The Walking Dead's mid-season finale teases its most sinister villain yet

"Start to Finish" hinted at the long-awaited arrival of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan.

**The Walking Dead spoilers ahead**

The mid-season finale, entitled "Start to Finish" ended with the appropriately climactic storming of Alexandria, as zombies tore through the city and forced characters to scatter in search of shelter. 

There was (thankfully) only one notable death in the attack: Deanna, the leader of the Alexandrians, who rather tragically got the bite amongst the kerfuffle. She's a trooper though; holding back her moment of "turning" to ensure Rick promised to care for the townspeople no matter his own allegiances. "They're all your people now." 

So, all your favourites are safe. For now. Because, though we were spared any major losses here, we were also handed a glimpse of what is bound to be the death sentence for at least a couple of survivors.

The post-credits sequence teased a future appearance by the one and only Negan; a character feverishly hyped ever since Jeffrey Dean Morgan stepped up to the role. Here Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham run into a motorcycle gang who force them to stop and start making demands. 

"Your weapons, your truck, the fuel in your truck, if you got mints in your glove compartment, if you got porn underneath the seat, change in the seats, hell, the seats themselves, the floor mats, your maps, little stash of emergency napkins you got there in the console. None of those things are yours anymore."

"Whose are they?"

"Your property now belongs to Negan."

The name Negan will be extremely familiar to those following Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic series; a man whose absolute brutality made him even more infamous than The Governor. He's the leader of The Saviours, a kind of mafia for the post-apocalyptic world, offering protection from the walkers for the reasonable price of half of your possessions. It's hard to say no when Negan's weapon of choice is a barb-wired covered baseball bat nicknamed "Lucille". 
 

There's no word on when exactly Negan will be appearing in person, though rumours are it won't be until the very end of the series. 

To make matters worse, the episode ended on a pretty harsh cliffhanger, with the group mid-undead horde, disguised only by the stench of the zombie guts they slathered all over their bodies, when Sam starts freaking out and crying for his mother. 

So that'll be a 3 month wait to find out who survives and what Negan's got up his sleeves, when The Walking Dead returns to screens 8 February.