The Walking Dead Episode That Steven Yeun Said Stayed With Him 'For Good' Was Actually Foreshadowing the Saddest Death of the Series

To this day, one of The Walking Dead's most controversial moments in both the comics and television show is Glenn's death. Glenn died in Issue #100 of the comics and Season 7, Episode 1, "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be," in the same exact, brutal way. Rick's group gets cornered by the Saviors, and as a way to show Rick that he meant business, Negan sat the survivors on their knees and played a game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe to pick his victim. Glenn is bludgeoned to death (alongside Abraham in the TV show) by Negan's barbed-wire bat, Lucille. It became one of the most talked-about moments in television history, one that made a lot of Walking Dead fans quit the show for good. But for those who stuck around, even rewatching the series in its earliest moments made the death so much more upsetting.

The Walking Dead saw characters come and go for years in horrific manners, most of them being fan favorites. What was so different about Glenn? Listing off all the reasons could take about as long as it took for The Walking Dead to finally shut its doors, at least for the main series. But the two main reasons are that Glenn was one of the few remaining characters from Season 1 who still represented goodness, and that he was brilliantly played by Steven Yeun. The Walking Dead community has a bit of a nostalgia curse due to its steady decrease in quality in later seasons, which sees fans reminiscing on the good old days when the writing was tight, and the atmosphere was crisp. It makes sense why the death of Glenn hit people so hard; he was one of the last memories of that cherished time. Yeun himself even considers his first episode on-screen in Season 1 as his favorite (according to a 2015 article), and it features a devastating line that foreshadows Rick's failure to do right by Glenn.

The Walking Dead's Second Episode Was the Beginning of Rick and Glenn's Tragic Friendship

When asked by Entertainment Weekly what his favorite episode of The Walking Dead was, Yeun chose Season 1, Episode 2, "Guts." While he was technically featured in the pilot episode in a voice-over, "Guts" was when Glenn was actually introduced. He helps Rick escape from the tank surrounded by walkers in the middle of Atlanta and brings him back to his scavenging group in a department store. While finding safety, Rick inquires why Glenn stuck his neck out to save him. "Call it foolish, naïve hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me," Glenn responds. "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you."

The rescue was definitely dangerous by normal apocalyptic standards for seasoned survivors, so viewers can imagine what Glenn was risking by saving Rick from that tank. But without Glenn's altruism, the story of The Walking Dead wouldn't exist. Rick wouldn't have helped the group leave Atlanta, and in turn they wouldn't have taken him to their camp where Lori and Carl were residing. Rick would've never become a leader who helped build communities and saved lives. That was all because of Glenn's one act of kindness.

“Episode 2 of the whole series — that one stayed with me for good. That was awesome. To have the first meeting between Glenn and Rick. To being covered in guts, running down the street, being chased by walkers, jumping over the fence. Doing all that action stuff and really getting to know Glenn as a character and really kind of bringing Rick and the rest of the group together. That was a blast. That’s definitely one of my favorite episodes.”

Glenn obviously lived to tell the tale of the dumpster incident, but not long after, he died at Negan's hands. The death was obviously hard on his pregnant wife Maggie, as well as Daryl, who felt responsible. But Glenn's murder resonated differently for Rick. He felt like he failed Glenn, who had always looked out for Rick. And that's not just referring to Glenn saving Rick's life in the tank. Glenn helped Lori during the early months of her pregnancy when she was still deciding whether to keep the baby or not. When Lori died and Rick was experiencing a breakdown, Glenn stepped up as the leader of the prison group. Whenever people disagreed with Rick, either at the farm, the prison or Alexandria, Glenn had his back. To say Rick owed Glenn was a massive understatement.

Glenn's Death Was Roughly Cemented by the Time of "Guts"

Unfortunately, that's what makes Glenn's first conversation with Rick so much more tragic. Glenn didn't save Rick with an ulterior motive, but he did it hoping that someone else would've done the same for him. But when that time came, Rick couldn't save Glenn. It doesn't mean Rick was at fault. Deflecting any responsibility from the true guilty party, Negan, is what makes the villain's redemption arc toxic. But it's natural for Rick to blame himself. In Rick's mind, if he had never infiltrated the Saviors' compound and encouraged Glenn to make his first human kill, then maybe Glenn would still be alive. And that was the difference between Rick and Glenn in the latter character's final season: Rick killed first to avoid trouble, but Glenn wanted to save and protect rather than kill. Glenn was true to himself until the very end.

That being said, Glenn's answer to Rick as to why he saved him in the tank probably wasn't intentionally written to foreshadow his future demise. In fact, that episode was released two years before Glenn's death in Issue #100. However, Robert Kirkman (creator of The Walking Dead comics) originally intended to kill Glenn in Issue #75:

“For whatever reason, I’d earmarked Glenn for death by this point. He just seemed like the character most ripe, whose death would lead to the most story… but Glenn would most certainly NOT die next as I would continue to change my mind… again… and again.”

Clearly, Glenn's death had been rattling around in Kirkman's mind for around 10 issues at that point and Issue #75 was published only a few months before The Walking Dead premiered on AMC. The biggest moment in the comic book's run was probably on Kirkman's radar when adapting the TV series, but who knows if Glenn's line to Rick was a clever nod to that since Frank Darabont was the one who penned "Guts." But Kirkman has said that it felt a "little weird" when he finally wrote Glenn's death, because there was an element of humanness attached to his character. It was the first time Kirkman wrote a big death since the characters were adapted for television with human counterparts, but he pushed on, believing it was something the story needed.

Glenn's Good Deed in "Guts" Is Exactly Why He Had to Die

To Kirkman's credit, as much as people hate Glenn's death, it was a necessary step The Walking Dead could take to move forward. Glenn affected every character in one way or another; eliminating him would inevitably change the course of their stories. For that reason, it was one of the plotlines Kirkman didn't want to change from the comics to the TV show, aside from killing Abraham as well. His death put forth Maggie's arc as the widow who led Hilltop into war while pregnant and fundamentally changed how Rick approached his role as a leader and friend.

The death of Abraham on the TV show simply wasn't enough to spark such a rage in the characters and viewers. The only other character in the comics in the line-up (which featured Rick, Carl, Glenn, Maggie, Sophia, Michonne and Heath) whose death could've led to such an outrage would've been Michonne. But there was little chance Kirkman would've ever killed off a warrior in that fashion. The Walking Dead needed a character that represented innocence to make Negan all the more menacing.

But for Rick, he never forgot that fateful day and what it meant to lose Glenn. In Season 7, Episode 12, "Say Yes," Rick shares his regrets with Michonne about not being able to save Glenn's life like his deceased friend once did for him. So, while "Guts" might be remembered as the fond episode that introduced one of the most endearing dynamics of The Walking Dead, it's probably also the one that Rick shamefully looks back on the most.