WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 12, “The Lucky Ones,” which aired Sunday, March 13 on AMC.
The Commonwealth is making its way around the treasured communities of The Walking Dead, but while Aaron entrusts Alexandria in its hands to make renovations, Maggie relies on her independence to make Hilltop glorious again.
Maggie’s time as a leader arose after the death of her husband, Glenn, in Season 7 when she resided at Hilltop and feuded with Hilltop’s then leader, Gregory, over how to deal with the Saviors. She may have become popular amongst Hilltop’s people around that time, but she showed great leadership skills even before then. While Hershel may have been the eldest and wisest of his farm in Season 2, Maggie was shown to be more forthcoming with her opinions and actions, making her a force to be reckoned with.
Maggie stayed quiet and in the background for a while when Rick took over for the majority of the series, but he even suggested she take up more authoritative duties in Season 6 when arriving to Hilltop for the first time. Her selflessness and care for the people of Hilltop is what made her appealing to the off-screen Hilltop election between the Season 8 finale and Season 9 premiere, and she outvoted Gregory by a landslide. But sometime in the six-year time jump after Rick’s disappearance, Maggie leaves Hilltop (and may very well do so again in her future spin-off) in Jesus’ hands as she helps Georgie build other communities, and doesn’t return until after the Whisperer War.
Some might think of her choice in departing her own community as selfish, and while it’s partially true, she didn’t just leave them high and dry. Jesus was a good, but reluctant, leader until his death along with Tara’s, which drove Maggie back to her hometown… only to find it burnt to the ground after a battle against the Whisperers. Now Maggie must pick up the pieces she left behind, and she takes full responsibility for it like any good leader would. But when the Commonwealth comes along with an inviting solution to her problem, she denies it. Is it stubbornness, or can she smell something fishy about the Commonwealth?
It seems to be a little bit of both. Maggie has been through some tough times on the road during her absence, and has become more of a hardened survivor that has little trust to give anymore. With her many experiences, Maggie is able to read Pamela Milton like a book, seeing that her classicism is what defines her as a leader. Maggie has no interest in developing Hilltop into what the Commonwealth is, despite its many luxuries that Lance proposes. Sure, a university and modern medicine sound appealing, but at what cost? The answer lies with a small detail in Mercer’s army.
After negotiating with Pamela and Lance, Maggie seems to be on the brink of accepting their offer, but notices a strict routine that Mercer runs through with his army. Mercer demands his soldiers to form a line in a very militant fashion, which Daryl takes a part of now that he’s a Commonwealth soldier, and is evident in a time-jump that puts their friendship in a rough spot. Maggie’s face says it all — if Daryl can fall easily under the Commonwealth’s spell, then Hilltop is doomed if she accepts this offer. Maggie would rather risk a long and difficult journey to rebuild Hilltop than lose the independence she fought so hard for during the conflict with the Saviors.
Her final decision to remain independent from the Commonwealth isn’t favored by many. Diane, who is extremely loyal to Maggie, leaves Hilltop to join the Commonwealth because she feels Maggie made the wrong choice. Pamela isn’t exactly thrilled with her decision either, because it means Oceanside won’t join either. Maggie has few people left to help her, but she may have saved her community in the long-run. Alexandria will be up and running in no time thanks to the Commonwealth’s help, but how soon will it be until Aaron has no say in how things are controlled in Alexandria?
Hopefully, Maggie’s choice will pay off in the end. Right now, she could use all the help she can get, but even years deep into the apocalypse with a civilization as advanced as the Commonwealth, survivors must stay on top of their intuition. But even if it ends badly for the Hilltop, Maggie made her decision for the better of her people and her community, which ranks her high among the leaders that have appeared in the series.
To see where Maggie and the Hilltop go from here, watch The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 12 on AMC+. New episodes of The Walking Dead air every Sunday at 9 pm ET, and are available to stream a week early on AMC+.
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