Maggie and Daryl have been apart of The Walking Dead universe together since season 2. The only other character that has been around as long as Daryl and Maggie are Carol, Rick, and Morgan since season 1. Daryl and Maggie have been through everything together. Daryl has seen Maggie’s father, husband, and sister die. He is one of the characters that was actually there for her sister, Beth. After her death in season 5, it hit him the hardest. Many fans can also argue that his actions with Negan in season 7 episode 1 resulted in Glenn’s death. If it wasn’t for Daryl’s decision to punch Negan, he would have spared Glenn’s life and only killed Abraham. Their relationship has been strong to this point in the show. One of the most emotional parts of the show was when Daryl apologized to her because he believed that it was his fault that Glenn died. This was the one of the handful times that Daryl cried on the show. They even teamed up together against Rick to try to kill Negan in season 9. This was a surprise to the fans since Rick will always be Daryl’s number one guy, but they had other plans. Daryl and Maggie teamed up to kill as many Saviors as possible. However, Maggie’s decision in season 11 episode 9 has damaged their relationship and the final scene in that show might have put nail in the coffin of Maggie and Daryl’s relationship.
Daryl wanted to spare Leah, Carver, and a few other Reapers but Maggie had other plans. Maggie believed that they should all die, whatever means necessary. Daryl gave Maggie a gun “just in case”, but she went overboard. Daryl wanted the rest of The Reapers to go free, escape up north, and never be seen again. Daryl obviously wanted to save Leah because of their relationship during the time skip between Rick’s death in season 9 and was shown season 10 in “Find Me”. Maggie acted quickly by killing all of The Reapers that was left. Although Leah escaped, Maggie shot her in the shoulder when she was running away. Daryl was visibly upset how the situation went down and was holding a grudge ever since that event occurred. Like Rick said in season 9, Daryl believes that no group should fight anymore. They are just fighting each other, time and time again, but should focus on fighting the walkers around them and rebuilding the future.
I believe that Daryl will end up forgiving Maggie because of the history they have gone through together but another side of me is getting ready for a Daryl vs. Maggie civil war. Daryl letting Leah live and telling her to go might blow up in his face. I thought that they were setting this up for one of the main plot points in his spinoff show, to go find her, but Leah might die before then. Although Maggie doesn’t know that Leah is still alive, she might find her and end up killing her. I personally believe that Leah is going to show up at The Commonwealth (if they want her to return for season 11) and take Dwight’s storyline from the comics. If Leah really does take Dwight’s comic story, she is going to die inside the Commonwealth. From the ending scene, where Daryl showed up to Hilltop as a Commonwealth soldier and telling Maggie “We need to talk”. We might end up getting a Daryl vs. Maggie war because of Leah’s death down the road. However, I believe that he is there to make sure that Maggie is okay because she doesn’t go with the group to Commonwealth and ends up rebuilding Hilltop. Daryl will amend his relationship with Maggie by talking it out and come to the realization that they should have all died, but AMC is definitely setting up the fans to believe that there is a wrench in their relationship. Plus the ending scene in episode 9 was set six months later, so maybe something happened inside the Commonwealth to make Daryl go back to Hilltop. Will we see a Daryl vs. Maggie civil war? It definitely will get answered by the end of season 11: part 2 because I think the ending scene we got in episode 9 will show up again in either episode 15 or 16.