After the death of her husband Glenn, Maggie will be in no mood for Gregory’s nonsense when she finally arrives at The Hilltop.
Recently, it may have been a little easy to forget about The Hilltop on The Walking Dead. In the Season 6 finale and Season 7 premiere, we followed Rick and the other Alexandrians. After their ordeal with Negan, last week’s episode caught up with Morgan and Carol at The Kingdom.
The Hilltop is still around, though, and has an important role to play. After all, it was Rick’s agreement with Gregory, the Hilltop leader, that lead to Negan killing Glenn and Abraham. Rick went after Negan’s men in order to secure food from The Hilltop to feed the people of Alexandria.
In the Season 6 finale, the group is attempting to bring Maggie to The Hilltop when they’re pinned in by the Saviors. In the aftermath of Glenn and Abraham’s deaths, Maggie continues on foot. Sasha insists on accompanying her.
The Return of The Hilltop
Image Credit: AMC
As you can imagine, Maggie is not in a good place right now either emotionally or physically. Actor Xander Berkeley, who plays Gregory, says heads will roll when Maggie makes it to The Hilltop.
“She’s a little carried away with herself, frankly, if you ask me,” said Berkeley.
With that said, it should be obvious that we’re going to see more of The Hilltop this season. “I’m so excited to have the audience see what’s revealed in the coming episodes,” Berkeley said. “They didn’t build [the Hilltop] set for nothing! That’s a nice set. You know you’ve got great stuff coming when you walk on a set like that.”
In The Walking Dead comic books, Gregory’s weakness leads him to betray the group. He leaves The Hilltop to warn Negan about an impending attack from Rick and King Ezekiel. When he returns, he and Maggie have a violent encounter that ends with her punching him in the face. Soon thereafter, the residents of The Hilltop install Maggie as their new leader.
Even Xander Berkeley is in Shock
Of course, no conversation with a Walking Dead cast member is complete without asking about the premiere. The deaths of Glenn and Abraham were shocking. The loss of actors Steven Yeun and Michael Cudlitz was even greater for the cast.
“I had known Michael [Cudlitz],” Berkeley said. “We’d been friends. We both had done 24. We both had done standoff. We both had done other shows together before. I was so disappointed to know I was losing him because he was like my one buddy on the show but I became friends with everybody. Steven [Yeun] was such a sweetheart of a guy. Right off the bat, everybody was so nice and sweet and refreshing.”
I’m sure it was intentional, but Berkeley’s use of the phrase “right off the bat” is unfortunate.
“How could anything compare to that? That was the whole episode,” Berkeley said. “It’s almost like you’ve actually witnessed friends of yours getting killed. I can’t get it out of my head. It’s just devastating. It’s powerful storytelling because I know the aftermath, and the way in which its been writing… I think about the writing… Every episode that I read and every episode I’ve been a part of working in, as much as I’ve done, I feel so greatful that I get to do this material. There’s not a word you want to change.”
Next week, The Walking Dead will visit Daryl as he’s held by Negan and the Saviors. We should see more of Maggie, Gregory, and The Hilltop later this season.
