Why Negan Killed Glenn On The Walking Dead

Few characters in "The Walking Dead" universe are more morally complex than Negan Smith (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), especially when viewed through the eyes of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and his crew. No moment seems to better encapsulate the sociopathic murderer side of Negan than the brutal (and graphic) killing of Glenn (Steven Yeun) right in front of his wife Maggie (Lauren Cohan). That is, until you look at the whole thing from Negan's point of view and see that he chose to kill Glenn (a comic canon event necessary to the overall story of "The Walking Dead") to avoid further bloodshed.

It is true that the guy was solidly in his villain arc as the leader of the Saviors, with a laundry list of bad behavior that included oppressing the locals, ironing his people's faces, and forcibly taking "wives." Daryl (Norman Reedus), Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) were well within their rights to fight off Bud (Christopher Berry) and his "d*** brigade" in "Start to Finish." But when Rick and his crew attacked the Saviors' satellite outpost, killing Negan's people in their sleep, it was a major (and arguably unwarranted) escalation, even if the Alexandria Safe Zone was low on food. 

Negan would set out to retaliate, killing Abraham to send a message and demoralize Rick's people. From his perspective, choosing a single high-value target was less costly to all involved than a further escalation of bloodshed. He likely added Glenn to the hit list when Rick's crew fought him over the directive to choose a sacrifice, realizing that the emotional loss of Glenn might land hard enough to keep Rick's people from further retaliation.

Although Negan's decision to kill Glenn would pay off temporarily, this "Walking Dead" death would go too far, even in star Andrew Lincoln's opinion. The murder proved to be a gross miscalculation on Negan's part and eventually led to the downfall of the Saviors altogether. The brutal killing of Abraham and Glenn fueled the Alexandrians' need for revenge and ignited their resentment against the Saviors' oppressive rule. Whereas the other groups forced to pay supplies to the Saviors had accepted the grift, Glenn and Abraham's deaths provided the impetus for Rick's crew to form a coalition between multiple communities. By working together, they ultimately brought down the Saviors. 

Although this seems like righteous justice when told from Rick's perspective, it's worth noting that Negan originally planned to repay the Alexandrians' slaying of their men with just one sacrifice. Negan would later tell Maggie in "Promises Broken," "You think I don't understand the losing side of a massacre? ... Those men, they had friends. They had girlfriends. People that felt a loss that I couldn't heal. And I had to explain to them why their leader failed to protect them."

Whether or not he ever comes to truly regret the decision to kill Glenn on a personal level is an untold truth only Negan truly knows, since his own level of culpability for the heartbreaking death seems to ebb and flow throughout the series depending on his own mental state. In "Rest in Peace," Negan tells Maggie, "I am so sorry for what I took from you and what I took from your son." But at other times, he insists he isn't the bad guy, that no one is in this world they live in, and he goes to great lengths to excuse his decision or claim that she might have done the same in his shoes. 

Regardless of whether he would take it back if he could, this decision haunts Negan for years throughout his complicated relationship with Maggie. The fact that they keep crossing paths doesn't seem to help things, especially since Maggie, understandably, can't seem to move past the fact that this man beat her husband to death in front of her eyes. Things escalate even further in "Dead City" when Maggie stabs Negan in the back, although she ultimately spares him and agrees to work together with him by the end of Season 2.