The Walking Dead's Angela Kang Finally Denies What Fans Secretly Feared

Contains spoilers for "The Walking Dead" Season 11, Episode 2

We're officially in the final season of "The Walking Dead," and you can be certain there will be plenty more twists and turns within this last batch of episodes. Even now, with only two episodes of Season 11 seen so far, there have been numerous changes within the dynamic of the main group as they contend with the Commonwealth. Episode 2 saw Maggie (Lauren Cohan) make the heartwrenching decision to leave Gage (Jackson Pace) behind to be consumed by walkers even though they probably could've saved him. 

It's the kind of big moment you expect out of a show's final season, but it also seems somewhat out of character for Maggie. She's come a long way since she was introduced in Season 2, but some fans were still taken aback by the moment. You just have to look across social media to see the strong reactions, like @igenmhn on Twitter, who wrote, "The Walking Dead writers did a good job at making everyone Root for Negan but now at the same time I am starting to hate Maggie."

You can find similar sentiments throughout reactions that the only way to seemingly redeem Negan is to make Maggie just as bad, if not worse, than him. Fortunately, "Walking Dead" showrunner Angela Kang has finally commented on the situation to Insider to set the record straight.

Pretty much all of the characters on "The Walking Dead" occupy a morally gray area. You almost have to in order to survive in the kind of world where monsters roam, and even your fellow man may be out to take you down. Maggie's hands aren't exactly clean, but leaving someone behind to die when there was at least a chance to save them is something that moves beyond the sinisterness we've seen from her in past seasons. The move wasn't lost on Insider that asked showrunner Angela Kang if it was an intentional decision to vilify Maggie, to which she responded, "It's a great question about Maggie and Negan. It's not our intention to really make her a villain to make Negan shine."

Later in the episode, Maggie tells a story about how she did something similar prior to her introduction, where she killed some other survivors so that there would be enough food for her and Herschel (Scott Wilson). It's all been a gradual progression to where her mental state is now, and Kang goes on to explain, "Negan may have moved a little bit more towards Maggie, but I think Maggie, as a result of the things that she faced out on the road, has moved a little bit towards Negan."

Still, even if Maggie has gotten more villainous in recent episodes, fans likely prefer her over Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). After all, his introduction included the death of Maggie's husband Glenn (Steven Yeun), so many viewers still have bad tastes in their mouths any time he comes on-screen. Call us crazy, but between Maggie and Negan, we have a feeling only one of them will make it out of the series finale alive.