The Walking Dead is back…
But an essential character did not survive The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 9.
We’re about to delve into spoiler territory, so consider yourself spoiler warned.
Callan McAuliffe’s Alden was confirmed dead in the premiere’s final moments, after being MIA since The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 3.
The fan-favorite was last seen in a bad way when Negan and Maggie left him in a church when they tried to escape from the Reapers.
Angela Kang shed light on how the big death went down in an interview with Comicbook.com.
“I think the Reapers — who all have military training, special forces training, military contractor training — they know how to track people,” Kang said to the outlet.
“They were on the trail of our folks, or they picked it up at some point, and a guy was sent out to pick up the loose ends, and they found him.”
“The two of them fought to the death.”
If you watch The Walking Dead online, you know Maggie has lost many people throughout her time on the show, and this was a stark reminder that people can die at any moment on this series.
“I think for Maggie, there’s this horrible reminder: for one thing, here’s this person that she really cared about deeply and was a good friend,” Kang said.
“The whole thing was just this zero-sum game, like both sides could have just fought to the death and all died, and she’s seeing that play out right in front of her and it breaks her heart.”
“But she had to fulfill her promise to come back for him.”
It’s unclear how Maggie will bounce back following this latest loss, but the final scene of the premiere painted a worrying picture for her future.
The series took a jump six months into the future and revealed Daryl was a full-fledged Commonwealth soldier, complete with an army showing up at Hilltop.
The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 10 is set to air Sunday, and it will start the process of filling in the blanks about what happened during the time jump.
What are your thoughts on the big death?
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.