Viewers of AMC's The Walking Dead finally got a look at the reformed Negan's history, including that with his now-deceased wife Lucille. Hilarie Burton, who plays Lucille on the recent "Here's Negan" episode -- and is also Jeffrey Dean Morgan's real-world wife -- explains the nature of her character's death from the extended Season 10 finale, and why Lucille took her own life after her cancer diagnosis.
"I think she's a really bright woman," Burton told Entertainment Weekly. "I think the second she was diagnosed, she did a whole bunch of internet research, like any of us would. She knew what was coming. Even though she was going through the motions of treatment, she absolutely knew what was coming and had indulged Negan's fantasy that everything was going to be okay, but they'd reached the end."
In the flashback episode, Lucille is diagnosed with cancer prior to the zombie outbreak. As the apocalypse worsens, Negan locates Franklin, a physician traveling with his daughter Laura who has a stash of chemotherapy medicine. But Negan's return home is delayed after being captured by a group of bikers wanting to know where he got the medicine.
Negan buys his release by betraying Franklin and Laura, but by the time he returns home, Lucille had already taken her own life, but has transformed into one of the undead. After agonizing over her passing, Negan sets their house ablaze and rescues the father and daughter, killing the bikers in the process.
"Rather than force him to make a hard decision, or force him to watch something that would be unbearable," Burton continued, "She made a very difficult decision and took it out of his hands. Which, man, there's so many layers to that decision, but being human is tough sometimes. Yeah, these two are an example of that. Everything is tough for these two."
Lucille's suicide, though, ultimately didn't free Negan from the decision to put down his now-undead wife. The episode didn't show Negan making that fateful decision, unless he believed that the fire would destroy her reanimated form.
"Here's Negan" is loosely based on the collected Here's Negan! comic from 2017, which detailed the origin of the character in the Image Comics series.
The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Lauren Cohan, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews. The series returns for its 11th and final season Aug. 22 on AMC.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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