We all know Maggie and Negan’s relationship started off as terrible as someone could even imagine. Right when the viewer got introduced to him in the season finale of season 6, we knew that Negan was trouble. If you are a comic book fan like me, you know that Glenn has is iconic Negan death in issue 100 where his eyeball comes out of his socket. I wondered if AMC would go through with that and they ended up giving Glenn’s comic book death, with an Abraham death before that. As we all know, Maggie was Glenn’s wife in The Walking Dead. They met in the middle of season 2 and have hit it off ever since. They even got married in the show and had a kid named Hershel Jr, which is still alive today. When Negan killed Glenn, this was the most upset we have seen Maggie in the show. Maggie has lost everyone that has been important to her. She’s lost her dad, sister, husband, and countless friends from season 2 to season 11. Maggie told Rick and company after the season 7 premier to get ready and fight them, which they did successfully but there was one problem. Negan was left alive from Rick. Negan kept calling Maggie “the widow” in season 8. Obviously, Maggie was upset from the decision from Rick to keep him alive so Maggie went to meet Negan in his cell in the middle of season 9.
Maggie went to Negan’s cell and discovered that Negan wasn’t what once was during season 7 and 8. Once the Savior’s leader, now was a broken man that only wanted to see his wife again. He even tried to take himself out inside the jail but was too weak to do it himself. Negan has spent the whole season inside the jail cell and there was no end in sight. Negan knew he only could die from one person, and that was Maggie. Negan kept egging on Maggie by making her remember Glenn’s death and the horrible stuff he did while he was apart of the Saviors, but that was not enough for Maggie to kill him. Maggie noticed that Negan was so broken, he wasn’t the same person anymore. She even said “You are as good as dead” and made him go back to his cell where he lived for the whole season 9 and some of season 10. However, Negan changed who he was and redeemed himself in the eyes of the viewers, while Maggie was away from the middle of season 9 to the end of season 11.
Negan was let out of his jailcell in the middle of season 10 by Carol. Carol only wanted one thing to happen during the Whisperer war and that was killing Alpha by any means necessary. Carol promised that Negan would be accepted by the Alexandrans and be apart of more things, so Negan went along with the plan. To this point, Negan was looked down upon everyone, did not have any trust with anyone, did the poor jobs like picking vegetables, and not having a proper weapon while killing the walkers. Negan had to go into the Whisperer camp and gain their trust. He successfully did it, killed Alpha, and put her head on a spike for Carol. Although he took out the Whisperer leader, Negan still didn’t have the trust of most Alexandrans and still do not to this day. However, he has developed a few important relationships with Judith and Lydia, which I believe will be important for season 11.
While this was all happening in season 10, Maggie was with the Commonwealth and Georgie, and her other group at the Meridian. This is where we are in the storyline today in season 11, with Maggie and Negan going to go to the Meridian for food and supplies and having to kill Reapers along the way. Their relationship in season 11 is as bumpy as it was when we first introduced them in season 7. Maggie still does not trust Negan at all and is looking for any chance or choice to kill Negan. Negan is held at gunpoint by Maggie several times. Negan gave her a little taste of her own medicine by leaving her at the train and not pulling her up at the end of episode 1. Episode 2 when she finds Negan again, she hits him with her gun. Also in episode 2, faced with a tough choice to either save Gage or leave him for dead, Maggie decided to leave him and that destroyed their relationship even more because Negan wanted to save the kid. Where we are at the end of episode 3 is Negan saving Maggie from one of the Reapers. Maggie’s tough choice with leaving Alden at the church, ruffled some feathers with the two because Maggie would not let Negan say anything about it. They are currently the only two still left on the mission, since Gabriel is MIA and Daryl is captured. Maggie and Negan’s relationship has been rocky for years but I believe it will come full circle before episode 8 is over. I think Maggie is going to come around and save Negan from one of the Reapers and will end up “forgiving” each other. However, I do have a bad feeling that AMC and The Walking Dead are setting up for a huge death at the end of the series and I believe Maggie fits the bill, but I will be talking about that in another article in the future…