Negan Crashes Maggie’s Homecoming in The Walking Dead 1017 Opening Minutes

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) crashes Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) homecoming in the opening minutes of The Walking Dead‘s extended Season 10 premiere, “Home Sweet Home.” In the immediate fallout of the Whisperer War, which ended with Maggie returning just in time to save Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) from certain doom, the survivors are picking up the pieces as Maggie attempts to find a new home for herself and her son Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller). Reunited with Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) after spending several dark years away on the road, Maggie is appalled to see Negan outside of the cell she left him in some eight years earlier in Season 9.

“Hey, Maggie,” Negan tells her in the opening minutes clip above. “I didn’t escape if that’s what you’re thinking.” Without a word, Maggie shoots him daggers and walks in the opposite direction, leaving Negan to mutter a swear word in her wake.

“It’ll be interesting to see if anybody kind of tells Maggie what Negan’s been up to, or if they just put it on Negan to kind of start from scratch with this,” Morgan said during virtual New York Comic Con in October, adding what happens next will be decided by showrunner Angela Kang and Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple.

When Kang was asked how Maggie might react to learning about Negan’s heroic deeds, like rescuing Judith during a blizzard and infiltrating the Whisperers to slay Alpha (Samantha Morton), the showrunner teased, “You’ll see in the episodes to come.”

Because Negan killed Maggie’s husband Glenn (Steven Yeun) and participated in the attack that burnt down the Hilltop, coexistence is “not going to be an easy road, I think, for either of them,” Kang said at virtual Comic-Con over the summer. “And Negan’s been on this whole other journey while she’s been gone, but it’s sort of like Maggie is coming in and she hasn’t seen any of that.”

Morgan has speculated that a potential bond with Hershel could help Maggie see a different side of Negan — but doubts her hatred of him will ever subside.

“I don’t think Maggie’s gonna like Negan. I’m not sure that’s going away,” he said during a 2019 convention appearance when asked about Maggie and Negan’s next confrontation. “I would imagine there would be some sort of confrontation, or ten. She hasn’t seen what Negan’s done, or who he’s become. She doesn’t know. The last time she saw him, he was laying on the ground of the jail cell wanting to die. So some stuff has happened since then, but I imagine it’s not going to be hugs and kisses.”

The Walking Dead‘s Season 10C premiere, “Home Sweet Home,” is available to watch early on AMC+ starting on February 21. Season 10 of The Walking Dead returns with six all-new bonus episodes starting on Sunday, February 28, on AMC. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD.