The Walking Dead will address the “complicated” feelings some of our heroes have about Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), now a free man after being sent by Carol (Melissa McBride) to murder Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton). Negan’s return to Alexandria coincided with Beta (Ryan Hurst) unleashing a walker horde on the communities in revenge, forcing the Alexandrians to take shelter in an abandoned hospital tower with survivors from the allied Hilltop and Oceanside communities. There Negan was confronted by Alpha’s estranged daughter, Lydia (Cassady McClincy), who told him, “Most of us wish you died, too.” Should Negan be among those who escape the walker horde, his place among the survivors will continue to be called into question through Season 11.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“We’ll see a little bit more of that in the episode to air and in time to come,” showrunner Angela Kang told Entertainment Weekly. “But look, he killed Alpha. That’s great. But he was also standing outside of Hilltop and shot fire arrows at their walls and now an entire community of people, combined community of people, since the Kingdom folded into the Hilltop has no home. And I think it’s complicated and I think he has a good argument of ‘This is what I had to do to get it done.’ And other people are going to feel like, ‘Well, if you’re right next to her with a fire arrow, why not shoot it into her head instead of at our house?’”
Negan tried and failed to prevent the attack that devastated Hilltop in “Morning Star,” but it took him just three days to infiltrate the Whisperers and get close enough to Alpha to kill her. Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) could go to bat for Negan, while others, like Aaron (Ross Marquand), might be less forgiving.
“Negan is always complicated, and he has been on this interesting road where he’s trying to fold into our group and they clearly didn’t kick him out of the group, but I think depending on the person, they’re going to have a very different interpretation of events and how they feel about him,” Kang said. “But, for now, they’re all just trying to make it through.”
There’s more to come between Negan and Daryl (Norman Reedus), who was saved by Negan when attacked by Whisperers in “Look at the Flowers,” but executive producer Denise Huth doubts Daryl will ever be completely cool with Negan after the murders of Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn (Steven Yeun).
The Walking Dead next airs “A Certain Doom” as a special episode later this year. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.
