We all suspected this day would come, but after his harsh introduction to the series, I never thought it would be as easy as it was for Negan to gain our favor. Not after Negan so brutally killed Abraham and Glenn. Not after Negan taunted Rick, imprisoned Daryl, leered at Sherry, killed Spencer, had Olivia shot, broke bread with Judith and Carl, made Carl cry, and threw Dr. Carson in the oven.
But it’s happening all the same: Negan is pivoting. He may be the series’ biggest villain, and he still may be the biggest threat to Rick in The Walking Dead history, but in this week’s episode, “Something They Need,” Negan finally gained a modicum of our empathy when he explained that there is a rhyme and reason to his barbaric methods. The man has a code. He does not kill indiscriminately. He kills for a reason: To keep his people safe.
We’ve seen hints of this in Negan’s origins story. Negan may be a sociopath, but there’s context for it. He lost so many people close to him in the immediate aftermath of the zombie apocalypse that he sought to build a community in which he’d finally be able to protect his people, even if it meant brutally killing others. Negan rules by fear, and the best way to introduce fear is by ensuring that everyone’s first impression of him is that of an unforgiving tyrant who is not afraid to murder in the cruelest, unimaginable ways. Negan killed Abraham and Glenn not for kicks, but to strike fear in the Alexandrians and ensure they fell quickly in line. He was especially cruel to Rick because — as the leader of Alexandria — he knew the best way to keep everyone pacified was by breaking the back of their leader.
He explained it to Sasha in not so many words.
First, Negan gained our favor by killing David for breaking the one hard and fast rule in the Sanctuary: There is no raping (earlier this season, Negan reiterated that nonconsensual sex was not allowed, although he fails to recognize the hypocrisy in the fact that his own wives have sex with him under duress).
Once Negan illustrates that he isn’t all bad; he uses good-cop flattery on Sasha to win her — and our — sympathy. “I get it now. You got some beach-ball sized lady nuts come in here all kamikaze like that.”
Negan respects brave, strong-willed people. It’s why he didn’t kill Carl after Carl killed two of his men.
And then Negan went in for the hard sell:
“You can help me run this place one day. All of us together. Following the rules. Working on the same side of things. That’s all this was ever about … I know it’s hard to picture considering what I did, but Sasha, we all got sh*t to get over.”
This is it: The pivot. Negan is just another version of Rick, only he has a harsher rule of law, one with better results (so far). Like Rick, all he wants is for everyone to work together for the benefit of all. It’s a socialist dictatorship. “We are not monsters,” Negan says, and while some of his actions have been monstrous, so too have Rick’s. Rick, after all, killed 20 of Negan’s men in their sleep. Negan could have killed Rick and his entire crew for that. There’s no reason he had to stop after killing Glenn and Abraham.
But again, he’s “not a monster.”
Like everyone else in the zombie apocalypse, Negan is just trying to get by. Everyone from The Governor to Gareth to Jaydis has their own leadership style. No one, so far, has been more successful at this than Negan, who has a well-fed army of people who are safe and secure and who never want for anything. All they have to give up in exchange is their freedom. Given the state of the world, it’s not a terrible exchange.
Just ask Eugene.
Negan’s pivot on The Walking Dead accomplishes a few things: It humanizes him, making it easier to root for him, or at least, makes it harder to root against him in the coming season. That allows for more conflict. More importantly, if Negan manages to survive the upcoming All Out War, it makes it possible for Negan to one day become a regular member of the Alexandrian community. Others began as enemies, after all, and it was still hard to lose them when they died (Merle being the best example). Indeed, the most interesting character on the series since the first season may be able to stick around for a few more years, and we won’t have to hate him because — after this week’s pivot — we are finally starting to understand his motivations.
