WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Season 2 of Black Summer, now streaming on Netflix.
The Walking Dead’s Negan did awful things, not just to his enemies, but also to his crew. He put them in terrible working conditions, didn’t care about how they risked their lives and even took what was theirs. Still, the tyrant has been a popular figure with both comic fans and viewers who love Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s depiction. However, even when he was defeated, Negan didn’t get the punishment people felt he deserved. Well, in Netflix’s Black Summer, the show’s version of Negan got what was coming to him.
In The Walking Dead, when the Saviors fell, Negan was locked away in Alexandria, which opened the path to redemption. He integrated slowly into the community, much to the chagrin of people like Maggie, and ironically, became a father-figure to Judith after Rick’s death. But while he continues to do good, one thing’s remained consistent — he got off the hook for killing people like Glenn and Abraham.
In Black Summer, Ray Nazeri is seen as the equivalent of Negan. And just like how Morgan’s character lost his wife, Lucille, Nazeri’s family turned into zombies, and he had to flee, which broke him mentally. He would eventually become a scavenger, leading a group of people to scour the wintery landscape in search of resources.
Nazeri’s group shows no mercy, though, killing people and stealing resources whenever possible. He even goes as far as to enslave Sun to get her to show them where Rose and the others are. And to make matters worse, he doesn’t care about his own people, either, allowing them to risk themselves against humans and zombies.
Eventually, Nazeri’s actions catch up to him, however, and get his comeuppance after a firefight separates his crew. He ends up meeting his allies at an airstrip in the finale, only for them to turn on him. They’ve actually aligned themselves with a group Nazeri tried to rob earlier in the show, and while he can’t believe his guys would switch to a weaker team, they reveal they still have strength in numbers.
More than that, though, they’ve got a team that cares about each other. They proceed to beat Nazeri to a bloody pulp, but before they can finish the job, an infection in the hangar allows zombies to invade, which leads to Nazeri escaping with Rose and Sun. However, after he pulls out a gun to kill them, Rose blows up a nearby truck, leaving him even more damaged.
As Sun escapes on a plane and Rose and Nazeri hold each other at gunpoint, Anna (Rose’s daughter) pulls up in a truck looking for her mom. However, she feels sorry for Nazeri and takes pity on him, knowing that if he was left behind, he would surely be eaten by the undead.
Co-created by John Hyams and Karl Schaefer, Black Summer stars Jaime King, Justin Chu Cary, Kelsey Flower, Bobby Naderi and Christine Lee. Season 2 is now available on Netflix.
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