The Walking Dead is back in production with pandemic-proofed episodes and teasing a reunion between Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in “Home Sweet Home,” the first of six new Season 10 episodes airing in early 2021. In a clip from a virtual table read, Maggie learns Negan is out of jail — and that it was Carol (Melissa McBride) who set him loose. Daryl (Norman Reedus) tells Maggie that “nothing is decided” with Negan despite his help silencing the Whisperers when he killed Alpha (Samantha Morton), and Daryl says she can come home after her years away on the road.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The exclusive clip, along with a transcription of the scene narrated by King Ezekiel actor Khary Payton, is presented by Entertainment Weekly:
KHARY PAYTON NARRATING: “The Walking Dead episode ‘Home Sweet Home.’ Alright, here we go.”
NEGAN: “Hey, Maggie.”
MAGGIE “You’re out.”
NEGAN: “I didn’t escape, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
CAROL: “There’s one other thing you should know. Negan was with the Whisperers that night. I wanted you to hear it from me, because…”
MAGGIE: “It was you? You let him out?”
CAROL: “We were going to lose everything. Negan is the reason we didn’t.”
DARYL: “But nothing’s decided with Negan. You can come home.”
MAGGIE: “The truth is I left home because I didn’t want Negan taking up any more space in my head and I realized I wasn’t ready to bring Hershel back to that. And the next morning we found Elijah and a whole community that needed us as much as we needed them. And it felt like it was meant to be.”
DARYL: “And what Carol did?”
MAGGIE: “What she felt like she needed to do. I get it. God only knows what I would have done if I was there. But I wasn’t.”
KHARY PAYTON NARRATING: “She looks like she wants to say more but she doesn’t. Instead, she walks off.”
CAROL: “She’s never gonna come around on him, you know?”
DARYL: “Why, have you?”
KHARY PAYTON NARRATING: “Carol considers this. Finally, she shrugs.”
CAROL: “It’s good to see her.”
KHARY PAYTON NARRATING: “End of Act 2.”
“That night” is the night Alpha and her Whisperer army — along with Negan — attacked and burned down the Hilltop. Maggie left the colony in the care of Jesus (Tom Payne) and Tara (Alanna Masterson) years earlier when she took her son, Hershel, and traveled with Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) to a new community somewhere far away.
It was Maggie’s intense confrontation with Negan inside his Alexandria jail cell that pushed her to leave, but now she’s back — and she’s not alone. During the final battle of the Whisperer War, Maggie returned just-in-time alongside the mysterious masked fighter who might be Elijah.
More about Elijah and Maggie’s journey on the road will come to light in the Season 10 bonus episodes premiering on AMC early next year. Cohan then rejoins The Walking Dead as a series regular in its eleventh and final season premiering later in 2021. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.