Did TWD: Dead City Just Make Maggie the Bad Guy? ‘She's Incredibly Torn,' Says Lauren Cohan

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05-05-2025

In the Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead: Dead City (recapped here), we learned that it had been a year since Maggie traded Negan to The Dama for son Hershel. And the trade, we got. A hundred percent. Maggie would have do anything to retrieve her and late husband Glenn's son from the clutches of the post-apocalyptic Leona Helmsley. But to sacrifice Negan to The Dama in theoretical perpetuity?
Nope. That doesn't track, not with the Maggie that we know.
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Given the fact that Negan brutally murdered Glenn in front of his pregnant wife's eyes, we understand that they'll never be exchanging inside jokes and sending one another funny TikToks. Friendship is and should be off the table. But it bears mentioning that in the final season of the mothership Negan proved that he had turned a corner: He saved Hershel from Commonwealth troopers. Negan also accepted that Maggie couldn't forgive him for what he did to Glenn, and in horrific fashion, no less.
The spinoff had Maggie and Negan's relationship take two steps back to take one forward. However, he again proved himself to her by going all in on her efforts to rescue Hershel from The Dama and her henchman, The Croat. Negan even allowed himself to be handed over to The Dama.
So, great, right? That's change. That's progress. That's evolution — for him. But what about Maggie? She had to assume that Negan would be tortured. Did she just, like, not care that he had put his neck on the line to help her save her son? 'Welp, that happened. Moving on.'
We were told in Dead City's Season 2 premiere that Maggie has treasured the last year with Hershel. But not enough to go back in all that time and try to save the dude who saved her kid? WTH? Negan's been subsisting on a diet of cockroaches and the occasional violin solo, and she's just been… cool with that?
'It's a very complicated thing,' Lauren Cohan tells TVLine. 'I think you see when she makes the exchange at the end of Season 1 it's not an easy decision. There's a lot of gratitude and pain in that exchange. Then when we come back in Season 2, she's incredibly torn.'
If you ask me, the tables have turned. As awful as Negan was — and we all know that he was — he got better. His friendship with Judith played a big part in that. (He even saved Dog for her!) His love for wife Annie and son Joshua played a bigger part. In his past, Negan was despicable, but in his present…
It feels weird to say it, but I like the guy.
That being the case, it's uncomfortable at best to know that Maggie just left him behind. Is that who she is now? 'You go out on a limb for me, and I'll give The Dama the saw to cut it off.' It's not a great look for the heroine. Maybe I'm being too hard on her, though. If I'd been in her place when she watched Glenn get struck out, maybe I'd be like, 'Roaches? Nah. That might be too good for that pond scum. What about slugs instead?'
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What's your take on Maggie leaving Negan to rot for a year? Sound off in the comments below.
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