glenn-eaten

Yvette Nicole Brown appeared on ‘Talking Dead’ earlier this season and pointed out what most viewers missed regarding the character Glenn Rhee, that he’d never killed a living human on the show.  Glenn has long been the Mister Nice Guy of the core group of survivors, but with all the bloodshed involving not just walkers but humans, it’s hard to keep track of who killed whom.  But this information made the character’s questionable fate all the more excruciating when he appeared to be killed during the first half of Season Six.

So why hasn’t Glenn taken a human life?  Has he, like Morgan, chosen consciously to never take a human life?  Or has it just been a matter of circumstance?

Steven Yeun addressed that question recently, pointing out that his character’s wife Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) “surprise” pregnancy may be a factor:

“If you go look back at that moment in the beginning of the season when Glenn says, “You know, you should be here, watch over this place, because we’re not,” I forget Maggie’s exact line, but it alludes to the fact that they’re living for somebody else as well.

maggie-GlennIf you watch the first eight episodes painting that picture over it, Glenn does everything because of that. Everything Glenn does is because of the kid that’s on the way, be it down to even saving Enid, even pressing her to come back with him. You know, why would he do that? And he mentions Maggie and he mentions that she would have done it, and then he mentions that he is doing it for himself. But I think, ultimately, what he’s trying to get at is that he’s trying to build a world for his kid that can be as close to what he grew up in as possible, that can have hope to be some sort of secured, stable environment.

And part of that is echoing from the last season, the idea that sometimes we can be out there too long, and that we can completely lose ourselves. And to that extent as well, there’s the fact that Glenn has not killed another human being as of yet, and it’s not from a place of Glenn saying, “I can never do that,” but it’s more along the lines of Glenn has not faced a situation where he’s been forced to. And if he isn’t forced to, he chooses not to, because I think for him, he’s trying to preserve a part of himself to say that anything that I do, I want to be able to look my kid in the eye and say, “Hey, I lived this way, and I’m still here. So you can live this way, and you can still be here as well.” I think everything’s kind of a prep for this kid, and so, yeah, I mean, that’s kind of where they’re at right now with the baby.”

So yes, the fact that Glenn hasn’t killed a human before is partially circumstance.  He hasn’t been put in the position where his hand was forced to take that action.  But as well know, one of the worst baddies from the comic books, Negan will be making his debut in coming episodes.  Will things become more extreme for Glenn?  Will he have to make this hard decision?

What would you like to see in the upcoming episodes?

Source: Entertainment Weekly