During the midseason premiere of "The Walking Dead," Rick's group underwent a harrowing trial when the Wolves attacked Alexandria with a zombie horde. Despite Carl's grievous injury, however, the end result wasn't all bad. According to Lauren Cohan, who plays Maggie on the hit show, the group will come through this event stronger than ever.

"Going forward, we're reunited and stronger, but as a group we need to expand -- not just with babies, but we need to expand, and we're going to go out into a new territory that's going to really open up the next level of the show," she told Entertainment Weekly. "You've seen the group look for new safeholds, but the next place we find is going to be the beginning of the show as we've come to know it."

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As to Maggie's work with Deanna, Cohan said, "Deanna saw things in Maggie that she didn't necessarily see in herself when they got to Alexandria, and I think the most important part was that she could be this intermediary. She understood the way her group functioned, but she also has that hopeful vision and aligned with that hopeful vision that Deanna had to create a sustainable community."

"And this is all coming before she's pregnant, before she knows that they're going to have a baby, and so it's very fortunate that she gains these lessons from Deanna," she continued. "And then what we get to see as we progress is Rick saying that Deanna was right. These are the things you have to do, and he's realizing that Maggie may be able to deal with certain people that he isn't able to. He's, well, you know, brutish."

"So we have this sort of combined approach to a lot of the future challenges that we'll see this season, and it's fantastic," she added.

Based on the Image Comics series of the same name and created by Robert Kirkman, "The Walking Dead" airs Sundays at 9 pm EST on AMC.