Why did Negan kill Glenn in The Walking Dead?
By Renee Hansen
One of The Walking Dead series’ most graphic deaths occurred during the season 7 premiere. This episode, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” will forever go down as one of the most impactful episodes of the series. Many fans have never been able to rewatch this episode, and many stopped watching after the brutal killing of Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) and Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Fans often ask why did Negan kill Glenn?
Negan’s lineup consisted of Abe, Glenn, Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Carl (Chandler Riggs), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) Daryl (Norman Reedus). This group was captured by the Saviors, on Negan’s command, in retaliation for all of the Saviors Rick’s group killed at the outpost.
It was made clear from the beginning that one of the people in the lineup would be killed by Negan for the slaughter of his people. He taunted and teased them until he finally chose Abe as his victim. Ever the hero, Abe “took it like a champ,” and it was a heartbreaking sight to see such a formidable man go down by being bludged to death with Negan’s weapon of choice, a barbed wire-wrapped bat he affectionately named after his dead wife, Lucille.
The Walking Dead – Why did Negan choose a second victim?
As awful as it was to see Abe killed, the fandom breathed a sigh of relief that this scene was over. But as Negan relished in his conquest and showed off his “dirty girl” Lucille, covered in Abe’s brain matter, he noticed Rosita’s distress. He demands that she look at Lucille and begins yelling when she refuses. Enraged, Daryl then leaps up and punches Negan in the face, an act he will regret for the rest of the series.
Negan chooses Glenn as a second victim because of Daryl’s act. He reminded the group that there are always repercussions for resistance. He exclaims, “back to it,” and begins beating Glenn to a pulp.
Throughout the remainder of the series, Maggie is hell-bent on exacting revenge on Negan for the death of her husband. After the fall of his Saviors, Negan began his path to redemption. In the final episode of the series, Negan finally utters the words “I’m sorry” to Maggie. But she informs him that she can never forgive him for what he did.
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