When Rick lost his wife Lori on The Walking Dead, he continued to see her in delirious visions. Could the same trick bring back Glenn and Abraham?
By now, fans everywhere have had time to process and react to the deaths of Glenn and Abraham. Both characters met their untimely demise at the hands of Negan in Sunday’s Walking Dead premiere.
Fans may remember though, that for one major death on the show, the end wasn’t really the end. After Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) died, she continued to appear to Rick for a while. At the time, Rick was losing his grasp on reality and began having visions of Lori.
The Ghosts of Abraham and Glenn
The Walking Dead (Credit: AMC)
Could a similar circumstance bring Glenn or Abraham back to the show? The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln weighed in on that very subject.
“The legacy they leave on the show will absolutely be there,” said Lincoln. “The echoes of their death will haunt these characters until the show finishes. But that kind of question is above my imagination, I just say the words and show up! Both of those characters and both of those actors carved such heart, humor, love, gallantry and honor — they both embodied those characteristics. It’s a devastating loss but when I said the same to [showrunner] Scott M. Gimple] when we lost Hershel (Scott Wilson) and I missed him terribly. I said the same thing this season and Scott said, ‘That’s the point.’”
The Loss of Friends
There’s no doubt The Walking Dead will never be the same without Glenn or Abraham. For Andrew Lincoln, though, it also means the loss of two very dear friends.
“I can only talk on a personal level because this show is so personal to me,” said Lincon. “Losing Michael, he’s a soldier and leader in his own right and is a vastly experienced and talented actor that when he was on set, brought energy and professionalism and great humor. Losing him was a terrible body blow but to lose Steven, the prospect of coming back another season without my friend makes that prospect a lot less appealing. That’s how seismic losing Steven is. He’s one of my best friends. Period. He’s also a founding father of the show. He knows what was required to make the show and has given every ounce of sweat to the show and grew up on the show. To lose my friend and another great leader is awful and has left a shadow over the set and the story. But it’s the story we’re telling. We’re telling a much bigger story than we have for the last few years. It feels like we’ve jumped into the deep end of the pool now.”
A Glimmer of Hope
One question that many viewers have wondered is “what next?”. How does Rick move on from this catastrophic event?
“This is the lowest point in a whole calendar of bad days in the zombie apocalypse, this is Rick’s worst,” said Lincoln. “It’s going to take an enormous amount for him to recover — and everybody else to recover — from this devastating double blow of grief and trauma. There’s a great Nelson Mandela quote that has been bouncing around in my head the whole season: ‘The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.’”
