Spoilers through Season 8 of The Walking Dead
Negan did not die in the season eight finale of The Walking Dead, and though Rick promised to let him rot in prison for the rest of his life, that’s obviously not a very good use of the character on the series. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is going to be around a long while, and the series is going to need to rehabilitate the character and turn the biggest villain of The Walking Dead into an ally.
How can the show do that?
It’s easier than viewers might think because, in Morgan Jones, there is already a template. Consider Morgan from the perspective of someone who didn’t know him in the pilot episode, who stumbled upon him for the first time in the season three episode, “Clear,” which saw Morgan attempt to kill Rick, Carl, and Michonne in a shootout. Or consider Morgan from the perspective of the two innocent men he killed for no reason whatsoever in the fifth season episode, “Here Not Here,” in the midst of one of his rants. Or consider Morgan, again, from the perspective of the Saviors, who witnessed Morgan during his Savior killing spree, or who would have unnecessarily killed Gavin in cold blood had Henry not done so first, or the Morgan who let the zombies kill Jared, or the Morgan who killed two Saviors after promising to save them. That Morgan is not a very good guy.
Depending on one’s perspective, Morgan can just as well be considered a hero or a villain. When he’s suffering from PTSD, he’s a villain. When he’s recovering, he’s a kind soul who refuses to kill. He’s got a Jekyll and Hyde personality, but viewers always see him as a “good guy” because we know his backstory. We understand why he is the way he is. He lost his wife and then witnessed her — as a zombie — kill his son, and that backstory makes him a sympathetic character no matter how many people he unnecessarily murders.
Negan’s backstory — once it is revealed, in full — should provide the same sympathy for Negan. Negan is not a good guy unless we understand his motivations (which are explained in Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels). He was a high-school gym teacher who saw his wife — and the love of his life — waste away because of cancer, only to die of it, turn into a zombie and attempt to kill Negan. Afterward, Negan tried to befriend a number of people — including a kid around the same age as Carl — only to see them die. Like with Morgan, everyone close to Negan invariably dies. Morgan combatted this by running away from other people. Negan combatted it by creating the Saviors to protect those around him.
That motivation — fueled by a narcissism and a kind of post-apocalyptic form of PTSD — transformed Negan into who he became in the All Out War. Underneath the cartoon villain, however, there is a better person, just like there’s a better person underneath the unkillable machine that is Morgan. We just need to get to know that person, which is why the best thing that The Walking Dead can do before inevitably releasing Negan from prison is to provide viewers with his sympathetic backstory.
When Eastman sprung Morgan from the jail cell he had built, Morgan was a changed man. Expect to see the same from Negan, after he’s released from the jail cell that Morgan built. If new showrunner Angela Kang plays it right — and we know she has the talent — Negan can become a “good guy,” and potentially the leader of the Alexandrians if Andrew Lincon’s Rick decides to depart the series at some point.
