Some characters always stand out in The Walking Dead from the moment they appear on screen. One of them is Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who has been killing walkers and slaying evil men since pretty much the beginning of her time on the show. However, over the course of the series, she has had plenty of great episodes that make Maggie, well, Maggie.
From her debut to her leadership, here are the best Lauren Cohan episodes of The Walking Dead where she truly shines as her character.
“Bloodletting”
- Season 2 episode 2
We can’t have a Cohan article without mentioning “Bloodletting,” the episode where Cohan first appeared as Maggie. We’re only two episodes into season 2, haven’t even gotten to the farm yet, and are beginning that iconic search for Sophia (Madison Lintz). It isn’t long into the first episode that Carl (Chandler Riggs) gets shot (for the first time).
Maggie is one of the people living on the Greene farm when Carl is brought to their door in hopes that her father could help stop the bleeding and stitch him up. She’s the one who heads out on her horse to fetch Carl’s mother, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), and bring her to the farm. But even at the beginning, it’s clear Maggie had a sort of spirit in her, and she would do anything to protect not only the people she loved but innocents as well.
“Killer Within”
- Season 3 episode 4
Certain episodes make you squirm in your seat, and one is certainly “Killer Within.” In the fourth episode of season 3, Maggie faces an impossible task: do an emergency C-section for Lori when Judith arrives early. They have no choice, as the prison is swarmed with walkers.
Lori knows the C-section will kill her, and Maggie does the procedure despite the pain it causes. Lori dies as Maggie delivers the baby, and Carl (who has seen everything at this point) is the one who puts down his mother so she doesn’t reanimate. Talk about a harsh moment, but it showed Maggie’s strength and power and really let Lauren Cohan shine.
“Made To Suffer”
- Season 3 episode 8
I don’t want to talk about “Made to Suffer” too much because thinking about what Maggie goes through in this episode still bothers me to this day. But in “Made to Suffer,” Maggie and Glenn (Steven Yeun) are captured at Woodbury and try to escape, running into situations that should have killed them time and time again, but they somehow survive.
It’s a great moment for both Maggie and Glenn because it shows how far they've come as a couple and what they've done to make it to this point together.
“The Same Boat”
- Season 6 episode 13
When I first watched this episode, I was so excited because I knew Lauren Cohan and Melissa McBride, who plays Carol, were going to have their own episode to shine. And that’s exactly what we get with “The Same Boat.” In this episode, Maggie and Carol are captured by women Saviors, and through blood, sweat, and tears, they can fight their way out, but not by killing many of them.
It’s a big episode for the two, as they see a lot of what they have gone through in the Savior women as well, and it shows how pure human decency has fallen from grace. It’s a very heavy episode that shows how much is sacrificed when others' lives are on the line.
“Go Getters”
- Season 7 episode 5
This episode is, like, the Maggie episode. After she goes through a traumatic experience with Glenn’s death and a medical scare with her baby, she resides at Hilltop, where Glenn and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) have been buried. Their leader, Gregory (Xander Berkeley), refuses to let them stay because their presence is an active threat from the Saviors.
But what does Maggie do? When walkers suddenly flood Hilltop's gates, she defends the place with her loved ones, keeping the citizens safe. They did so much more for them than Gregory ever did during his tenure as Hilltop's leader. And that ends up working out because Jesus (Tom Payne) sticks up for her.
“A New Beginning”
- Season 9 episode 1
While Lauren Cohan went off to do her own show for a bit after season 9, one of my favorite moments of hers is in the premiere, where she has given birth to Hershel Jr. (whom we see in Dead City plenty), defeated Gregory as leader of Hilltop, and is doing alright despite the circumstances (and Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) decision to keep Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) alive)
That is, until Gregory decides to start acting and says the election was illegitimate and even goes so far as to attempt to kill Maggie. The next day, Maggie has Gregory hanged. And I don’t care what anyone says; this leader is the type I want leading me because she can make the tough decisions in this world. It’s a badass moment, and one I will always remember her by.
You can watch all 11 seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix. You can also see more of Lauren Cohan on Dead City on AMC+.
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