The Walking Dead is no stranger to shocking people. This is, after all, a franchise that made a name for itself during the original series, which featured some of the most graphic, barbaric, and jaw-dropping sequences in television history. Yep, AMC was pushing the boundaries with The Walking Dead in the 2010s and it continues to surprise people well into the 2020s.
That looks very different in today's day and age, however, as the franchise lives on via multiple spinoffs. Known as the TWD Universe, it consists of three direct sequel shows to the mothership series, and all three of them are known for their ability to make a statement. The Ones Who Live brought back franchise veterans Rick Grimes and Michonne, Daryl Dixon explored the European side of the walker apocalypse, and Dead City took viewers to the Big Apple for the first time ever too.
One of those spinoffs, however, just featured one of the most shocking moments of all - and it had nothing to do with violence, war, or even the apocalypse itself.
Maggie calls Negan "family" in Dead City season 3 finale
The season 3 finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City got people talking. The spinoff, which focuses on Lauren Cohan's Maggie Rhee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, featured a moment in its season 3-closer that went viral, reaching audiences far beyond the show's core group of fans - and, more specifically, fans of the original Walking Dead series. The responses were all unique in their own way, but the consensus was clear: Utter shock.
The moment in question comes from old enemies Maggie and Negan. The pair, forced together throughout the course of the spinoff as unlikely, uneasy allies trying to survive in the unforgiving streets of post-apocalyptic TWD Manhattan, had put their past behind them at the beginning of the season. While that was already a bit of a stretch considering what that past involves (don't worry, we'll get to that), fans were willing to overlook it because it actually elevated the show to its best season yet. The words used in the finale, however, was less accepted.
Negan, the infamous Walking Dead villain who brutally killed Maggie's husband Glenn with his barbed wire bat known as Lucille, was willing to sacrifice himself to new villain Dillard to save Maggie and her son Hershel. That part was believable, because Negan has spent the past decade trying to make up for his heinous actions on the parent series. But Maggie's response sent the internet into a complete meltdown.
Maggie told Negan that she couldn't shake him, describing him as a shadow that will always be with her as she begged him not to sacrifice himself. She then went as far as to say that he was the closest thing to family she had left outside of Hershel - a sentiment that almost drew a tear to the eye of the former villain. It was enough to make Negan decide against his sacrifice and team up with Maggie and Hershel to take Dillard down together - which they ultimately did.
When the clip reached the social media feeds of fans who had watched the original series but hadn't watched the spinoff, there was shock and awe. Some claimed "What happened to The Walking Dead?!" while others were simply stunned by the fact that Maggie just referred to the man who killed her husband in one of the franchise's most shocking scenes as "family".
Maggie and Negan share a complex dynamic and The Walking Dead had done a strong job of evolving it over the years. Maggie was determined to kill Negan for what he had done to Glenn, but when Rick Grimes chose to save and imprison him instead, it created a divide among the shows' protagonists. Eventually, Maggie deemed that imprisonment was a better punishment for him because he wanted death. And when she left both Alexandria and the Hilltop to go out on a separate mission, he began his long redemption arc.
When she returned, she reluctantly worked alongside him without ever truly believing that he was capable of change. Over the course of the final season, she saw that he had and, eventually, acknowledged it, saying that she sees who he has become but that she could never forgive him. This scene was acclaimed because it acknowledged the complexity of their relationship, allowing them to move forward without forgetting the past. It was heavy, emotional, and powerful. It was also final, allowing the pair to move on.
Dead City as a concept had to undo all of that, establishing a new antagonistic relationship between the two in order to allow it to move forward - for better or worse. Obviously, animosity and uncertainty was the easy route to go here, but it brought all of their baggage with them into the spinoff - which left fans feeling that it was simply a retread of everything we had seen on The Walking Dead. And yet, when new showrunner Seth Hoffman allowed the pair to move into more friendly territory, using a time-jump to establish a new, more "normal" dynamic between them, it was - for the most part - accepted.
But the conversation in the finale - particularly the part about Maggie calling Negan "family - was a step too far for a lot of fans. While they could buy these two as a chaotic, uneasy duo surviving the apocalypse together, they found it difficult to wrap their heads around the fact that Maggie considers the man who killed her husband Glenn like family to her. In a way, it felt like the pair's Walking Dead finale conversation but without any of the nuance that made their relationship so complex.
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