***SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!***

Haters gonna hate hate hate…

But I could care less you skeptics.

I knew it in my heart that Glenn is still ALIVE!!!!!!

Take a look at my own personal instagram campaign if you will, as I wrote Glenn on my wrist/hand for the past 4 weeks, in hopes that he’d be back with us soon. Captioning each picture “I got you babe.” Because my heart knew he was still alive. I know, #psychofan, but I take this shit seriously, no shame. Judge me. 😉

I had to do something special to show my love for him. It served as my #goodluckcharm. I’d like to think I had a hand in the outcome 😉 haha.

As Sunday night’s Episode 7 entitled “Heads Up” of The Walking Dead finally revealed what we’ve been waiting to hear for the past 4 weeks, your girl was dancing and jumping around, screaming in her living room. Yup, I was in with the fans waiting on that dumpster, with no shame.

Today in honor of Green Balloons for Glenn (we’ll get to that,) you guessed it, I wore green to support my boys future homecoming!

Let’s break down the episode, Nicolas was in deed Glenn’s shield and protection. Well at least he was good for something in the end. Sorry Nicolas, but you know what you did. You tried to kill Glenn and mess with the well-being of the group too many times to be greatly missed. But I do think he in some way was meant to help Glenn to make up for everything. Terrible outcome, but definitely sparked a conversation.

People had their jokes about us believers.

Saying we were crazy, saying there was no way that he could survive that zombie infested alley.

And although I admit it unrealistic that he did, Glenn has always been one resourceful dude. And he’s maintained his humanity but still manages to escape the craziest of situations.

The mind games the cast and creators of the show were playing with us, gave us little solace. Like the ambiguity they were throwing out “you saw what you saw,” “Glenn will come back in some way.” Maggie revealing she is pregnant. Removing his name from the credits. (Well his name is back baby! Right in its rightful place near the pocket watch Hershel gave him.) It’s been a crazy and emotional ride.

But as usual fans like us…we knew better, we had faith and we believed.

It was an interesting journey as the episode started we see a black screen and we hear the words “Thank You” uttered by Nicolas accompanied by the gunshot and the piercing feedback from it, as we are brought back to the alley of walkers that cornered both he and Glenn. We watch as Nicolas falls onto Glenn and it is he who is being ripped apart and shielding Glenn from any actual bites. Glenn slides his way up under the dumpster and takes cover, killing the nearest zombie forming a shield. And after waiting out the herd, for what seems like a day, he emerges with only a couple bumps and bruises. I have to say I thought he was going to at least have been bitten and that he would in turn need to chop off a limb. But he was A-Okay…which makes me thrilled.

The rest of the episode we see Glenn come across Enid, as she throws him a bottle of water. He goes after her to try and ask how everyone back home in Alexandria is doing. He asks what the noise was that swayed the herd, he asks about Maggie. I swear every time he calls Maggie his wife, my heart flutters a bit. It’s kind of the sweetest thing to hear him say that.

Throughout Glenn and Enid’s storyline we see the dad in Glenn come out. As he battles with her to come back to Alexandria with him. Saying things like “my wife wouldn’t want me to leave you.” Fighting her and her nasty attitude and even pulling a gun off her after she points it directly at him, because she doesn’t want him to try and save or help her. We get it Enid you’re a teenager, but chill with the dramatics, because it’s the zombie apocalypse and ain’t nobody got time for that. Shit needs to get done. Glenn said it best, “You point a gun at my head and I’m the asshole.” Haha Glenn you are going to make one awesome dad. He later mentions that he’s helping her not for Maggie anymore, but for what I can only assume is himself and the child he is about to have and its future. He goes on to tell Enid that they are not supposed to let the world die, and that you honor the dead (the people they’ve lost) by living.

We are brought to Maggie’s journey simultaneously as she takes watch overlooking the gate, waiting, hoping for a sign. She mentions that “this is the direction he would come from, and that if he were to send a sign, she’d see it from up there.” Rick joins her and gives her hope that she’s right. Maggie even makes mention to Judith and how she looks so much like Lori, her motherly instincts are already kicking in! As the episode continues on, we see Enid and Glenn try and find their way home, as they come to a hill overlooking Alexandria and the walker count keeps going up. Glenn and Enid accumulate quite a large amount of Green Balloons that were from the initial distract the walkers plan and use them to send up as a signal to Maggie and the rest of the group that he is out there and trying to get home. Maggie sees them and goes running, telling Rick “that’s Glenn.” This moment made my heart burst. I am a sucker for the Glenn/Maggie love story from that first moment he saw her riding on her horse in season 2.

This brings me to my next order of business. Now I don’t read the comics, I’d rather not spoil the show for myself. But in some shape or form the show does follow the comics at times. And in the comics, Glenn does in fact die. And he dies by the hand of a Savior named Negan who takes a bat to his head. It’s said to be one of the comic’s craziest scenes and deaths. And it was recently reported (during the emotional wreck we had to endure….seriously strategic timing) that Negan was cast and will be played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. So there’s still that fear that Glenn’s death can only be a season away. Which would be hellish and quite frankly down right evil, for them to dangle that hope in front of us only to rip it away. But I guess that’s how things roll in the zombie apocalypse. But I will in no way shape or form be okay with that. Let it be known, I don’t want to go through this again.

There is another fear, hanging over our heads as well. And that fear is that something could happen to Maggie, in some twisted original death tradeoff.  As we see in the end of Sunday’s episode the watch tower comes crashing down, breaking their wall of protection down and allowing the walkers full access into Alexandria. No one is safe. And Maggie is seen running for her life in the promo for next week. Maggie better be okay! I can’t deal with this!!!!

