they said that from a storytelling perspective, the story ends at Rick's group being defeated...to see all of them so confident and self-assured for the last 6 years...feeling good about their abilities to be autonomous and to keep each other safe...even in the episode when Rick assured Maggie that together they can do anything..and Carl echoed it...

all of that came to an end..and the group realized it...we saw them come crashing down into their new reality..

and that who died and the aftermath of that is the beginning of the next story.

as a writer, i can see where they are coming from with that.

also, from a marketing perspective, you'd much rather have your audience spend the next few months speculating over a cliffhanger, than complaining over a cast member departing

also, apparently the cast doesn't even know who gets killed. it wasn't in the scripts and it wasn't shot..which is brilliant because then nobody has to keep the secret.

they did the right thing and everyone complaining will be glued to their screens at the start of the next season.

Cliffhangers are a part of TV storytelling...EVERY show does them...(Jon snow's "death" anyone?) so i don't get why folks are that upset about it

d