New threats to Reedus’ Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes and the other survivors, captures, disappearances, the looming arrival of uber-villain Negan and that one last bloody shot last night also cranked up the anticipation for next week’s 90-minute finale. Certainly, if the AMC blockbuster wanted to begin wrapping up a fatality filled and unrelenting season with a bang, they achieved that goal with tonight’s episode. “Without a doubt, this whole season has been completely ballistic,” says The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus of Season 6, especially tonight’s penultimate episode and next week’s “hard-core” finale, as he calls it.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead.