Scott Gimple Defends The Walking Dead’s Glenn Mystery

If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead (or you go on the Internet, ever), you’re familiar with The Walking Dead‘s big mystery of season six which turned out to be a fake-out death.

In the third episode of The Walking Dead’s sixth season, Glenn was apparently killed by a massive pack of zombies, only to be revealed as still be alive four weeks later when he wiggled his way under a dumpster, using Nicholas’ dead body as a shield.

Whiel many fans rejoiced over Glenn’s continued pulse, some fans and critics questioned the credibility of the show which constantly claims, “No one is safe.” To further those remarks, no main characters have met a demise in the eight episodes season six has offered.

“I wasn’t entirely surprised,” The Walking Dead’s showrunner, Scott Gimple, told THR regarding the questioning of the show’s credibility. “It was exciting to see the audience so keyed into it that it really became a big thing to people. The responses I got direct from fans seemed to be all very positive. But from a journalistic aspect, there was a disconnect … the two reactions I was getting were very different.”

He’s not wrong. “Is Glenn dead?” became a pop culture sensation for a few weeks despite the audience’s frustrations. Chances are, you could’ve walked into Starbucks and asked the person in line in front of you their opinion on the matter and made a new best friend when you agreed Glenn was under the dumpster.

“It’s hard for me to answer that question directly in as much as I don’t agree with the credibility thing,” Gimple continued. “That’s a very interesting way to look at it — that people are telling the audience how to watch the show and what to believe. We’ve had instances of people in a very emotional state — Tyreese jumping into the middle of a large herd and fighting his way out; a man cut off his own hand and fights his way through a department store full of walkers. These things are part of the world. Glenn had the bad luck of being knocked off that dumpster by Nicholas, ending his own life but [Glenn] had the good luck of Nicholas landing on him. There’s a lot of very specific facts about it that I think a lot of people have sort of gotten wrong. But breaking it down shot for shot … I think we’re past that point. I don’t think this is any sort of new instance that broke the rules of our show at all. I think it’s very much in line with everything we’ve done before. I don’t think there’s a credibility issue. It seems like there’s this growing sort of divide between the people who watch the show and the people who write about the show. There’s not a wrong way to watch it; nobody is doing anything wrong. I’m getting a lot different messages that are diametrically opposed.”

Viewers did, however, get frustrated with The Walking Dead‘s mid-season finale this weekend. The lack payoff for all of the mysteries and build-up from the season’s first eight episodes earned Start to Finish the series’ worst episode review score on Rotten Tomatoes but still pulled in the highest ratings since the season premiere.

What do you think – does Glenn surviving an apparent doom cheapen the show’s “No one is safe,” policy?

The Walking Dead returns February 14, 2016 on AMC.