5 things I want from the Walking Dead bonus episodes

5. Here’s Negan – Negan’s lesson

As this episode is obviously going to be based on the comic arc of the same name, there’s a lot we know we’re very likely going to see in this episode.

We’re going to see Negan neglect and cheat on his wife. We’re going to see him crumbling at her cancer diagnosis. We’re going to see how those events formed the Negan we know now.

What we don’t know is what context that story is being told in the wider world of the show, and that is what I want from it.

I don’t want this just to be about Negan’s backstory (though obviously that is the main point), I want to see that what Negan is reflecting on and has learned is something he can pass on.

I want to see him acknowledging the mistakes he’s made, the wrong turns he took and the emotional traps he fell into. And I want him to be able to express that to whoever he is close to, and preferably either Maggie or Carol – or both.

I want to see him show Maggie he knows the pain he put her through because it’s a pain he went through, and he knows what he has done wrong in so many ways. I want him to show he understands Maggie will never forgive him, but he understands because he will never forgive himself completely.

And I want him to pass on his lessons to Carol, because I think he may be the only one who can get through to her that shutting people out and becoming hardened to the things they have to do will only take her down his path – and that’s not someplace she, or anyone else,  should go.

Basically I want to see all of these characters have learned something from their recent trials and will carry it forward to a new future.