Love is putting someone down when they turn on The Walking Dead
By Sonya Iryna
Maggie kills walker Sasha while Jesus holds her down in The Walking Dead season 7 finale. In the zombie apocalypse, one way to pay tribute to a loved one is to kill them when they turn.
There were a lot of emotional moments in The Walking Dead season 7 finale. But one of the most emotional was Maggie putting down Sasha after she and Jesus found walker Sasha wandering in the woods.
In a scene that called back to Carl leading walker Deanna to Spencer so that Spencer could be the one that put her down, Jesus puts walker Sasha on the ground and holds her arms so that Maggie can stab her in the head.
When Michonne asked Carl why he had led walker Deanna to Spencer he tells her that when someone you love dies and turns it should be someone who loved that person who puts them to rest. He did it for Lori. And he tells Michonne he would do it for her.
It was fitting that Maggie was the one to put Sasha down. Maggie and Sasha had grown even closer in the time since Glenn and Abe were killed. As the last survivor of the four of them it was Maggie’s final tribute to Sasha to make sure she was at peace.
Superstitions About The Undead
In The Walking Dead world stabbing or shooting the reanimated corpse of someone who you loved is an act of mercy and love. Then the corpse is buried in a traditional grave with a marker to remember them and as a sign of respect. But throughout history different societies had burial customs that were designed to keep the dead from coming back to life.
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Thanks to science people know now that things like seeing blood in the mouth of a recently deceased corpse, or a smile on the lips of a corpse, or the fingernails and hair appearing to grow are really due to the natural decomposition process.
But in Medieval Europe, particularly in Easter Europe, people thought that some of those elements of decomposition meant that the person who died had come back to life as a vampire. So they started practicing burial rituals like staking the corpse through the heart or removing the heart. Some places would remove the feet the corpse so that it couldn’t get out of the coffin.
Killing The Undead
Mutilating the corpse after death was done solely as a protective measure and out of fear in Europe. But in the world of the undead, mutilating the corpse after death is done as a sign of love. Over and over on The Walking Dead it’s been shown as a last act of sacrifice for a loved one.
Next: All named character deaths from season 7
Andrea did it for Amy. Rick did it for Sophia. Daryl did it for Merle. Michonne did it for Hershel. Spencer did it for Deanna. And now Maggie did it for Sasha. In a world steeped in living death giving someone you love a true death is the last opportunity to honor them.