At the end of season 6, newly-introduced ultra bad guy Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) had rounded up the show's cast members and was last seen beating an unidentified major character to death with his baseball bat 'Lucille'.

The unidentified character turned out to be Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), who first appeared in Season 4 of the show. Minutes later, Negan also kills Glenn Rhee (Steven Yuen) in a moment that horrified fans who have followed Yuen's character since the very first season.

What followed this was an hour of violence and gore clearly intended to push viewers to their limits. At one point, our protagonist Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is ordered by Negan to take an axe to own his son's arms, only to be stopped at the last minute.

While some have simply criticised the use of violence as gratuitous and overly graphic, others have found flaw in the fact that the show has seemingly sacrificed character and plot development for shock value. One website, called The Walking Dead Quitter's Club, features articles from fans and critics who state their reasons for saying goodbye to the show. Most seem rankled not by the violence (we've had six seasons of pretty graphic stuff already), but by the cheapness of using violence simply to provoke, along with the inappropriate fantasy sequence which ended the episode.

Despite the criticisms, director Greg Nicotero has defended the episode, saying: “We have done something to affect these people in a way they don’t necessarily know how to process. Glenn’s not dead, Abraham’s not dead — their spirit lives on. There’s more story to tell with the result of what happened with those people. I look at it a little differently. This show still has a tremendous amount to offer.”