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On Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead, “The Lucky Ones,” Commonwealth Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins) tours Alexandria, Oceanside and Hilltop. ET exclusively debuts a sneak peek from the hour featuring a visit to Hilltop, the community led by Maggie (Lauren Cohan). In the scene, Commonwealth’s military leader, Mercer (Michael James Shaw), and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) are handing out supplies and food, even recruiting young Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller), to residents of the makeshift camp. Daryl takes a moment to reflect on what the Hilltop colony used to be like, as the duo shares insights into the Commonwealth.
“Grew up on the road. He’s a different kind of a kid,” Daryl says before he discusses what used to be. “This place used to really be special, different. It’s going through hard times now but it’ll be back up and running. Watch.”
“I guess not all places are as lucky as Alexandria,” Mercer concedes.
“Not all places are as lucky as Commonwealth,” Daryl replies.
“Are you coming around?” Mercer asks, causing Daryl to laugh.
“I wouldn’t go that far, but you guys have done good stuff for us so I’ll give you that,” he credits.
But Mercer is aware of the work that still needs to be done in the Commonwealth, saying the colony “ain’t perfect.” “Just don’t get too comfortable. The only reason why you’re out of your armor is because somebody thought it’d be good for appearances,” Mercer tells Daryl. “You get your role to play, I get mine.”
There’s a Brand New Negan in This Walking Dead
It’s not just zombies who come back from the dead. Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) makes a dramatic return and surprises some old friends in this exclusive clip from the March 27 episode of The Walking Dead.
After walking out on Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and her group earlier in the season, the two parties reunite.
Negan has been hiding out in the Riverbend apartment complex with Annie (Medina Senghore). When Maggie, Aaron (Ross Marquand), Lydia (Cassady McClincy) and Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) make their way into one of the units, Annie surprises them and commands them to drop their weapons.
The biggest bombshell of all, however, is that Negan is also on the premises.
With guns and knives drawn, he urges everybody to calm down—in a way only Negan could.
“Let’s put our sh-t back in our pants and zip up, shall we?,” he asks.
Always a straight shooter.
Lydia is the most shocked to see Negan, asking him, “What are you doing here?”
After putting his hand on Annie’s arm, Negan responds, “We live here.” The Walking Dead’s “Warlords,” Lydia asks Maggie why she doesn’t trust The Commonwealth, and doesn’t want to accept their help. She reveals a previously unknown anecdote from before the fall of society, in which a land developer kept attempting to acquire Hershel’s family farm when times were at their toughest, only for him to refuse and prevail in the end, keeping his land. The story both serves to explain why Maggie is so reluctant to believe the bill of goods that The Commonwealth is selling, and remind long-time viewers just the kind of smart, upstanding man that Hershel Greene really was.
The 11th season of The Walking Dead has brought plenty of turmoil for all involved, especially after Negan turned his back on the group.
Whatever the case, we know that Negan and Maggie have a future ahead of them.
On March 7, AMC announced that the two will star in an upcoming Walking Dead spin-off called Isle of Dead. The show will feature Negan and Maggie “traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland.”
The Walking Dead writer and co-executive producer Eli Jorné will serve as showrunner and executive producer on the series, which will have a six-episode first season on AMC and AMC+ in 2023.
For now, however, see if Negan can get back into the group’s good graces when The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
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Maggie’s Hershel Reference Is What Season 11 Needs More Of
The Walking Dead season 11 has in many ways not felt like a final season, but a reference Maggie made to Hershel is the type of thing season 11 needs.
The Walking Dead season 11 has been a mixed bag, but a reference Maggie made to her father Hershel recently is the kind of thing the final season needs to do. While The Walking Dead season 11 has been by no means dreadful, one of its main problems is that it doesn’t really feel like the final season of a long-running hit show. Many such final seasons serve to both celebrate what’s come before, and finally conclude the character arcs of many major players, sometimes ending in death.
Walking Dead season 11 has so far felt just like any other Walking Dead season of the post-Rick Grimes era. It also at times feels like it’s simply going through the motions without really advancing the central plot, which was sometimes a complaint people had during past seasons, but ballooning season 11 from 16 to 22 episodes has only exacerbated that issue. A final season should, at least for a drama series, ideally possess some sense of urgency, with some horrific outcome if the villains win. Season 11 isn’t providing that.
