‘The Walking Dead’ Doesn’t Leave You Hanging and Releases Most Shocking Season 9 Premiere Scene Online

AMC has officially released the shocking ending scene of The Walking Dead‘s Season Nine premiere, which saw Hilltop leader Maggie (Lauren Cohan) having the treacherous Gregory (Xander Berkeley) publicly hanged as punishment for his two murder attempts on her life.

Gregory, who was displaced by Maggie as de facto leader before an election made her status as Hilltop head official, took advantage of the death of Ken (AJ Achinger), who died on a supply run under Maggie’s watch. He then manipulated Ken’s grieving parents, blacksmith Earl (John Finn) and distraught wife Tammy Rose (Brett Butler), turning them against Maggie before getting a formerly sober Earl drunk and having him attack Maggie.

After his failed coup, Gregory tried and failed to stab Maggie to death, but he was outmaneuvered and taken prisoner before his slow death at the end of a taut rope.

The death came as one comic book readers will recognize: a similar outcome played out in creator Robert Kirkman’s books, where Maggie ordered Gregory’s hanging after he tried to murder her with a poisoned glass of wine.

“It was in the comic book, so people would say to me, ‘Do you know about that? Have you seen the comic book?’ And I would say, ‘Yeah, that’s why I took this job,’” Berkeley told THR. “I was always looking forward to the hanging, because it was [a] death that I had yet to experience, and I’ve made my living dying.”

Gregory’s hanging came as a surprise for fans, but a welcome one: many viewers celebrated Gregory’s death on social media, cheering the end of the shifty scoundrel.

“In a way, the cheering for the demise or the volume of the boos is an indication of your having made an impact on an audience,” Berkeley said. “You don’t always have to make an impact through warming the heart.”

Berkeley, who boarded The Walking Dead in a Season Six episode in 2016, said he was hoping to see Gregory find redemption after spending years with the character.

“It’s hard, with a show like this that’s so emotionally affecting over the years … the characters work their way into your hearts,” Berkeley said.

“And you do feel empathy for so many of them and the situations they find themselves in, that in a way, I think the concern at one time or another might have been that you would come off as a one-dimensional actor if your character wasn’t allowed to show the dimension of humanity that we associate with becoming empathic and somehow compassionate, or someone capable of redemption at some point.”

The actor admitted he was left surprised and disappointed when he learned Gregory would be killed off as early as the season premiere, explaining he expected a lengthier arc for the character ahead of his inevitable execution.

“They had given me such amped up fun stuff to play earlier on, and I’m definitely accustomed to being an ensemble player, but I’m used to being a dynamic player in an ensemble, and that was such a passive role to play for so many episodes [in Season Eight] that I had questioned the authorities on just how long I was going to have to sustain that state,” he said.

“I was given the sense that it was part of an arc, and that all arcs are made to create a circle, and that the full circle would be that he would be brought back up to a place of power before the inevitable conclusion of the horrific demise that we knew [from the comics].”

Still, Berkeley understood: with the looming exit of both Rick Grimes actor Rick Grimes and Maggie Rhee actress Lauren Cohan, and a return to stripped down storytelling focusing on the series’ main characters, Gregory’s abbreviated conclusion made sense.

“There’s so many moving parts and pieces and the way in which it all fits together, and there’s all these truly beloved characters that they knew maybe they had a short amount of time left with, and that they needed to maximize the real estate on their characters and that meant bringing other things around to a conclusion,” he said. “I can’t even begin to imagine what that mental dance is. But I’m always a little in awe and impressed by it.”

While he’s yet to watch the episode, Berkeley said he gave Gregory’s death “everything I had. I wrung myself out to a pulp that night.” Then, with a laugh, he added: “There’s only so long you can play a douchebag like that.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.