Warning! SPOILERS ahead for The Walking Dead season 10 finale.
The Walking Dead season 10 delves into Negan's backstory for its finale, revealing six details about his past that help to better explain his character. Each of The Walking Dead's bonus episodes has been more character than plot-focused, and as such, they've offered insight into Maggie, Daryl, Princess, and more. For its season 10 finale, The Walking Dead next examines Negan, digging into the origin story of its biggest villain.
First introduced in The Walking Dead season 6 finale, Negan has become one of the show's most notorious characters. Though unmistakably a villain, recent seasons have explored different sides of Negan, and his killing of the Whisperers' leader, Alpha, has given him a shot at becoming more of an anti-hero. Standing in his way, however, is the indisputable fact he brutally murdered Maggie's husband, Glenn, and as she's recently returned to The Walking Dead, the issue is sure to come up. That impending conflict is being saved for The Walking Dead season 11, but an episode exploring Negan's past is a good reminder of where he stands ahead of their forthcoming showdown.
The Walking Dead season 10 episode 22, "Here's Negan", takes its name from a prequel Walking Dead comic of the same name that recounts Negan's earliest experiences during the outbreak. For its adaptation, the AMC show doesn't stick too closely to the source material, but it similarly uses flashbacks to Negan's past to explain certain elements of his character. Here are six details The Walking Dead season 10 finale explains about Negan's origin.
How Negan's Wife Lucille Dies
By far, the biggest question The Walking Dead answers with this episode is how Negan's wife, Lucille, dies. As the outbreak begins, Lucille is diagnosed with cancer, and once the apocalypse sets in, Negan struggles to continue with her infusions to treat the disease. When the last of her medicine is ruined, Negan goes in search of nearby medics he believes may have the drugs she needs. Lucille begs him not to go and stay with her for whatever time she has left, but he clings to the belief these treatments could be a cure and won't let this chance slip away.
Negan is gone for several weeks, but does manage to return with the necessary medicine. Tragically, though, while he was away the pain of her cancer becomes too much and Lucille takes her life, swallowing pills and asphyxiating herself with a plastic bag. When Negan discovers her, Lucille has already turned. Heartbroken, Negan can't bring himself to put her down and instead sets the house on a fire. Lucille's death is especially heart-wrenching, and its impact on Negan cannot be overstated. In the wake of her death, Negan gives himself over to his worst, most violent impulses, all the while tormented by his grief and guilt over leaving her to die alone.
Why Negan Relates So Well To Kids
"Here's Negan" doesn't only answer what Negan was doing in the beginning of the outbreak, it also looks a Negan's life prior to it. In the before times, Negan worked as a school gym teacher. This helps to explain why Negan, who never had any children of own, is able to relate so easily with kids, as he's been shown to do with Carl, Judith, and Lydia. Of course, while he can connect with children, Negan isn't necessarily the best influence, something "Here's Negan" also shows with a scene of him, a grown man, chewing out a kid while playing an online video game.
Where Negan Gets His Leather Jacket
During the flashback scene where Negan is playing video games, he's interrupted by Lucille when she comes to berate him for spending money they don't have on a leather jacket he doesn't need. Making matters worse, the reason they're so cash-strapped is because Negan was fired from his job as a gym teacher after being hit with assault charges following a bar fight. Lucille tells him she's going to return the jacket and get the money back, but Negan responds that he threw away the receipt, angering her even more.
Some time later, once the apocalypse and her cancer have fully set in, Lucille presents Negan with the leather jacket as an anniversary gift. She reveals that she never got around to returning it, and with the world having since fallen apart, Lucille feels guilty about getting angry over something that now seems so trivial. Negan, while thankful, also apologizes for his poor behavior prior to outbreak. The moment is one of reconciliation for the couple and it adds a greater significance to Negan's leather jacket, explaining that his attachment to the jacket goes much deeper than looking cool.
Where Negan Gets His Baseball Bat
Along with his signature leather jacket, The Walking Dead also explains where Negan gets the baseball bat he will later christen after his late wife. While Negan is threatening one of the medics, Franklin, he is struck from behind with a baseball bat and knocked out by Laura, Franklin's daughter. When Negan comes to, Franklin has patched him up and had Laura gather the medicine he needs. As Negan makes to leave, Laura asks if the unloaded gun he was waving around is his only weapon, and when he replies yes, she hands him the bat.
How Negan Meets Laura, Future Savior
Of course, Laura is more than simply who gives Negan his infamous baseball bat - she's also a future member of the Saviors and The Walking Dead has now revealed how the two first meet. Though somewhat unrecognizable given her less hardened demeanor, the young woman seen here helping Negan is later among his top lieutenants, and after his defeat, is one of the Saviors who moves to Alexandria. Laura is later killed by Beta when the Whisperers attack the community.
However, while "Here's Negan" features the first meeting between Negan and Laura, implying she's his first follower, the episode doesn't actually show her joining him. Instead, the focus is mostly on Negan's evolution into the man who will one day lead the Saviors, but her appearance in this episode's flashback scenes is a neat setup for what's to come all the same. Not to mention, a possible tease of a story that could be told in Walking Dead's anthology spinoff, Tales of the Walking Dead.
How The Saviors Get Their Name (Maybe)
In addition to revealing how Negan first meets Laura, The Walking Dead may have also shown how Negan comes to name the Saviors. While there's no explicit moment or scene, Negan's actions following his wife's death — his return to the bar to kill the biker gang and rescue Franklin and Laura — is exactly the kind of behavior his Saviors will later take part in. Though they relish in the violence, the Saviors do have a mission to save people, and Negan's rescue in this episode is a template for how they'll later operate.