Some characters in The Walking Dead steal the stage when they walk on screen. And then there’s Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
Negan didn’t just steal the stage. He took the floorboards, the curtains, and the lights surrounding the stage before burning the whole dang theater down.
Morgan’s casting forever changed The Walking Dead as the legendary villain. With a character that has been around for two shows (one a spinoff that’s still going), there are some moments from The Walking Dead that you might have forgotten about that Negan just…did. Today, we’re going to go over a few of my favorites.
Negan kills Spencer
- Season 7, episode 8, “Hearts Still Beating”
There have been some absolutely gnarly kills in The Walking Dead, but one that really stands out in my mind is when Negan killed Spencer (Austin Nichols). This was the first midseason finale after the infamous Glenn and Abraham death scenes, and it really felt like all hope was lost. Of course, by the end of it, we got a little bro hug from Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the whole crew, swearing to fight off Negan and the Saviors, but we had to get there first.
And let me tell you, it was a nasty path.
I mean, if we’re being honest, Spencer was kind of the biggest jerk alive. He was always trying to double-cross Rick for so long because he didn’t agree with his leadership style and saw Negan as a way to somehow get onto the “winning” side. But Negan actually saw that, clocked it, and openly said to Spencer that at least Rick had the guts to gather the supplies he wanted while hating him. Spencer didn’t have the guts to backstab Rick.
And then he proceeded to tear into his stomach, rip out Spencer’s entrails, and leave him dead on the floor. I mean, good lord. It’s one of those moments that really sat with me years later and reminds me of how messy he can get.
Negan roasts Dr. Carson
- Season 7, episode 11, “Hostiles and Calamities”
Remember when Negan straight up burned someone alive? Yeah, I do…good times.
Okay, jokes aside, season 7 saw Negan do some wild stuff, and one that I know people forgot was that he straight-up burned Dr. Carson (R. Keith Harris) in “Hostiles and Calamities.” Dwight (Austin Amelio) planned his wife Sherry’s (Christine Evangelista) escape with Daryl and used Dr. Carson as a cover-up, planting evidence to make it look like he did it.
Negan saw this and threatened the doctor with a hot iron, and because Carson was so terrified, he falsely confessed. Thinking he’d be spared, Negan just threw him into an open furnace as a warning to the others of what would happen if he were betrayed.
It was so quick and fast and wild in a season that had so many insane moments that it’s easy to forge a moment like that. But for me? I could never.
Giving up Lucille
- Season 10, episode 22, “Here’s Negan”
This isn’t really wild because Negan did something gross, terrifying, or absolutely unacceptable. It’s more insane that Negan willingly did this to himself.
In season 10, we saw an episode focused solely on Negan and his past, titled “Here’s Negan,” where we saw how he became the man that we know him as, including his past connection to Lucille (Hilarie Burton Morgan)—his dying wife with cancer. It was the final episode of season 10 and really showed a lot about him as a person and why he named the bat the way he did.
Through a lot of pain and reflection, Negan ends up burning his bat after an intense run-in with a walker, causing the wood to splinter. He sees it as a way of finally letting his past go and apologizing to his late wife for everything he did before watching it go up in flames. And then after that, he willingly walks back to Alexandria to live there, smiling at Maggie’s glare.
It’s kind of funny to rewatch this scene now and know they’re allies in Dead City, but it’s still an insane moment nonetheless.
Negan’s kiss and kill (and who planned it all)
- Season 10, episode 12, “Walk With Us”
I low-key don’t even want to talk about “Walk With Us” that much because, good lord, it was gross, but I have to put it here as an insane moment because it still is years later. Negan, up until this point, had been living with the Whisperers and faking it like he was one of them to take down Alexandria. He even struck up a weird, freaky-ass romance with Alpha (Samantha Morton) to get close.
This all led to him kissing her one day and then slitting her throat, killing her right after. This leads to him beheading her and then bringing her discarded head to Carol (Melissa McBride)—the one who was behind the whole thing and had Negan escape to be with the Whisperers in the first place. My god, I’m still shook by it years later.
You can watch all three seasons of Dead City on AMC+ for more Negan. But if you want to relive him in all his glory, all eleven seasons of The Walking Dead are on Netflix.
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