Lauren Cohan won't say what her final Dead City line means

Dalton Ross
·3 min read
4
Lauren Cohan won't say what her final Dead City line means
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 6, "Doma Smo."

While Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan ended the season finale of The Walking Dead: Dead City dealing with huge power play from a new adversary/accomplice named The Dama, Lauren Cohan's Maggie was waging a much more personal battle — with herself and with her son.

After exchanging Negan for the return of Hershel (Logan Kim), mother and son were finally reunited — but unlike a certain Peaches & Herb song, it did not feel so good. Instead of being thankful to be back safe with his mom, Hershel told Maggie she had never been present as a mother because she had been obsessed with revenge, looking over her shoulder the entire time watching for Negan instead. "I'm right here," complained her son. "But you don't see me."

Logan Kim as Hershel, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee - The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 6
Logan Kim as Hershel, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee - The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 6

Peter Kramer/AMC Logan Kim and Lauren Cohan on 'The Walking Dead: Dead City'

Maggie's response in the scene may have been silent, but to Cohan, the exchange spoke volumes. "What's really interesting here is that what people might say is, 'Oh, she's enraged because she's lost the father to help her raise her son," Cohan told EW in an interview conducted before the current SAG-AFTRA strike. "And it is that, but it's also the place in time that she's frozen in because of this thing that happened has made her in so many ways locked and so desperate to melt some of this rigid place in her heart so that she can be healed, be with her son, and be full and flexible and imperfect as herself and as a parent."

That's easier said than done when you're dealing with a teenager. "It's coming from a place of hurt and anger for him," notes Cohan. "Obviously, I can remember being a teenager where you lash out and you're angry. Maybe you don't know everything that's behind why our parents are the way they are with us, but you've got a single mother and a teenage son and you're putting all these conditions around it."

The fact that there was no happy ending to this reunion is both relatable and realistic. "Despite everything else that's difficult about this world, he just wants some kind of communion with his mother that is eluding them," says Cohan. "And it's not fixed at the end of this. Getting him back isn't fixing it. It's like, try again. And they're really pushed to the wall of determining the way through."

Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan - The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 6
Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan - The Walking Dead: Dead City _ Season 1, Episode 6

Peter Kramer/AMC Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan on 'The Walking Dead: Dead City'

But the most intriguing moment occurred later, near the end of the episode when Maggie visited Hershel in her room and acknowledged that action had to be taken: "For most of my life, I felt like the world kept taking and kept taking, and I think at some point I thought that if I could just fight hard enough, I'd be able to get it back — a little piece of it at least. But it doesn't work that way, because you just end up losing what you got. And I don't want to keep doing that anymore. I don't know how, but this thing with Negan… I'm gonna finish it. So I can just let it go."

So what exactly does finishing this thing with Negan mean? Turns out Cohan knows, but doesn't want to tell us. "I am hesitant to say," hedges the star. "Because I know what it means, and I don't want people to be directed because I have heard so many different perceptions of that moment. And I love seeing how differently people take it. So I certainly know what it is, and it makes me more excited to do a second season. It makes me really interested to put all that down on paper and on film, because the best part of this character yet is this place that she can go now. And it was not what I ever imagined."

And seeing as how production on season 2 — which was just announced — has not yet begun, it appears we'll have to use our imagination for a while as to what that finishing move between Maggie and Negan just may be.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content: