Sunday’s new episode of The Walking Dead appeared to depict [spoiler] dying. But is it true?
As far as viewers can tell, Glenn died on The Walking Dead season 6, episode 3, titled “Thank You.” He was pulled into a herd of walkers by Nicholas, who killed himself before the walkers could do it for him.
A close up shot depicted lots of guts getting ripped out of a person as Glenn screamed in horror. Even the music after his “death” was depressing — showrunners wanted us to believe that he died.
But fans who are in total denial over the twist quickly gathered a bunch of convincing evidence that proves Glenn will somehow make it out of there.
Evidence #1: On set photos show Glenn is still there
Perhaps the best piece of evidence proving Glenn is alive is this on-set photo from season 6 in production. The photo depicts Glenn in a scene with Daryl and Jesus, who will be introduced later on this year.
Glenn? What are you doing there?
Evidence #2: ‘The Talking Dead’
Even though Chris Hardwick said he had no clue what the future holds for Glenn, the absence of a couple elements in last night’s Talking Dead certainly suggests Glenn is alive. For one, Glenn was not included in the “In Memoriam” segment. And two, Glenn actor Steven Yeun was not interviewed.
Evidence #3: How he survived
There’s one big theory going around that makes total sense: When Nicholas pulled Glenn into the herd of walkers, Glenn landed underneath Nicholas (look at the GIF set above and you’ll see that Glenn is on the ground, but we never learn Nicholas’ position). This means the walkers were eating away at Nicholas instead of Glenn, and Nicholas’ guts spilled out and covered Glenn, thus protecting him from any further attacks.
If you take a look at these photos, you can see that Glenn has Nicholas on top of him:
The one issue with this theory? It feels very, very unlikely that no walker would even accidentally bite Glenn. There were so many walkers surrounding them that it would be impossible for Glenn to survive.
Evidence #4: Guts
Last night’s episode had a throwback to The Walking Dead season 1, episode 2 — Glenn called Rick a dumbass in 6×03 just like he did in the series’ second episode. In 6×03 it was his last communication with Rick. In 1×02, it was his very first.
You may look at this and assume they wrote in this throwback to say farewell to Glenn. That’s a great idea (and this was my first inclination), but what if this is a reference to something else?
A fan on Tumblr points out that this “dumbass” comment from 1×02 is the same episode in which Glenn and Rick cover themselves in guts to save themselves. What if showrunners wrote in this throwback to hint that Glenn will be covering himself in guts to save himself again?
As we saw at the end Sunday’s episode, Rick is about to encounter a huge herd of walkers as well. Might he cover himself in guts again?
Season 6 has been killer
We have to hand it to the showrunners: The Walking Dead season 6 has been really great so far. We expected episode 2 or episode 3 to let us down after that amazing season premiere, but the show continues to keep us on edge in unique ways.
We don’t expect Glenn to magically return to life in episode 4, which airs this Sunday, November 1 (which is a 90-minute episode). If he’s alive, we think showrunners will keep us in suspense for another couple of episodes.