What Happened To Maggie Greene On The Walking Dead?

Maggie Greene, played by Lauren Cohan, is introduced in Season 2 of "The Walking Dead" when the group of survivors arrive at a farm. Her family has a more sympathetic approach to the walkers, choosing to imprison them in their barn rather than kill them, much to the horror of the others. She and her family have holed up on their land, aren't quite clear what's happening around them, and are a bit naive to what the other survivors have faced.

Over the course of the series, Maggie goes from an unsure young woman to someone willing to do whatever it takes to protect those she loves. She is one half of arguably the best love story on "The Walking Dead," and that plays a role in how Maggie's life changes and how she reacts to the expanding world and those she comes into contact with. While Maggie may harden over time, she never lets that shake her morality as she shows mercy and patience to those who earn it.

After Maggie's family property burns to the ground at the end of Season 2, the survivors are forced to look for another place to call home. She decides to go with the group, ending up on the road with Glenn (Steven Yeun), so she starts her journey from an isolated, religious farm girl to becoming a strong community leader, walker fighter, and amazing mother.

The survivors are on the road for a full winter before discovering the Prison. They dispose of the walkers still there and make it their new community. However, when Merle (Michael Rooker) finds Maggie and Glenn during a supply run, he takes them to the nearby town Woodbury and turns them over to the Governor (David Morrissey). The militant leader wants the resources that the Prison offers for himself and pumps them for information. Maggie reveals the location of the Prison but only to save Glenn. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) rescues the pair, but their kidnapping is the start of the war between the Prison and Woodbury.

The ensuing conflict happens in two waves: When the Governor first tries to invade the prison at the end of Season 3, his army won't fight, and he instead turns against them. The Prison takes in survivors, and all seems well, until the Governor returns with a willing army in Season 4. As part of the second battle, her father Hershel (Scott Wilson) is kidnapped and later killed when Rick refuses to just hand over the Prison. Maggie fights in the battle, which does kill the Governor, but destroys the prison and forces the group out onto the road again.

There were positives for Maggie during this time, though. After their rescue, Glenn proposes to Maggie, and the two consider themselves married shortly after. When a contagion passes through the Prison, Maggie helps keep Glenn alive, even when they're overrun by walkers. She even floats the idea of having a child, believing the Prison to be a safe environment to try, and while the couple believes they're pregnant at one point, that ends up not coming to fruition.

While out on the road again, Maggie and Glenn are separated into different groups. Though they weren't apart for long, they were immediately put into peril again after they are imprisoned at Terminus at the end of Season 4. Originally designed as a safe community, people who took over Terminus turned it into something more sinister, including cannibalizing other survivors they came across. Thanks to some explosives, the group made it out alive in Season 5. Up to now, Maggie has experienced plenty of trauma, from the death of her father to being kidnapped by the Governor, and then almost being killed and eaten by fellow survivors.

After Terminus, Maggie loses the only remaining family she has left: her sister Beth (Emily Kinney). After Beth's death, it becomes clear Maggie isn't as religious as she was when she was introduced in Season 2, and that both her time in the apocalypse and what she's experienced have hardened her. It's the turning point for her behavior later on in the series, which is why she's willing to take chances later on.

The survivor's next home is Alexandria, a community part of the Alexandria Safe Zone near Washington D.C. Once there, Maggie settles in well, helping plant food crops and finding her place now that they aren't constantly on their toes. Being in Alexandria is the most comfortable the group has been in a while, but it doesn't protect them from invaders like the Wolves and walker hoards. As Maggie becomes more comfortable in this new chapter, she and Glenn settle down more, and she becomes pregnant. However, life changes again when she gets sick and the group tries to take her to Hilltop for help at the end of Season 6.

The trip to Hilltop becomes treacherous when Maggie and others are kidnapped by the Saviors, a group led by iconic "The Walking Dead" villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). This leads to one of the most brutal deaths of the series at the start of Season 7, when Glenn is killed. His death spurs Maggie into a state of revenge, wanting to kill Negan and the Saviors in retaliation. It's not the first time she has a drive to kill someone for personal gain, but this time, it's laced with the hurt from the deaths of her family.

The Saviors then try to take over more of the communities, like Alexandria and Hilltop, just like other antagonists the survivors have dealt with before. Maggie helps Hilltop in the fight throughout Seasons 7 and 8, and despite her ruthlessness when it comes to Negan, she shows mercy for members of the Saviors who surrender or defect. But when the battle is won, she isn't the one with the final say over what happens to Negan, and she's upset with Rick's decision to imprison him rather than kill him. At this point, she hasn't given up on her revenge plan, and Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Jesus (Tom Payne) are in on it with her. 

She stays at Hilltop after everything, helping build the community up and planting literal roots for herself when she buries Glenn there. During the time jump between Seasons 8 and 9, she gives birth to her son, naming him Hershel, after her late father. When she's elected leader over the current leader, Gregory (Xander Berkeley), in Season 9, she has to resort to executing him when he tries to assassinate her. He was never an effective leader, and Maggie's leadership in the war only solidified that to Hilltop residents.

However, at a point, Maggie decides to go back out on the road and help other communities like she did Hilltop. While she has healed some and is still the kind and caring person audiences know her to be, she initially won't visit Alexandria because Negan is still imprisoned there, and she has not let go of her anger over Glenn's death.

However, after she does see Negan in his cell, she begins to understand Rick's logic in making the villain live with his actions, and while she isn't any less upset over the death of her husband, she begins to let go of the idea that killing Negan will make her feel better. Rick's "death" in Season 9 helps her come to terms with several things, including that she feels partially responsible for what happens to Rick, because she was unwilling to let go of her plan for revenge. While the communities beat the Saviors, there's still tension among them, which factors into Maggie's decision to step down as the leader of Hilltop.

In Season 8, Maggie is introduced to Georgie (Jayne Atkinson), an individual part of a group with the intention to spread useful information to help with society's growth and rebuild after the apocalypse and make connections with other communities. In Season 9, she leaves Hilltop with Hershel (Peyton Lockridge) to help Georgie and her group with their mission, presumably traveling on the road regularly and learning more about the current state of the world. This is how Maggie exits the series for the majority of Seasons 9 and 10.

When Maggie returns in Season 10, she reads a letter from Carol (Melissa McBride) that outlines the issues the communities are having with the Whisperers, and she comes back to help them fight. She doesn't discuss what she did on the road with Georgia while she was gone, so that remains a mystery, though "The Walking Dead: Dead City" could reveal what she was up to.

With her official return in Season 11, she begins to have a tentative acquaintanceship with Negan. While he killed the leader of the Whisperers, Alpha (Samantha Morton), during the battle, there's still tension as he opens up about how he should've killed them all when he had the chance. Though his honesty is an attempt to get on some common ground, Maggie doesn't open up and makes it clear she still holds quite a bit of hostility toward him.

After Maggie takes back the reins of Hilltop and has to fight the Commonwealth, she and Negan's relationship takes a turn in a new direction. He helps significantly in the battle, despite being a resident of the community, and because of these actions, and his new wife and child on the way, Maggie recognizes he's a changed man. As "The Walking Dead" comes to a close, she continues to lead Hilltop, determined to let go of her anger for her son's sake.