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Here's all the evidence that Walking Dead character isn't really dead
This week's episode of The Walking Dead featured the apparent death of one of the show's most beloved characters. But did it really happen? If you're not afraid of spoilers, here's the scene in question:
Surrounded by zombies, and with no clear way out, Nicholas dies from a self-inflicted gunshot. His body falls onto Glenn — a longtime fan favorite introduced at the end of the show's very first episode — who pitches backward and lands in the middle of the zombie horde. As Glenn screams, the zombies appear to be ripping out his intestines, and the camera pulls away to an overhead shot.
So how could Glenn be alive? Watch the scene again more carefully. It looks grim — but it's definitely possible that Nicholas, not Glenn, is the one the zombies are feasting upon. If his body is acting as a kind of shield, Glenn could still scramble away unscathed.
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Looking for more evidence? The biggest giveaway comes from AMC's self-cannibalizing talk show Talking Dead, which airs immediately after The Walking Dead. Every week, Talking Dead airs an In Memoriam tribute video to the characters who have died. While Nicholas received the conventional farewell, Glenn merely got a blue screen that said "Please don't let this be true" three times.
If that wasn't enough, showrunner Scott Gimple actually issued a statement about Glenn's fate (emphasis mine):
Dear fans of The Walking Dead: This is a hard story to tell, and when we were planning to tell it, we knew our friends over at Talking Dead would be talking to you about it, and knowing you'd [be] talking and feeling and commiserating, I knew we should say something about it, lest our silence say something we didn't mean to say or not say so I will say this: In some way, we will see Glenn, some version of Glenn or parts [of] Glenn again, either in flashback, or current story, to help complete the story. [via Comicbook.com]
Finally: Readers of The Walking Dead comics know that Glenn has a major role to play in some as-yet untold storylines, and actor Steven Yeun has been spotted on set opposite a character who hasn't even debuted yet. It's not quite a smoking gun, but at the very least, Walking Dead fans can hold out a little hope.
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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
