Remembering Glenn’s Most Defining Moments On ‘The Walking Dead’

[Warning: This post contains Walking Dead spoilers]

We’re not 100% certain whether we witnessed the death of Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) on Sunday night’s Walking Dead or not, but I have to admit that those doubts may be denial based. Simply put, things looked pretty bad for a character that has come to be a quiet but strong leader and one half of the zombie wasteland’s strongest couple and it’s hard to imagine this level of fake out from the producers.

With all of that said, though, last night’s events and the prospect of losing Glenn did put us in the mood to look back at his most defining moments even as we hope that we’ll all have the chance to see more heroic moments from our favorite earnest pizza deliver boy. So, why don’t we grieve and hope together while thinking about the good times.

“Hey, you. Dumbass…”

Outside of Rick, Glenn is the only character to make it into season six that appeared in the The Walking Dead pilot. Sure, we didn’t actually see him until the next episode, but his words to an emotionally defeated Rick over a walkie-talkie as he sat in a tank waiting to die — “Hey, you. Dumbass.” — were as restorative as his similar words to Rick — “Good luck, dumbass.” — in Sunday’s episode were ominious.

Guts

Glenn didn’t love the idea of slathering zombie guts on himself to walk through a throng of the undead alongside Rick while trapped in Atlanta, but he was still brave enough to go along with it.

When Glenn met Maggie

While the Walking Dead comic series isn’t affraid to fill the page with a little bit of lust, the show really has stayed away from pairing its charachters up — for the most part. Ever since Glenn saved Maggie from a walker in the drug store outside Hershel’s farm, we’ve been given a weekly reminder that love can still bloom amidst the bleak horrors of the zombie apocalypse. There’s wasn’t a romance written in the stars, it was one of neccesity — they needed each other to survive. But above what it meant for those two characters, Glenn and Maggie’s relationship offered hope that good things were still attainable while other characters lost their humanity along the journey and became more feral. Taking that element away from The Walking Dead is, essentially, the biggest gut-punch to the show now that it appears that Glenn is dead. Without hope — even a glimmer — this show can lose its way and become a bleak gore fest. We’re not there yet, but we’re a lot closer to that possibility now.

Doing the right thing, no matter the cost

Despite his relationship with Maggie, Glenn told Dale (and by extension, the group) that there were walkers in Hershel’s barn, setting off a chain events that would wind up with Shane leading a charge down to the barn to exterminate the undead therein. It’s a moment that momentarily puts Glenn and Maggie at odds, but it’s unquestionably brave in that Glenn knew that if he kept quiet about what he knew it might put his friends in harm’s way.

Getting Hershel’s approval

Hershel really lived up to the whole cliché of being a protective farmer with a beautiful daughter. He was extremely cautious and would do whatever he could to keep his family out of harm’s way – you know, except for having them live next to a barn full of walkers. But once Glenn finally proved himself, Hershel not only approved of his relationship with Maggie, but welcomed him into his family by giving him a pocket watch that had been handed down through the Greene family for generations.

Zombie Apocalypse MacGyver

While out on a supply run, Maggie and Glenn were both kidnapped by Merle and taken back to Woodbury, where they were held captive and tortured by the Governor. When Merle decided that he was done trying to get information out of Glenn (who was taped to a chair), he brought a walker into the room and left it to feast. It looked like a no-way-out situation for Glenn but he showed how resourceful and tough he was by bashing the legs of the chair against a cement wall to free himself and allow for him to stab the zombie in the head with a broken chair arm. Glenn also fashioned a shiv out of a zombie bone while in Woodbury.

Fair thee well, Zombie Apocalypse MacGyver.

Proposing to Maggie

After getting Hershel’s blessing, Glenn was a man on a mission to find an engagement ring for the love of his life. Sure, it came from the undead finger of a walker, but you can’t be picky given the circumstances.

Riot Gear Glenn

Following the seige on the prison, a still flu-stricken Glenn wakes up in a Home Alone situation after everyone leaves without him. Determined to make his way through the invading zombies and out of the prison in an effort to find Maggie, Glenn suits up with some riot gear and heads into battle.

It would take awhile for Glenn to make his away across the great distance to reunite with Maggie. An odyssey that would see him meet Tara, Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita. It doubtlessly tested him, but in the end, nothing could keep him from his love. Which is another reason why it’s hard to believe that producers would end this love story with a slip and fall off a dumpster.

“It’s over.”

After barely making it out of Terminus alive, Rick and his reunited group break for the woods where Rick grabs a stash of hidden guns. “They don’t get to live.” says Rick, leading Glenn (and others) to stand up to their leader and tell him no, they don’t want to go back to finish the job. Ultimately, the disagreement would prove to be moot as Carol emerged from the woods seconds later, demonstrating the power of the “hope” that I mentioned before. In a blink, The Walking Dead went from a place where the group could have gone back into the burning rubble of their once-thought sanctuary as righteous executioners to one where Rick got to again glimpse his baby daughter.

Granted, in that the Terminus canibals came back around later in the season, eating bits of Bob before getting visciously put down, Rick may have been on to something, but that’s not the point. Glenn wasn’t affraid to speak his mind. That’s the point.

“Thank you… for knocking him on his ass.”

Glenn had come a long way from being the guy that specialized in running away from everything. Now, he was a guy that could run away from everything, but also hold his own when he needed to, against walker and humans alike. When Deanna’s son Aiden tried to land a cheap shot after Glenn killed a walker they had tied up, he quickly put him in his place, much to the pleasure of Deanna. That’s what Aiden gets for picking on the small new guy.

Glenn vs. Nicholas

Out of all of the characters on The Walking Dead, Glenn may have succeeded in being the one to maintain the most of his humanity. While it would’ve been very understandable for him to cross the line and kill Nicholas after he tried to do the same to him, Glenn decided to give him a shot at redemption. Unfortunately, we know that that faith was misplaced and that Nicholas (who looks a little bit like Rick, doesn’t he?) utimately led Glenn down a dead end and to his eventual (maybe) demise. Is this the show, once again, punishing a character for going against the lessons of the post-apocalyptic world and allowing their humanity to show? We’ll see.

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