The Walking Dead Season 11B: New Commonwealth Soldier, Major Reunion

The first Sunday premiere of the second season of ZombieThe last three arcs of the season answered a lot of questions. What exactly does hwacha do? Will Judith and Gracie come out of the basement in one piece? Because of sin, is the dog okay?!? But it also leaves us with a lot of other things as well. Luckily, showrunner Angela Kang Kind enough to Zoom with TVLine to provide answers.

TVLINE | So Angela, Maggie, and Gabriel are, uh, pretty weird in this episode (close here). Does that leave you feeling like, “OK, now I have to redeem them?” Or is it just how cold they have to be in their world now?
For both of them, this was the culmination of a series of really difficult decisions they had to make. By the end of the episode, their minds are spinning, and they have a lot of questions for themselves. We see it a bit in the scene where Daryl and Gabriel by the fire talk about, “Is this just the way things are?” And you see it in Maggie’s grief for Alden and her surprise when Negan leaves. [rather than fight her to the death]. She’s thinking, “Have I gone too far? Or is this exactly how far I need to go? “So I think when we start with them next, we’ll see them figure out how to move forward.

TVLINE | The moment Alden died was very interesting to me. If he lived, it could confirm that Maggie was on the right track, making choices that weren’t possible. But since he died, it felt like it was pressing on her. “No, even doing all the hard work, it still won’t be good for you. “
Yeah, we talked a lot in the writers room about Alden, like, when Maggie left him, did she know that he was dying and they would never see him back? Or is there something that wants to get back to him? In the end, we felt that there should be a consequence to how he was injured by the Reapers.

TVLINE | And a consequence for Maggie.
In some ways, it highlights to her that it’s something where you win and you lose at the same time. Like, both sides [in that skirmish] lost a lot of people. It made her question, like Daryl, is that all there is to life? Are we doomed to always have to fight to the death? It doesn’t feel quite right that there is only one reward at the end of this. She had hoped that there would be, but the reality was, they all paid dearly for the war they waged.

TVLINE | Ever considered Alden becoming the Dante in the comics – a post-Glenn love interest for Maggie? Because that’s what I originally rated him as.
You are absolutely right. He was originally cast as a Dante-like character. Not Dante himself – we obviously used him in a different kind of context, as we sometimes do. But we changed gears at a certain point because of Lauren [Cohan] has been off the show for a while, and we know she’ll be back at some point. But by the time she does, it feels like the characters have evolved in different ways than they would if she’d been there all this time. It happens often, like when one of our members takes a job and leaves the program or goes on hiatus. The storylines started out differently from our original intention, so we arranged to pursue the new storyline.

TVLINE | Do you think, in your heart, that Negan was right, that Maggie will eventually make the decision, “Yup, I have to kill him too”?
I I don’t know if he’s right. But I thinhk he believe in the heart of his heart that he is right. And maybe she will. I think it’s true that these two, at this point in the story, cannot live peacefully side by side. He will never feel comfortable around her, because he doesn’t trust that she won’t change her mind and turn rogue again. And for her, it was just too painful when she was by his side. Even knowing that he made some moves to atone, he never apologized to her [for murdering her husband before her eyes]. He openly said that he wished that he would kill them all. They need some space from each other, so he’s not wrong to think [it’s best that he strike out on his own].

TVLINE | I’m really looking forward to Daryl and Connie’s reunion, and then… it sounds so… friendly. Like, am I making up a love story that I think is going on between them?
[Laughs] Those two definitely have some chemistry. But I think Daryl has chemistry that’s interesting to a lot of people. They definitely care about each other. Interestingly, even Carol realized that there was something special in the way they interacted with each other.

TVLINE | At least I didn’t make it up – Carol saw it too!
But things have also changed over time. So we’ll see what happens to them next.

TVLINE | Honestly, I didn’t know what I was expecting. Daryl wouldn’t run up to Connie and say, “I love you and should have told you a long time ago!”
No, that’s not really Daryl, is it? What I think is really sweet is the way Norman [Reedus] just dropped the basket of apples in that scene [when Daryl first saw Connie]. It was his choice, and there’s a real excitement from that character that Connie is alive and well after all the pain he and Carol went through as if she’d been lost in a cave. there.

TVLINE | Let’s talk about Daryl as a Commonwealth soldier – obviously, it was a huge visual shock. What can we glean from his and Maggie’s stalemate over how terrible things really are in the Commonwealth?
Any society has things that are working for it and things that are the dark side. As for Daryl, he must join the Commonwealth army. The way he joins may be a bit unexpected, but that’s the story that will play out in the B block of the season.

TVLINE | What does the Daryl/Maggie conflict mean? Looks like… major, if she was locking the gate and saying, “No, you can’t come in.”
Over time we’ll discover what the root of that conflict is and how we get there, but it’s clear that there’s some glaring tension going on between the Commonwealth and Hilltop. And that’s not an easy thing to do, given how big and strong the Commonwealth is.