I want Rick Grimes to have a gruesome death in The Walking Dead

As any fan of The Walking Dead will know, Andrew Lincoln, aka Rick Grimes, will leave the show in next Sunday’s episode. It’s the end of an era and I hope he goes out with a spectacularly nasty bang.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

This week’s episode finished on a cliffhanger showing Rick falling off a horse and being impaled by some metal, while two crowds of walkers descend upon him. It looks like he has no escape and he will be meeting a gruesome end. As much as I would have hated seeing my beloved Rick being ripped apart by walkers, it would have been a fitting way to go. He is a major character, so he needs a major, brutal death that will horrify us.

However, I have since seen promo pics for next week showing that he manages to free himself and escape the walkers on horseback. This has disappointed me a little bit, although I’m relieved he doesn’t die alone. I’m now concerned that his exit will be something of a whimper after such an epic cliffhanger. What an anticlimax. I’m now not even convinced he’s going to die – he could just leave – and I will be fuming if that happens. It makes no sense with his character. He deserves a strong demise.

All my favourites have gone out in a brutal way – Hershel being beheaded and Glenn being beaten to death – as that is the nature of The Walking Dead, and it would do a disservice to Rick for it to be something basic, like being bitten by a walker.

To be honest, I’m annoyed that his exit has been announced and so widely publicised ahead of time. It would have been 100 times more shocking and effective if we had no idea this was going to happen. I get that the show is suffering from falling ratings (given how slow and boring it’s been, I’m not surprised) and the execs wanted to give people (like me) a reason to tune in, but it would have been such a spectacular exit if it had been kept a secret.

I have been done with The Walking Dead for a while now and if they ruin Rick’s exit, I will well and truly drop it. Please don’t do it to us!