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Glenn Might Actually Live On 'The Walking Dead'

Knock on wood, start gathering rabbit feet, and whatever other good luck ritual you find necessary. I think we have to start considering that Glenn might live on The Walking Dead . The Season 6 finale is coming, Negan is coming, and yet Glenn actually might walk away from it.

Doubt comes easy to me with this show, but if Glenn dies after the rigamarole that this show has put him through in the last two seasons, it will almost be too predictable. We've already been made to believe he was dead for weeks, in true Jon Snow fashion. Between a fake-out at Terminus and the photos of Negan's victims that Glenn discovered, this is starting to look less like foreshadowing and more like a series of red herrings. I can't decide whether it's a bolder move for the AMC series to give us the death we're waiting for, or surprise us by killing off a different character. I'm sure the writers have struggled with the same conundrum.

Saying he does live, we can't escape the fact that Glenn dies when Negan is introduced in the comics. He is struck a horrible series of blows by Lucille, the barbed baseball bat. If Glenn lives, what happens to him next? He might adopt the storyline of whomever dies in his place. He might follow another path entirely. Will he and Maggie leave Alexandria and move to Hilltop? Maybe the two of them will "adopt" Enid the way they adopt Sophia in the comics. That is, if Maggie is even alive at the end of the finale. That's a frightening thought.

Glenn wouldn't be the first character to live past their comic book "expiration date," so this isn't an entirely crazy idea. Carol and baby Judith have been long dead in the comics. Morgan was "supposed" to die in the herd attack. The way Denise died in the penultimate episode resembled Abraham's death in the comics. Daryl never existed in the first place. Andrea, on the other hand, is still alive in the comics. Some of her storyline is being adopted by Michonne.

I don't want to get anyone's hopes up here. If I'm wrong and Negan does kill Glenn, feel free to blame me. I will accept full responsibility for being a dirty jinx. Still, since it is a distinct possibility that Glenn might not die on The Walking Dead, I think we can let ourselves speculate as to how the show might continue to deviate from the comics. It can't hurt to wonder, right?

Images: Gene Page/AMC; Giphy