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[SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Sunday’s “Thank You” episode of

fans last night when Nicholas blew his brains out and then toppled into a sea of zombies along with Glenn. We saw Glenn’s face crying out as guts and intestines were pulled from a body by ravenous walkers. But pulled from

body? I have already provided a point and counterpoint analysis into whether Glenn is actually dead or not, but we also went for answers to one of the men in charge, executive producer Greg Nicotero.

What will he say about the possible death of one of the show’s few originals left? What can he reveal about the scene that did not make into the final cut? Should Nicholas be considered a coward, a hero, or something in between? Why could they only get one take for the gruesome guts scene? And what can he reveal about what happens next? Nicotero spills intel on all that and more. (Click through both pages to read the entire interview, and also make sure to check out our interview with the man who played the

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You know what my first question is, right? What is everybody’s first question today?GREG NICOTERO: My guess is everybody’s first question will be: Is Glenn dead?

I’m gonna say that it seems pretty clear that

died in that sequence. Listen, you know, our show’s tough, dude. People die in very unsuspecting ways, so you kinda gotta let your eyes tell you what you saw.

And people’s eyes are telling them different things.

People are still debating about Jon Snow! I will look at this very much like dealing with

. It’s such a shocking moment that people will find reasons to either defend what they saw or fight against what exactly they saw. I think it’s always very exciting.

Whether Glenn is dead is up for debate at this point, but what does

seem up for debate is that you all crafted this in a way that was intentionally unclear. I have to assume you all went into this wanting fans to wonder at the end of that scene, right?

Yes! And I think that adds to the mystery of it. It was a very specific intent when this sequence was even being designed. I got an early phone call from [showrunner] Scott Gimple saying, “Hey, I have this idea,” and he and I worked on it quite a bit to choreograph it in such a way that wasn’t necessarily deceiving, but felt more realistic. The fact that there’s a crowd of 1,000 zombies around them — you may not get a 100 percent clear glimpse of what’s happening. But it’s like looking at a car accident or something, where you see it for a sec and your brain process it one way. We really wanted to design the sequence with that in mind.

How do you read Nicholas’ move of saying “thank you” and then blowing his brains out? Is he giving up like a coward or sacrificing himself like a hero so the zombies eat him and maybe Glenn can get out of there?

Listen, I don’t look it as him being a coward at all. What I like about Nicholas and Michael Traynor’s performance was I feel like after everything that happened in the season finale last year, he wanted to be like Glenn. He wanted to be brave and wanted to contribute. But when they come to that town, they come upon the people they left behind and Nicholas goes over and stabs the one guy. I think it’s a great moment where they say his name and how old he was and Nicholas goes over and does it. Again, it’s just a constant reminder of what a coward he

. So at that moment, I don’t think it was him being a coward; I think it was just him sort of accepting their fate and doing something that probably everyone in that situation would do, which is

I don’t want to be one of those things, so I’m taking the first step to guaranteeing I’m not a walking corpse

. That’s how I always took it. And this is just my personal belief that it was not a cowardly way to go out. I took it as their options are limited.

There was a little bit of dialogue that I don’t even think ended up in the episode, because the action was so quick. When they’re getting to the dumpster and they’re counting off their shots, Glenn says to Nicholas, “Be aware of how many shots you have left.” So as they’re shooting the walkers, Nicholas starts counting down. Boom! “6.” Boom! “5.” Boom! “4.” And he gets to one bullet left. So I play it up not as a cowardly way to go. The fact that he happened to fall and knock Glenn over into the zombie crowd with him was not something that was intentional; I just think it was something that happens in our universe. Bad things tend to happen more than good things, unfortunately. 

I think it’s a great episode. It really gets to the core of what the show is about — the fact that a lot of people are swarmed and overrun. It’s a great episode for [Corey Hawkins, who plays Heath], and it’s a great episode for [Michael Traynor, who plays Nicholas]. It was one of my favorite episodes of the season, because it was so big. We didn’t stop for a split second on that episode. There was just constant movement. [Director] Michael Slovis and I really spent a lot of time making sure we really captured the epic scale of this zombie attack. We set up the zombies in the quarry in 601, but now they’re much more physical. We pulled the drawstring of the bow back, and this episode was firing the arrow.

Let’s talk a bit about the decision to have this whole season so far — and it seems we have more to come — be one day played out in different locations with different people, because that’s a pretty unique approach.

Yes. And it continues. If you really think about it, even watching episode 2, Carol puts the casserole in the oven, sets the timer, and then Alexandria is attacked. In the last moment, the timer goes off. Whatever time it took to cook that casserole was the time for the siege in Alexandria to occur. The timeline is pretty relentless in that regard.

NEXT: Nicotero on staging (and starring in) the guts-eating scene, and intel on what happens next

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