Lauren Cohan says it 'felt really good to be able to talk about Glenn' in The Walking Dead finale

Dalton Ross
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WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of The Walking Dead.

Even with the return of Rick and Michonne, a teary goodbye between Daryl and Carol, and the heartbreaking loss of Rosita, the most emotional moment during the series finale of The Walking Dead may have been the final scene between sworn enemies turned uneasy alliance partners Maggie and Negan.

After Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) finally gave a full-throated apology earlier in the episode for fatally bludgeoning Maggie's husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun), with a barbed-wire-covered baseball bat, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) sat down next to her former tormentor to thank him. But she had much more to say than just that, invoking Glenn's name to explain her internal struggle in moving on.

"I can stop wondering if you'll ever say those words and if I can ever forgive you," she said. "Because I know now, I can't. Glenn was beautiful. I'll never love anyone like that again. I remember his smile. His goodness. And the way he made me feel. But when I look at you, all I see is that bat coming down on his head, blood running down his face. I hear him calling for me, and I hear you mocking me while he's dying. So I can't forgive you. Even though I'm so grateful that you saved my son. Even though I know that you're trying. I'm trying too. Because I don't want to hate you anymore. I don't want to hurt like that, and I don't want my son to see that anybody has that kind of hold over me. If you and Annie want to stay, you have earned your place. If I can't look at you some days, if I can't work with you, and if I can't move on, that's why. Because all I have are my memories. And I don't want to remember Glenn like that."

We spoke to Cohan about filming that big finale scene, the meaning of Maggie's very last line of the series to Daryl and Carol (and if it ties in to her upcoming spin-off Dead City), and how close her character came to actually taking the shot on Pamela Milton.

Lauren Cohan in the series finale of 'The Walking Dead'
Lauren Cohan in the series finale of 'The Walking Dead'

Jace Downs/AMC Lauren Cohan in the series finale of 'The Walking Dead'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How do you feel about how the story wrapped up here on this show after more than a decade?

LAUREN COHAN: It definitely left a lot open, which was obviously part of the plan. I felt overall that we really spoke to all the things in the show that have given us so much. I like Rosita's storyline. It was so symbolic for her to protect her daughter at all costs, and the sacrifice. But mostly what I really liked about the finale was that it gave everybody a chance to say a proper goodbye. It had just that exact cocktail of emotion.

And some of those goodbyes were hellos, because obviously we know Maggie and Negan will go on, and there was what seemed like some resolution. I think for Maggie, she definitely wanted to begin to open the door to that grief so that she could process it. And part of that is beginning to address it with Negan instead of avoiding it.

Let's get into this big talk Maggie gives to Negan about forgiving but having trouble forgetting, and before we get into all the emotions of it, just logistically speaking, that is a hefty piece of dialogue to handle. What was it like just getting all that down?

Oh yeah, that's so funny. I don't remember it being long, which I think is a good thing because it felt like things that have needed to be said between those two for a long time. So it was easy.

It felt really good to be able to talk about Glenn. So even though it wasn't pleasant, it's obviously been the engine to so much that's been going on for years. The line I remember is "Glenn was beautiful." And I feel like that's all I said. And in those three words, you have to remember how wonderful a person was and celebrate them and stay open and keep your heart open.

I find it brave to really feel and remember when your heart is lit up. And it's interesting because it was an act of bringing him back to life by telling Negan, and I think that that was a special moment. And I really loved that we got to see that and do that.

Lauren Cohan and Kien Michael Spiller in the series finale of 'The Walking Dead'
Lauren Cohan and Kien Michael Spiller in the series finale of 'The Walking Dead'

Jace Downs/AMC Lauren Cohan and Kien Michael Spiller in the series finale of 'The Walking Dead'

When Maggie's talking about seeing Glenn's face, do you as Lauren see Steven's face when you say lines like that?

When I think of Glenn, when I picture Glenn's face, sadly, I picture the horrible moment. That's what I see. I see the show. I also see the good moments from the show, like if you did this montage of them — like when they find each other again after Terminus, and when I tell him not to burn the picture, and I see him at the well, and I see the first time I met him and I see him on the porch. And when I stop at that moment and spend time in it, then I fill in these other parts that never really happened, but that could have.

And that may be one of the more interesting things to explore about playing a character for a long time that I haven't completely processed yet. But it's like, where's the line between the experience on film and the potential imagined life of that?

When you ask do I picture Steven's face, I picture what it feels like to really love something. And I don't know what I picture, but I just know that it's like standing on a cliff and knowing you'll fall, but hoping you'll be caught. It's so cheesy, but it is really what it is to love. And the thing that we tell ourselves all the time, the thing that we're all so afraid of in life, is to take the risk to open yourself up. Because it may fail, or you may lose the person, or they may not reciprocate your feelings, or all these different things.

And this story that we have told of Maggie and Glenn is that thing of finding that true love and losing it. And that's the thing we're all so afraid of. And yet it happens, and yet we continue. And Negan is there as this reminder, and not only a reminder but a thief of the memory. And I think she has to say it in order to not let that happen.

Let me ask you a question: Is it bad that I kinda wanted Maggie to pull that trigger on Pamela when she had that shot?

It's funny because it just seemed like it would happen. She hanged Gregory, but we've kind of gone to the brink but restrained at those intersections since then. I don't know how it was for you as a viewer, but I just remember watching it and there wasn't a big song and dance made of it. It was just kind of the moment when it doesn't happen. And I liked that because there's just so much going on in that episode. And that was sort of a facet of this forgiveness and release.

Your last line in the series is to Carol and Daryl there at the end where you say, "I want to talk about the future. There's a lot out here to find out about. And I think it's time we did." Does that tie in to how you end up in New York at all?

When we pick up in New York, it's a few years later. So in my mind, there is sort this hopeful renewal at the end of the season of going out and exploring in the ways that we've seen her go do before. But I think this time with her family it's about staying in communication about their joint plan to do this and forge new roads. And family means Daryl and Carol and everybody else. And so that is what that means to me.

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