The Best and Worst ‘Walking Dead’ Characters of Season 7
Spoiler Alert
Don’t Be a Braindead Walker
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Warning! This post contains spoilers for The Walking Dead‘s Season 7 finale!
The gravity with which The Walking Dead circled back to the series’ roots made Sunday’s Season 7 finale feel almost like it could be the end of the series. Fortunately for fans, TWD is likely to keep shambling along for years to come. Maggie’s logic that Glenn saving Rick back in Atlanta set all of the series’ action in motion highlighted both what’s been lost along the way (people like Glenn) and what the characters can continue to gain by building up a united front of likeminded people (a community in which people can work for the greater good).
But before Maggie, Rick and Ezekiel can build a network of peaceful and prosperous communities, they’ll have to earn that right one more time. The end of Season 7 brought with it the beginning of the long, long, loooooong awaited open war with the Saviors. Some characters have earned their stripes since the midseason premiere, while others should have washed out during boot camp. When Season 8 rolls around later this year, characters will get plenty more chances to prove their mettle in combat, but for now, these two characters are the definitive best and worst still breathing on The Walking Dead.
This Season’s Best
Maggie
Sasha’s flashbacks to Abraham were the finale’s first of two affirmations that community gives The Walking Dead’s characters purpose. As she prepared to trade her life for a chance at giving her friends a future, Sasha thought back to a time when Abraham told her that protecting Maggie and her unborn child had a deeper meaning than surviving day to day. The episode, and the season, later capped off with a similar sequence of Maggie thinking back to the man she lost to Negan. When Glenn first saved Rick from his nasty situation in that tank, way back in episode 2, he built all of the relationships that followed. All the leadership decisions Rick has made that have led the characters to the places they are now, Maggie posits, can be traced back to Glenn’s willingness to help people.
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Now, as the de facto leader of Hilltop in Gregory’s absence, Maggie is determined to carry on Glenn’s altruistic legacy with an unwavering determination to come to the aid of those she holds dear. Her decision to bring troops to Alexandria helped to win the immediate battle, but since Glenn’s death, Maggie has also turned her sights to the more distant future, working to make the Hilltop the best community it can be throughout the upcoming war and beyond.
This Season’s Worst
Jadis
To be the worst character by such a wide margin on a show with as many questionably written characters as The Walking Dead is an astounding feat, but for Jadis, there is absolutely no contest. Richard’s convoluted plans to start a war with the Saviors, Negan’s clownish bravado, Rosita’s one-dimensional pouting, Eugene’s forced one-liners and Gregory’s repetitive cowardice pale in comparison to the sheer lazy ludicrousness of Jadis’s Thunderdome-lite mannerisms. As if all the inexplicable Neanderthal speak wasn’t enough, she also turned out to be a villain who betrayed Rick and shot him in the gut, but those were the least of her crimes against dignified storytelling. Even Negan, who is by all accounts a very bad man, and by most accounts a highly inconsistent character, labeled Jadis a Garbage Person. This description is apt in every sense.
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