The Walking Dead Deleted a Funny Eugene Sex Scene

The Walking Dead deleted a surprising sex scene between Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Savior Laura (Lindsley Register) that “just didn’t work,” Register says when detailing the funny romantic encounter revealed by the actress earlier this year. The deleted scene, cut from season eight episode “Time for After,” took place at a time when Eugene was dutifully serving alongside Laura as one of Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) top lieutenants. Eugene and Laura were holed up in the Sanctuary when Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Tara (Alanna Masterson) penetrated the walls of the compound with a truck, unleashing a horde of zombies into the lower levels and trapping the surviving Saviors inside.

“I get this very cryptic, vague email from my agent like, ‘What are your limits with sexual content?’ I was like, ‘For?’ She says, ‘The Walking Dead,’” Register recalled on the Talk Dead to Me podcast. “‘What are we doing?! [Laughs] What is Laura doing?’”

The sex scene was a “kind of nihilistic moment” for Laura and a good-enough Eugene, Register said, and producers stressed there was no romantic component to the encounter.

“They were like, ‘There’s definitely nothing going on between you two.’ They were reiterating this to me, ‘There’s no amount of care in this. It’s just sex,’” Register said. “So we go and we film it, it was really funny. If I remember right, I kiss him and he’s like, ‘You taste like stone fruit and applesauce.’ [Laughs] I’m getting dressed and he’s got the sheet pulled up around him, it’s so cute.”

Laura and Eugene’s entanglement “would have been too much of a distraction,” Register said when speculating why the scene never made it to air. “It would have been too much of a subplot distraction from what was going on. So maybe from a story perspective, it just didn’t work.”

The episode’s co-writer, Corey Reed, previously revealed another line of dialogue uttered by Eugene before doing the deed: “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to keep my socks on.” The scene would have ended with Eugene’s stuffed animal, Gremblygunk, looking on from a shelf as a call back to Eugene creeping on intimate moments between best friend Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) and Rosita (Christian Serratos).

Register exited The Walking Dead in Season 10 episode “Stalker,” where reformed Savior Laura was killed trying to fight off Whisperer Beta (Ryan Hurst) during his invasion of the Alexandria community. Eugene might next find romance with Stephanie (Margot Bingham), a new community’s so-far unseen ambassador who bonded with Eugene over the radio.

For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter. The Walking Dead Season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” premieres Sunday, October 4 on AMC.