The Walking Dead Just Made A Mistake Repeating A Big Glenn Controversy

The Walking Dead season 11 premiere ends with a cliffhanger that is making the same mistake as Glenn's death fakeout from season 6.

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Walking Dead season 11 premiere.

The Walking Dead season 11 premiere ends on a cliffhanger that makes the same mistake as Glenn's death fakeout from season 6. Now in its final season, The Walking Dead is gearing up for what promises to be an epic conclusion to the long-running series. Already, AMC has announced season 11 will have 24 episodes, an increase from the usual 16-episode count, and they will air in three, 8-episode blocks concluding in 2022. With the extra episodes, Walking Dead season 11 will be chock full of conflicts for the survivors to overcome, from The Reapers to The Commonwealth to perhaps their biggest hurdle — each other.

As it begins its final chapter, The Walking Dead is in a much better place than it was seasons earlier. The series hit a slump in seasons 6 through 8, with many viewers giving up on the show altogether following some controversial moments. One such moment came early in season 6 during episode 3, "Thank You," when Glenn is shown presumably falling to his death from atop a dumpster and into a herd of walkers. The episode ends on this cliffhanger and for the following three episodes his fate isn't even addressed. Once it's finally revealed Glenn had survived his fall into the herd, and through dubious means no less, viewers were all the more upset at the show for needlessly dragging out the mystery of what happened to him. Glenn's death fakeout was only the first of many missteps The Walking Dead took through those seasons; but even with the show course-correcting with season 9's soft reboot, The Walking Dead season 11 is making the same mistake again.

In The Walking Dead season 11, episode 1 "Acheron: Part I," the survivors are on a mission to find desperately needed supplies. Maggie has led the Alexandria group to Washington D.C. where they're navigating their way through subway tunnels. These tunnels, however, are filled with the dead, making them extremely dangerous to traverse. Eventually, the emerging walkers become too much to handle and the group is forced to flee over the top of a train car. Maggie is the last one to begin the climb, and while she desperately clings to the car with walkers tugging at her feet, she cries out to the only one who can help her — Negan. He looks over the edge and sees Maggie struggling, but rather than lend a hand, leaves her hanging. The final shot of the episode is of Maggie's fingers losing their grip, strongly suggesting she falls from the car and into the gathering herd below. It's a tease that should have viewers genuinely worried for Maggie, but given The Walking Dead's track record, it's another cliffhanger for the sake of being a cliffhanger — just as Glenn's death fakeout was five seasons earlier.

Though she's been left in a dire situation with seemingly no way to escape, Maggie is not going to die. Viewers know this because there are plenty of promotional photos and footage for The Walking Dead season 11 that show Maggie living beyond the events of the premiere. Perhaps the biggest reason Maggie's life doesn't feel in danger is because having her die at this moment would be a terrible resolution for her and Negan's conflict. Ever since her return, The Walking Dead has been heavily teasing a showdown between Maggie and Negan. Where before the hostility between these characters was found largely in silent stares, it's now at the forefront of the storytelling. Given this, the episode's cliffhanger would be more compelling if the tension centered on whether or not Negan will save Maggie rather than if she will survive at all.

Instead, The Walking Dead season 11 premiere ends on the easier but less interesting tease. Much like with Glenn's death fakeout, which hinged on whether or not he died rather than how he would survive such a harrowing situation, this Maggie death fakeout picks the wrong thing to focus on. There's no mystery over Maggie's fate, and as such, it's a lazy attempt at raising the stakes that The Walking Dead should have learned to avoid by now.