Here’s What Happens When Negan and Maggie Meet Again in The Walking Dead Premiere

A homecoming years in the making is spoiled when Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) meet again in the extended Season 10 premiere of The Walking Dead. In “Home Sweet Home,” it’s been seven years since the widowed Maggie confronted her husband’s killer put behind bars by Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). Maggie and Daryl (Norman Reedus) plotted to execute the jailed villain 18 months after he murdered Glenn (Steven Yeun), but Maggie spared Negan when he pleaded for an end to his life sentence: “I came to kill Negan,” she said with weapon in hand, “and you’re already worse than dead.”

In the fallout from the Whisperer War brought to a bloody finish by the survivors in “A Certain Doom,” Maggie reunites with Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming) and learns Michonne (Danai Gurira) left home just before Maggie’s return. When Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Nabila (Nadine Marissa) push off a wagon full of supplies, Maggie is appalled to see Negan alive — and a free man.

“Hey, Maggie,” Negan says, arms crossed around a similar-looking leather jacket he wore the night he beat Glenn to death in front of his pregnant wife. “I didn’t escape if that’s what you’re thinking.” If looks could kill, Negan would be dead.

Without a word, Maggie walks away with the tacit agreement of an impending confrontation. “Well, shit,” Negan mutters, knowing what’s to come when Maggie finds out he and Alpha (Samantha Morton) burned down her home at the Hilltop colony.

“We get to dive into the Maggie and Negan dynamic, which I know a lot of people are excited to find out how those two are gonna occupy the same space. We’ll also get to find out more about what Maggie has been up to, and how that affects the future in big ways,” showrunner Angela Kang teased during The Walking Dead Extended Season 10 Preview Special. “So we’ll be seeing a mix of stories from people’s past that affect the future as well as where everybody’s at in the aftermath of this giant Whisperer War because things are pretty screwed up, and they’ve got a lot to do to pull themselves together.”

With the Hilltop burned to ashes and a new enemy on the hunt for Maggie’s dwindling group of survivors, having a home for her and Glenn’s now eight-year-old son Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller) means Maggie must co-exist alongside the villain-turned-anti-hero.

“I don’t think Maggie’s gonna like Negan. I’m not sure that’s going away,” Morgan said about a Negan-Maggie reunion ahead of Cohan’s Walking Dead return. “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.”

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. New episodes of The Walking Dead extended Season 10 premiere Sundays at 9 pm ET/8c on AMC.