Maggie’s speech in The Walking Dead finale sets up a new era for the show
By Sonya Iryna
The season finale of The Walking Dead delivered some brutal endings but with one poignant speech set up a new direction for the show .
There were a lot of significant moments in The Walking Dead season 7 finale, “The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life”. But one of the most significant was Maggie’s monologue at the end of the episode.
Early in the episode viewers see Maggie with Jesus at The Hilltop. They were trying to decide if they should stay put or take The Hilltop fighters to Alexandria to help Rick and the other survivors in the first battle against Negan and The Saviors.
Ultimately Maggie decides to marshal Hilltop’s forces and head to Alexandria. She made the right decision. Things went bad at Alexandria after The Scavengers turned on Rick and the rest of the group. Maggie and The Hilltop saved the day along with King Ezekiel, Carol, Morgan and the fighters from The Kingdom.
After Negan and The Saviors retreated from the onslaught by all the communities Rick tells Maggie that she made the right decision. She answers him with a poignant speech. In it she delivers a moving tribute to Glenn. And she bring the early chapters of The Walking Dead to a close.
Maggie’s Monologue:
"“The decision was made a long time ago, before any of us knew each other, when we were all strangers who would have just passed each other on the street before the world ended. And now we mean everything to each other.You were in trouble. You were trapped. Glenn didn’t know you, but he helped you. He put himself in danger for you. And that started it all — From Atlanta, to my daddy’s farm, to the prison, to here to this moment now not as strangers — as family because Glenn chose to be there for you that day a long time ago.That was the decision that changed everything. It started with both of you, and it just grew to all of us to sacrifice for each other to suffer and stand, to grieve, to give, to love, to live to fight for each other.Glenn made the decision, Rick. I was just following his lead.”"
A New Era
Maggie’s speech felt like a goodbye. And in a way it was. The entire journey that the survivors have been on so far was simply but beautifully summarized as they prepare to start a new era.
The era of fighting for basic survival and learning how to live in The Walking Dead world is over. Now the battle for the future and the struggle to figure out how to make a new civilization begins.
The new era will be born in war, as civilizations have been throughout history. The survivors delivered the opening shot in the finale but the war is just starting. Negan and The Saviors aren’t going to beaten easily. They have huge numbers, weapons, and a diabolically clever leader who wants to keep his stranglehold on the other communities.
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But Maggie’s speech was a reminder that no matter happens in the war if they continue to live the way they always have fighting for each other and fighting for the ideals of family, loyalty and love ultimately they will win. Hershel would be proud of the leader that Maggie has become on The Walking Dead as she leads The Hilltop into the future.