Just When I Thought The Walking Dead Couldn’t Make Glenn & Maggie’s Son Harder To Like, I’m Proved Wrong

La sorprendente evolución de Hershel en The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2, Episode 7, «Novi Dan, Novi Početak».

Maggie and Hershel are two of the most popular characters in The Living Dead Franchise, but his son has not inherited his best features, and in some way, Dead city has only made it more difficult to like him. While Hershel was nothing more than an innocent background character in the original program, he has become a central survivor in Dead city Season 2, becoming an essential part of the story. Unfortunately, Hershel’s alliance with the lady in The Living Dead The Spin-off has only been strengthened despite Maggie’s attempts to communicate with her son, which suggests that he is intended to become a villain.

Season 1 showed signs of his disobedient behavior, since he closed Maggie completely after she risked her life to save him, but her outburst could be put in trauma. A teenager who spent time in captivity would undoubtedly have a great psychological impact, but season 2 doubled in his bad attitude. After rejecting his mother’s teachings, Hershel began a fire in Dead city that confirmed that he was working with the central antagonists of the program, and Maggie’s attempts to open up to his son have continually fallen into deaf ears, confirming that he is the opposite of his parents.

Teenage rebellion taken to the extreme

His extreme loyalty to the lady

The Living Dead has shown that young characters that grow in the Apocalypse are always destined to have defects, since the likes of Carl, Henry, and Ron suffered teenage anguish, but Hershel agreeing to have his foot cut off feels much more extreme. While Maggie and Glenn would put themselves on the line to protect their loved ones, Hershel sacrificing his foot for a villainous cause completely contradicts his parents and feels like an unnecessary display of loyalty to the lady, considering the little time they have known each other.

According to the Croatian, Hershel voluntarily abandoned his foot, presumably as part of some loyalty test to the lady’s mission. Although it is easy to relate to Hershel’s struggles, it still feels strange that the teenager went to such measures, even though he liked the lady. Taking into account Hershel’s comic counterpart was dark in The Living Dead source material, it is not a great surprise to see him follow a dark path, but his avant-garde decisions are becoming difficult to relate.

It was already frustrating to see him constantly challenge his mother and cause unnecessary confrontations, but the fact that Hershel has once again aligned with the lady after everything that has happened makes it extremely difficult to support him. Accepting that they cut off his foot feels like the last straw, as there is almost no limit to how far he will go to please the lady, no matter how absurd, demonstrating Hershel’s behavior is not just a teenage phase, it is who he truly is.

The point of no return for Hershel?

Even after all, Maggie’s attempts to reach out to her son, Hershel remains fully committed to helping the lady

Even if he did not know that the lady was going to harm his mother, Hershel willingly led Maggie into the villain’s trap, making him as complicit as she. While he may have shown signs of humanity at the beginning of the season by protecting Joan, Hershel’s naivety and combative nature have made it easier for the lady to manipulate him. Unfortunately, Hershel’s mysterious fascination with the lady in Dead city makes it difficult to see a way back for the teenager, and although Maggie may have one last chance to connect with her son, the odds are stacked against her.

As his acts of defiance throughout the season continue, Hershel’s ongoing assistance to the lady in Dead city Season 2 proves that he may have crossed a line. After her confrontation with the Croatian in episode 5, the lady was presumed dead but reappeared at the end of episode 7 alongside Hershel, where she confronted Maggie. While their new intentions are unclear, it is presumed that they will involve regaining control of the Burazi and Methane operation before continuing their reign of terror in Manhattan, something Hershel seems more than willing to assist with.