Warning: This article contains spoilers about Sunday’s “The Lucky Ones” episode ofThe Walking Dead.
That Negan line-up cliffhanger.
The zombie drama has never shied away from contentious subject matter.
Margot Bingham on ‘The Walking Dead’.Josh Stringer/AMC
“No… no pineapple.
I’m serious, Jerry.
Pineapple on pizza makes no sense.”
Khary Payton on ‘The Walking Dead’.Josh Stringer/AMC
Have such scandalous words ever been said on primetime television?
Suffice it to say, the executive producer did not mince words.
“Disgusting,” responds Kang.
Josh Hamilton on ‘The Walking Dead’.Josh Stringer/AMC
“I didn’t write that line, but I was like, I thoroughly agree.
It’s an abomination.
Why mix these two things?
I don’t understand it.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Explain what happened here with Max and how she got swapped out for Fake Stephanie/Shira.
How did it happen on the Commonwealth side of things?
I think that legitimately Max was feeling adrift.
She was looking for something more, wishing for adventure.
She has this mind that is bent towards engineering and just geeky things like Eugene [Josh McDermitt].
And so she makes this radio and starts calling out.
I think she legitimately fell in love with this voice over the radio.
She was going to go out there.
Nobody knew that Hornsby just pulled this move.
And so for Max, she’s been existing in this state of, “What is even happening?
Am I actually in danger?
Does somebody know that that was actually me?
I should keep my head down because my brother’s saying so.
He seems to be happy with her.”
And for Max, she’s just baffled and scared and is waiting for the right time to emerge.
What happened, then, when Mercer found the radio equipment?
What did he do?
Did he bring that to Hornsby and say, “We have a breach”?
Or did he stay silent about it?
No, we think that people were probably monitoring.
All they knew was there was [a] breach.
But I think Hornsby had his hands all in that from the beginning.
So, Mercer and Max are really the only people at this point that know it was her.
The others do not, right?
What do you make of Ezekiel not wanting to cheat by skipping the line on his cancer treatment?
Should he just kind of get over it, which I suppose he ultimately does?
For Ezekiel, we didn’t want to make it easy for him.
So, there’s going to be a lot of health issues to deal with.
There’s a lot of surgeries.
There’s a lot of old wounds that need care.
There’s the normal diseases you’d have.
And for someone like Ezekiel, he has no pull.
There’s nobody to jump into the front of the line.
We’ve seen that play out even throughout the pandemic and when the vaccines were first available.
And then it somehow started to resonate more with us.
And I don’t think he wants to.
But just think about that.”
So, that’s where Ezekiel’s headspace is coming out of this episode.
It’s possible I pitched it, but it definitely was a room discussion.
And so she, in her own way, is trapped into a job because that’s her legacy.
And if you’re in that world, you rub elbows with people that are in high places.
Because if her father was a president, then Deanna definitely was in their sphere as a family.
Let’s get into this stuff at the end.
I think there were a few things that happened for Maggie.
The two things she’s weighing is, “Wow, my people are really struggling.
I’m really struggling.
We could use this help, and all of the rest of my friends have taken it.
So, why am I being too stubborn?”
So, that’s running through her head the whole time.
Like, “They don’t seem terrible people.
Our friends are doing okay.”
So, she is leaning towards it.
But she has this conversation with Pamela, and realizes that they have very, very different worldviews.
So, there’s that, but at the same time they actuallydolike and respect each other.
That’s the thing that throws Maggie.
On the one hand it’s, “Wow.
We could use this.”
So, she’s thinking about that as somebody who’s been a war leader.
And she’s looking at Daryl falling in with these troopers.
And she is thinking about the cost to these things.
But every decision comes with a cost too.
Because she loses some people.
She loses a little bit of the trust of some of the people that she’s looking out for.
And it also means they’re going to keep struggling.
What about from the other side of it?
But yet, then she does allow him to keep pursuing it.
All things in the political sphere are complex.
So, I think it just speaks to how complicated their relationship is.
So what’s up with that final scene of him shooting the zombies in the face?
What is that saying?
Is it strictly about power over controlling these communities for him?
For Hornsby, he’s an ambitious guy.
I think he’s a guy who likes a certain element of risk or gambling.
And for him, he’s frustrated by the limitations on him.
The Commonwealth is a place that says what you were really defines who you are.
And he feels like he’s bumping up against some ceiling with his ambitions.
And he has bigger dreams.
I think all the things he says to Maggie, they’re not a lie.
He does imagine a future where everything’s interconnected.
I think various people might disagree on how you get there, though.
So, that’s the essence of Hornsby.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
