optimistic fans wants to look at it!
R.I.P. Abraham.
