That was a disappointing finale in many ways. I think having such a good episode last week probably bumped up my expectations, but there was a lot wrong with this that could have been easily fixed. I guess previous winters were more mild? I still would not have left horses and supplies behind as others said. Eat one and see if the storm breaks the next day or two (which it apparently did). Or get everyone across the river, then have one or two people lead the horses across. If the river can support 20 people at a time, it can support a horse. That would have potentially sped up their travel on the other side or at least allowed them to send someone ahead for help. And why didn't they check out the Sanctuary living quarters? Weren't there tons of rooms with beds and blankets? They might have found more supplies or stuff to burn in that big open area to stay warmer. The people tethered on the rope through the storm was pretty silly as well.
Putting all that aside, my biggest complaint is how they treated Negan. Makes sense to let him out to save his life, but wouldn't you assign a few people to guard him and wouldn't everyone short of Judith be a little on edge? He was treated like a grumpy uncle, not a prisoner who viciously beat people to death. They moved too fast into acceptance of him for my taste.
I may have missed it, but is there any good reason the Kingdom never has supplies, while the Hilltop and Alexandria do? Can they not grow food there or is it more remote, so they can't scavenge? Its a convenient plot line I guess, but would be nice to have some rationale why they would leave a virtual fortress, especially in Winter.
Does anyone else find the whole Rosita baby drama confusing and distracting? Eugene constantly pines for her, she's with weird-eye Gabe, but Siddiq is the baby's real father? What? In the comics, pregnant Rosita is one of Alpha's border-marked-head kills. Would have been nice to go that route and keep Henry around, so that Lydia would have some purpose.
The remaining group of survivors is really weird. Michonne, Negan, Daryl, and Judith are solid, but that's a pretty small core of good characters. Losing Jesus, Rick, Carl, Henry, Tara, Maggie (kinda), Morgan, and Andrea (a much bigger factor in the comics) has made the story more bland for me. I don't really care as much about the others or the new group, which felt really forced.
The one thing I really did like in this episode was the verbalization of why it was so easy for Alpha to slip in undetected. Its a party with a lot of unknown people from the various communities, so one more unknown person wouldn't be too far fetched. There may have been others with Alpha that they just didn't show - who would know with all the extras running around. It was nice that they closed the loop on the theme of separation that kicked the season off so oddly.