Lauren Cohan Reveals the Emotional Truth Behind *Dead City*’s Shocking TWD Callback — “I Don’t Want This Feeling Anymore”

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2, episode 8!The Walking Dead: Dead City star Lauren Cohan has explained the importance of the season 2 finale's major callback moment to the first series. During the end of Dead City season 2, Maggie (Cohan) finds Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in the basement of the church, secretly watching as he lines up both Perlie (Gaius Charles) and Bruegel (Kim Coates) to be executed by Lucille. In a moment mirroring how he killed Glenn (Steven Yeun) in the original series, the former antagonist uses his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire to kill Bruegel.

In an interview with ScreenRant's Owen Danoff about The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 finale, Cohan explained how Maggie felt watching Negan kill Bruegel, explaining how it conjured memories of Glenn. She discussed the dynamic between both characters and how it's impacted by these echoes of the past, while also unpacking what it does to her relationship with Hershel (Logan Kim) in the process. Check out what Cohan had to say below:

ScreenRant: There was one thing that really stood out to me from this finale, which is the whole sequence where you stab Negan, [which] begins with him doing the lineup with Lucille. Starting there, what was it like for you to perform that side of it, and did it bring back the Glenn of it all from The Walking Dead all those years ago?

Lauren Cohan: Yeah, I think there's so much talk about Negan triggering memories of Glenn and moments with Hershel and these things that sort of stir this and make Maggie either consciously or unconsciously shut down or react.

It's interesting because the way it probably reads as a viewer is this very tangible trauma when I sort of turn back around the corner when I see him doing it. The other aspect of it that I remembered feeling on the day was like, “Here's the pinnacle of him pushing this button, or me allowing him to push this button, and I don't want this feeling anymore. This has to stop.” And I think that there was probably as much a feeling of anger and resentment at the unconscious cycle that he triggers in Maggie as there was, “This is making me think of Glenn.”

It was also like, “This is making me realize what I'm doing to my kid. This is making me realize how I'm never going to have a connection with my son.” And he brings it up to Maggie. It's like, “As long as you let this go on, the future that we hope for, and the present that you've been hoping [for] is just not possible.” So I think it was kind of reaching a limit [with] observing this inescapable loop that it puts her into. And the only answer is to stab him and then save him.

What Cohan's Statement Says About Dead City's Callback Moment

Glenn's Death Will Forever Weigh Heavy Between Both Protagonists

After Negan kills Bruegel, Perlie manages to escape, forcing him to chase the New Babylon soldier down. However, before either can kill each other, Maggie stabs Negan in the back. While he survives, this sequence between these four major characters in Dead City season 2 reflects how, even after all this time, Glenn's death still weighs heavily between both characters. At the same time, though, she ends up sparing him once she learns he tried to save Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), who tragically succumbed to her infected injury.

As Cohan states, though, the "loop" Maggie finds herself in has put insurmountable strain on her relationship with Hershel, who chose the Dama (Lisa Emery) over her in the episode's final moments. This leaves her, Negan, and Perlie stranded in Manhattan, potentially laying the groundwork for a very different dynamic between the two in Dead City season 3. By using the familiar moment of the former Savior killing someone with Lucille, the series is able to deliver a moment that echoes the past without fully repeating the context of that original moment.

Our Take On Dead City's Callback To Glenn's Death

Is The Conflict Between Maggie & Negan Over?

The callback to Glenn's death caused very different results between Maggie and Negan; although she stabbed him, the season ended with the pair on the same side. With New Babylon invading Manhattan and Hershel now siding with the Dama, it seems like, despite this callback, they're going to have to work together in order to survive and escape the city. The callback to Glenn's death was a perfect way to continue moving the pair's conflict forward in a new direction, something The Walking Dead: Dead City can keep building on in future seasons.