The Walking Dead: Eugene needs to be careful in the future

Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan - The Walking Dead _ Season 7, Episode 16 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan - The Walking Dead _ Season 7, Episode 16 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC /
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Eugene helped Sasha at great personal peril in The Walking Dead season finale. But is his sweet life at the Sanctuary at risk?

While Simon and Gavin might in some trouble after what happened in Alexandria, Eugene might get a rare free pass from Negan. Maybe.

Maybe.”

“Maybe” isn’t a good word coming from a guy like Negan. There aren’t many maybes in Negan’s world. Negan lives in a black and white world, and after Sasha’s mysterious death inside the casket, Negan doesn’t seem so sure that the tarp suffocated her. He listened to Eugene’s explanation with a half-smile and an enigmatic (and subtly menacing) “maybe” as his only response.

We’ve already gone in depth with some of the surprises Negan encountered on his fateful trip to Alexandria: Maggie being alive (“The widow’s alive with guns a blazin’”), Daryl fighting with Rick, Ezekiel’s tiger, and Sasha bursting from the casket as a Walker. He didn’t see those things coming.

There’s good reason to suspect that Simon might catch some heat for not knowing all of these things were happening. Even Gavin might be in some trouble for not realizing that Ezekiel had a tiger. Surely he’s been inside the Kingdom at least once, right?

Next: Simon might be in big trouble on The Walking Dead

But then there’s Eugene.

Negan likes Eugene. Eugene has stepped up in Negan’s program and Negan has benefitted from his loyalty. We still don’t know if Eugene is 100% on board with the Savior System, but regardless it looks like he is.

Though Negan might not believe Eugene’s explanation about the tarp, Negan also knows that Eugene doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Eugene is now a Savior if ever there was a doubt of it.

How do we know this?

Well, Rick was going to blow him up. That kind of says a lot.

Negan marched into Alexandria with Eugene out front, hoping that Eugene might be able to persuade Rick to stand down. When that didn’t work, Rick was prepared to blow them all up. Given that Rick’s finger was on the button, Negan can surmise that Eugene is now persona non grata in Alexandria. If that wasn’t the case, Rick wouldn’t have been able to make the call to kill him so easily. Rick didn’t even try to bargain for Eugene’s life. That says a lot.

If Eugene is not welcome in Alexandria, then it doesn’t make sense for him to jeopardize his place at the Sanctuary, which should take some of the heat off of him. Even if Negan doesn’t believe his explanation about Sasha, Negan should also realize that Eugene is likely more terrified now as ever because he can’t go home, not if they were ready to blow him up.

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The bigger question is what will come from all of this. Will Negan do anything to “remind” Eugene about following the rules? It’s hard to say. If nothing else, this was an eye-opening experience for Eugene, who will need to be extra careful moving forward in Season 8.