It’s hard to say exactly who was killed in ‘The Walking Dead’’s season six finale. The show runners purposefully made it an ambiguous ending, giving fans ample time to argue and debate about who’s head just had a violent encounter with villainous Negan and his trusty bat Lucille. And out of the 11 main characters that could have been taken out, what would it mean for the show moving forward?
Maggie Greene has had a rough time in the apocalypse. She may have found her lovely dumpster husband, but she’s lost every member of her immediate family. After being lined up with the other show leads, it seems possible she’s following the lead set by her father, sister, and other barbecued relatives. What could be good about that? Let’s look at the evidence.
As far as emotional impact, the best The Walking Dead kills are ones that shake the core of the group. The death of Beth, Maggie’s sister, shook the core of the group, and the death of Maggie would do the same. Her relationship with Glenn would shake him up, even more than watching Noah get devoured, or Nicholas get exactly what was coming to him. Maggie’s rise to becoming the Alexandrian leader, replacing Deanna, would hit the survivors hard, especially the D.C. crew that joined Glenn & Tara to find her. And Carol’s break in stone-cold killer attitude stems in part from dealing with Maggie’s pregnancy. And Morgan just flat-out dislikes all death, so he won’t be happy with any deaths at all.
The matter of pregnancy also would lend her death more severity. That’d be two different deaths for the price of one. Lori died mid-childbirth in the prison many seasons back, but she had Carl to help deliver it, and no baseball bat to contend with. It’s already been established that Maggie is having some pregnancy complications, hence why the gang were rushing to Alexandria in the finale. Even if Maggie does survive, and she lives through childbirth, do we really want two babies on The Walking Dead? It seems too repetitive (not to say that the hours of walking in the woods are still fresh). It’d be the same sort of storylines we’ve already seen with Judith, and also means we’d have to see more of Gabriel, the whiny baby-sitting preacher man.
The biggest problem with Maggie being the big death on The Walking Dead is the real lack of realized potential. Not to say that Maggie hasn’t been a great character, but we’re getting to see more with her character in this season. Her rise to becoming the post-apocalyptic mayor of Alexandria opens up more potential storylines – does she replace Rick at the leader? Will her power lead her down a path to becoming more like the Governor, or Gregory.
Maggie’s already outlived the rest of her family, and proven her worth as a fighter and mediator. It’d be a shame to lose such a prominent female character, but we’ve seen her accomplish a lot in her time, and a death at the hand of The Walking Dead’s biggest bad is as fitting as anything else.
This article is part of a ‘The Walking Dead’ series. Read also about the benefits of the deaths of Daryl and Carl.
