*WARNING, SPOILERS*
If you had the pleasure, or displeasure depending on how you experienced it, of watching the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead, you would know what all the hype is about. Both Glenn and Abraham died horrifically at the hands, or rather the bat, of Negan. The audience was expecting only one character to die and we ended up getting a two for one deal with this episode. This premiere let us all know that Negan is definitely not messing around or putting up with anyone’s shit. Killing off one of the most beloved characters of the show who has been around since the very first episode (Glenn), has made Negan rightly the most hated character on television at the moment.
As fans, we can rage all we want on Twitter and it won’t change the show at all. Characters are still going to die no matter how much we hate it. Knowing this, we should think about which character in the group is the biggest threat to Negan right now. Sure, any of the characters could try and do something to take over Negan and his people, but the real threat right now is Maggie.
Every character in the show has lost people that they love dearly, but we usually only get told about this and never actually see it. With Maggie, we’ve witnessed her having to watch her family members die one by one. Let’s just do a little recap on what exactly happened to the family and why it makes her such a strong person.
In season 2, when the walkers were let out of the barn, the Greene family had kept deceased family members who had turned into walkers hidden in there. Rick and the group killed all those walkers including the family members of the Greene family, having Maggie, Beth and Hershel watch their zombified family die once again. In season 3 we get to know the Greene family a little bit more and by the end, Glenn asks Maggie to marry him and she says yes. It’s all pretty happy with this family until the middle of season 4. When Beth and Maggie were unfortunate enough to watch their father, Hershel, get his head sliced off by the Governor with Michonne’s katana. This would scar anyone for life, having to watch a loved one be murdered right in front of them. Then by the middle of season 5, her sister Beth is shot in the head. Maggie does not get to witness this tragedy, but when she and the rest of the group finally make it to the hospital to rescue Beth, Daryl is walking out with Beth in his arms. In this episode, we see the happiness leave Maggie’s eyes as she realizes what has happened. At this point, Maggie doesn’t have any living family members, but she doesn’t let this stop her from going on with her life.
From then on we see Maggie Greene-Rhee grow as a character. She has witnessed everything that she has loved die before her and still has the will to keep on living and get even stronger than she was before. Nothing has stopped her from becoming a bad ass character before and nothing is going to stop her now. The premiere of season 7 is where we see her having to witness the love of her life and father of her child be brutally beaten to death with a barbed wired baseball bat. You can just tell that this is the last straw for her and that she is going to rise up and do anything in her power to avenge the death of Glenn.
Now for the reasons as to why Maggie is such a big threat to Negan and his people. For one, Negan just killed off her husband and father to her soon to be child. That would give anyone the anger to have a fire of revenge start inside of them. Second, Maggie is pregnant and if you know anything about pregnant women, you know not to mess with them, ever. Though she looks weak from the stress of what has been going on and because of the pregnancy itself, Maggie was the one to get up and suggest the burying of the bodies like they always do. Which coincidentally is a very Glenn-like thing to do. She declines any help to get up or walk because she knows that she must do this herself. Lastly, Maggie was already a bad ass character anyway, this is not going to break her and make her weak. If anything, this incident is going to make her even stronger and possibly even angrier with revenge on her mind.
Glenn’s last words were specifically to Maggie and this just shows how much they really did love each other. He looked right at Maggie as he was dying and said “I’ll find you.” This, this was the spark that lit the flame and started the world on fire. If you’ve been watching the show you’ll know that Maggie and Glenn constantly lost each other through every season. But they always found their way back safely to each other every time. So, when Glenn’s last words were “I’ll find you”, we know that even in death, Glenn is always with Maggie.
Lauren Cohan, the actress who plays Maggie Greene-Rhee, even says in an interview with Entertainment Weekly “…There’s no worst-case scenario now. But what Negan’s actions do to Maggie is light this crazy fuse. And we’ll see that burn pretty strong.” She goes on to talk about how Negan has made Maggie vengeful even though she is not a vengeful kind of a person. There will be a lot of “push and pull” with Maggie’s character in season 7 and knowing this, we are all excited to see how this is all going to play out for her and the rest of the group.
