‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 Premiere Kills [Spoiler]

The Walking Dead returned on Sunday night with a major character death.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9×01 follow. Major spoilers!

In the closing moments of Episode 9×01 (titled, “A New Beginning”), Maggie unleashed her wrath on Gregory. Earlier in the episode, the former leader of the Hilltop had manipulated Ken’s father Earl (Ken also died earlier in the episode), having him drink to the point where he was willing to try to murder Maggie. When Maggie realized she was only sent to Glenn’s grave by Gregory as a means to set her up for the murder, she marched into Gregory’s office and got the best of him.

The next night, Maggie organized the Hilltop community to watch Gregory’s execution. After explaining that there will be consequences for such actions, Maggie ordered Daryl to smack the horse on which Gregory was sitting, prompting it to run away, and leave Gregory hanging from the noose.

Her final words, and the final words of the episode were, “Cut him down.”

The sequence is a page pulled nearly identically from Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comics. In issue #141, Maggie had Gregory executed after he tried to kill her, with her last words on the subject being exactly the same: “Cut him down.”

The only real difference between the two mediums showcasing Gregory’s death penalty is the root of it. While Gregory tried to kill Maggie in the comics, he was more hands on about it rather than trying to have someone else do it. After slipping something in Maggie’s drink, Maggie became ill and realized he tried to poison her. However, Jesus came into their trailer just in time to catch Gregory and get Maggie back to good health.

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The Walking Dead returns for its ninth season on Oct. 7, 2018. For more updates and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter!