The Walking Dead and Maggie: Hope, despair, and finding hope again

Maggie has been through a series of losses and battles that sent her through many different emotions over the years. Maggie pulled through and found hope that changed The Walking Dead forever

The Walking Dead fans were introduced to Maggie in the season 2 episode “Bloodletting.” Back then she was oblivious to the world around her. Her father Hershel, her sister Beth, and the rest of the family seemed oddly unbothered by what was happening around them. She was just being the farm girl like she was before the fall of humanity and carried on with her daily duties.

Things slowly began to fall apart with the farm. It was hard for Maggie, Beth, and even Hershel to hold it together. Maggie, especially since for the first time she wasn’t in her comfort zone of just farming with her family and forced out of her home by the walkers. Glenn’s comfort was what kept her from going off the deep end.

The farm was the turning point and a set up for self-sustaining, and since the farm, there was nothing close to that for seasons. The farm was special, but it was not safe, and the fact Maggie and her family were virtually untouched was nothing short of a miracle.

Maggie went through the biggest tests of her life when they were in the prison. She exhibited more skepticism at times. The prison attempted to self-sustain in a similar fashion as what Hershel had on his farm, but the resources Hershel had in his farm, were clearly not present to maintain it for the prison. Hershel was brutally killed during the Governor’s invasion to destroy the prison.

We saw Maggie hang on to the hope of Glenn still being alive, but that wasn’t easy for her to hang on to that. She didn’t have the farm, her father, or Beth at that moment and only had the hope to find Glenn. Maggie had hope again once she found Glenn, but it was quickly shattered by the death of her sister Beth.

Maggie had a hard time dealing with the deaths and uncertainty, but they eventually made it to Alexandria. The irony is that Alexandria in some ways was like Hershel’s farm, except not as self-sustaining. In terms of them living their lives and going about their activities and oblivious in the same fashion as Maggie and her family were back in season two.

Maggie connected easily because she could relate to what the people were feeling, whereas Rick and Carol didn’t show as much patience. Maggie took the time to lay the foundation to start growing crops, which is the same hope Hershel had for the prison. It didn’t lift off fast enough with the invasions from walkers and eventual factors of the Saviors came into play to stall progress.

That brings us to now with Hilltop, which is a farm community. The Hilltop grew crops, but Maggie with some help from the mysterious Georgie made Hilltop into a bigger farming community. Hilltop became what Maggie always wanted since the farm was invaded and left to the mercy of the walkers, which as far as we know is now a wasteland filled with the undead making it a trap for anyone who came across the farm since then.

Maggie left her mark turning Hilltop into a more secure version of her first home the farm. Even though Maggie isn’t physically there, the Hilltop is a symbol of Maggie.

How will this vision be maintained with the threat that awaits them and keep the Hilltop from crumbling to the ground? Find out when The Walking Dead returns Sunday at 9PM only on AMC.