The thing about Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan on The Walking Dead, is that when he first made a splash in the entertainment industry — as Denny on Grey’s Anatomy, back around the time he was dating Mary-Louise Parker — a lot of people thought he was a dead ringer for Javier Bardem. In a certain light, I can see it.
For a better likeness, try here.
However, there are also those who squint the other way and believe that Jeffrey Dean Morgan more closely resembles Brad Garrett, the hangdog older brother from Everybody Loves Raymond.
I never really understood the comparison to Brad Garrett before, but then I saw this:
That’s Negan without a beard in a preview for next week’s midseason finale. It’s not a terribly flattering look.
How does Negan end up with no beard in next week’s episode? That’s a good question, and in this case, not one that Robert Kirkman’s source material can answer because Negan never had a beard to begin with in the graphic novels. In fact, showrunner Scott Gimple and Kirkman wanted Jeffrey Dean Morgan to begin the role beardless, but as he explained on The Talking Dead earlier this year, it wasn’t possible at the time. “I was in the middle of doing a job (The Good Wife) when I came down to Atlanta to shoot that scene. Literally in the middle of an episode so I couldn’t just shave it.”
So why does Negan end up shaving in the midseason finale? My suspicion is that, after hanging out on the porch and holding baby Judith for a while, Negan decides to torture Carl and Olivia by pretending to be the the man of the house, so to speak. He makes himself right at home, asks Olivia to make him dinner, takes a shower, and goes through a domestic ritual not unlike that of Rick back in season 5, where he shaved his beard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxqaqJPpitE
After a shower and a shave, and maybe playing ball with Carl out in the backyard, Negan will sit around the family table and enjoy a meal with his pretend daughter, Judith; his pretend son, Carl; and his pretend wife, Olivia.
That looks like a dinner table well suited for a visit from Jesse Pinkman.
The mid-season finale of The Walking Dead airs this Sunday night on AMC.