The Mid-season finale is next week, and word to the wise people, do yourself a favor and WATCH IT LIVE! I’m so tired of people complaining that the internet ruins it because they say things before they watch it. 1.) Stay off the internet then. 2.)You only have yourself to blame. I’m a fan, and I need to talk about things that happen on this show!

New episodes are coming in February 2016, and the series has been renewed for a 7^th season for October 2016 as if there was any doubt.

Now onto The Talking Dead.

Steven Yeun released a special message during a commercial break during AMC’s Into the Badlands saying;

“I’ve been following everything you’ve been saying and it’s meant so much to me to see all of your support and concern for Glenn, The Walking Dead has the best fans in the world and I’m happy to be back.”

And we are happy to have you back Steven! And can I just say to anyone who was disappointed by the fact that they kept Glenn alive, what the hell is wrong with you? His story isn’t finished, and you know you love him, so suck it up and enjoy the ride!

Yeun also finally posted on social media as well.

Executive Producer Gale Ann Hurd was on The Talking Dead and discussed the insanity that went into trying to keep this storyline a secret. She told Chris Hardwick how each actor and everyone involved in the show were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Steven joked about how he didn’t get out much for the last few weeks, and that he ate a lot of takeout and his apartment looks like a hoarders. He also joked that he possibly lost some friends, because he wasn’t able to talk to them about the show. Steven mentioned how overwhelming the response has been, and how he barely knew how to address it, and that he felt bad that he wasn’t able to talk to anyone about what was going on.

He also spoke about how through social media we can all communicate and that with The Walking Dead and this current storyline they realize How they “affected a lot of people at once.”

Steven compared Enid and Glenn’s interaction of her throwing him a water battle in his time of need to his Walkie moment “hey dumbass” scene with Rick from Season 1. Which I thought was so true and really beautiful now that I think about it. And it’s beautiful to see that even though Glenn is always the guy to help someone out no matter who they are, to see him so aware of the fact that he’s going to be a dad and he’s trying to instill some kind of hope back into this young girl, is showing that he’s ready to take on this journey with Maggie. Yeun mentions Glenn wants to be able to tell his son or daughter that he did everything he could possibly do to maintain his humanity in this world. Let it be known that Glenn is the only original character that still hasn’t killed a human. As Yeun said on The Talking Dead that in the past seasons Glenn was fearful of creating a life with Maggie and now that he has seen Alexandria as a potential safe haven, it is only natural for him to want that start a life with Maggie.

 

When Chris Hardwick asked about the storyline and whether or not the creators or actors would be worried that the non-death of Glenn would send the wrong message to the fans, Writer and Producer Scott Gimple said that they “wanted to tell a story of uncertainty this season, and that they wanted the audience to be (and feel) where Maggie is. I sure as hell did!

Yeun said Glenn’s fate was more about “sometimes even in this world the good guy can win.” I  absolutely love that and I just hope it lasts long. This whole ordeal has me doing a lot of obsessive researching to see how the world is reacting, I’m seeing a lot of hate on the fact that he’s alive, which is kind of an oxymoron because the world erupted when we all thought they killed him off. I mean who ever really wanted him to die? Who doesn’t love Glenn! I don’t get that, I mean who gives a crap if they fooled us, that’s storytelling and we still got what we wanted, screw shock value. I’m all for Glenn being alive! There’s definitely more to come.

On The Talking Dead they instead of giving Glenn an In Memoriam… The gave him an Un-Memoriam

They crossed out Glenn’s name and wrote… (Much like taking his name down from the memorial wall, like Maggie did two episodes ago.) As Hallelujahs sing aloud.

We are so happy you are alive! ….For now. (Ugh bite your tongue TTD)

I get the emotional rollercoaster, I understand coming from a writer’s perspective they are telling a story, and I respect that. Like I said, I will say YOU GOT ME GOOD and be happy he is alive. I admit I had my fair share of my angry tweets, but as a fan it’s only natural to have that knee jerk reaction to be angry with the writers and creators. As someone who loves television and loves to write and hopes to one day write for television this idea that this show was able to stir up something so grand in people and have fans talking across the board was a tall order and they managed to do it. And I think when you get that kind of reaction from your fans, even if they hatefully disagree with your story telling at the moment, to get that passionate of a response shows you must be doing something right.

We the fans, take this show seriously and we consider the original characters family at this point. Glenn is one of the few originals left, and it was hell to be in limbo for so long about what happened to him. But in hindsight, now that the pain of the unknown is in the past, we can laugh and say it was great storytelling in its own right and I appreciate them not waiting too long to let us in on Glenn’s fate. And I am extremely happy that they chose to give us what we wanted to see rather than shock us with an impromptu death. Because that’s essentially what the show is all about. That anyone can go at any time, regardless of backstory, or family, or love.

We can only hope we don’t get destroyed by next week’s outcome (as the symbol of hope for Maggie is tarnished by the collapse of the watch tower,) or later on in the series when Negan is introduced. We can only be joyful for the extra time we will have with Glenn and Steven Yeun’s portrayal of him. And hopefully from the reaction they received this time trying to kill Glenn off they realize killing our beloved Glenn isn’t acceptable. And just to throw it out into the universe, neither is killing Maggie, Baby Glaggie/ Gleggie, Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Carol, Judith or Carl.

You can exhale until next week my fellow TWD fans. And remember send up some green balloons for Glenn! Our boy is back!

*I do not take credit for any Glenn photos or other TWD photos used.*

-<3-