The Walking Dead 2020: Negan’s New Year’s resolutions

2019 is almost over and it’s time to make resolutions for The Walking Dead characters in the New Year. Here’s what Negan needs to do in 2020.

2019 was an interesting year for the former leader of the Saviors on The Walking Dead. Negan had some high points after spending most of season 9 locked up in a jail cell, and now he’s hanging out with Alpha and the Whisperers. If Negan is going to have a strong 2020, he will need to set some New Year resolutions to stay on track.

At the start of 2019 Negan was locked up in a jail cell, and by the time winter arrived in the last few episodes of season 9 the survivors were forced to let him out because there was no heat. If Negan hadn’t been out, then Judith might not be alive because he was the one who rescued her in the blizzard.

By 10A Negan had supervised work release, and while he was growing tomatoes he got a bird’s eye view of the happenings around Alexandria. He went out on a walker-killing mission with Aaron and ended up helping when Aaron temporarily lost his vision. He was also the one who noticed Lydia being bullied and he was the one who saved her when she was attacked.

Things were looking up for Negan until the day of Lydia’s attack. Margo was accidentally killed when she, Gage and Alfred attacked Lydia. Negan had been defending Lydia and shoved her, and when she fell she hit her head and died. This is what fans saw, but to the people of Alexandria it was Negan back to his old ways.

The council was planning on a vote to determine Negan’s fate, but then he mysteriously disappeared. Now he’s with Alpha, but what is he up to?

Explain Himself

There are two theories about Negan’s intentions with Alpha. Either he’s playing her – either for personal gain or to protect Alexandria [Read: Judith and Lydia] – or he really wants to be a Whisperer.

The problem he will face is that when the survivors see him with Alpha it will confirm their fears that he didn’t change after being locked up, and that he certainly can’t be trusted. At this point, it’s unclear how to interpret his plans.

Negan will need to reveal his hand fairly quickly so that the Alexandrians don’t kill him, and with Beta breathing down his neck he doesn’t have an opportunity to slip up with the Whisperers, either.

Make A Decision About The Future

No matter how long Negan was locked up, Negan never let go of who he was. While he seemed willing to fall in line in order to be able to work outside, he didn’t forget where he came from. His philosophy is simple: If you don’t take charge of things, someone else will. And that someone else might be worse than anything you can imagine. This was his guiding principle at the Sanctuary, where he revealed to Gabriel that people would die without him there to keep people like Simon from doing bad things.

At this point, Negan is at a crossroads. We saw from his experience with Brandon that he does not want to hurt people unless provoked, which makes his sudden allegiance to Alpha interesting.

Is Negan trying to help, or is he reverting back to his old ways? In 2020 he needs to pick a side and stick to it.

Prove Everyone Wrong

Negan knew that people in Alexandria didn’t trust him, and that no matter what he did, they never would. Michonne seems to have opened up to the idea that he has changed after he saved Judith, and even Daryl knew that if Negan hadn’t stepped in Lydia might have died.

On the other hand, Aaron was harboring a lot of well-founded anger toward Negan and it was only serving to make things worse. Aaron’s actions proved Negan’s point that no one would ever see him for who he is now, no matter what he does to atone for the past.

There’s nothing better than proving people wrong, especially when those people don’t like you to begin with. After breaking out of jail and joining the Whisperers, the best way that Negan can prove that he has changed is to prove everyone wrong, and that means infiltrating the Whisperers to tear them apart from the inside.

2020 will be a turning point for Negan and his future is wide open at this point, but his next moves are what will chart the course for what happens next.

What would you like to see from Negan in 2020? Leave your ideas in the comments!

The Walking Dead returns February 23 at 9pm on AMC.