The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 17, "Lockdown," which debuted Sunday, Oct. 2 on AMC.
With so few characters left from earlier seasons of The Walking Dead, the writers are scrambling to make do with what they've got in Season 11. They want more heroes than villains or anything in between -- and to do that, one of the most iconic villains of the series needs to carry out his redemption arc from the comics. Negan is on a path to absolution in Season 11, Part 3, but it's hardly convincing.
A controversial moment from the Season 11, Part 2 finale had Maggie uncharacteristically telling Negan she trusted him enough to look after her son. Many fans like to think Lori Grimes was a terrible mother for never keeping a watchful eye on Carl, but Maggie's poor judgment really gives her competition. Never mind that Negan killed the father of Maggie's baby, forced women into having sex with him in exchange for avoiding hard labor and terrorized the main group for pure joy. As of Season 11, The Walking Dead writers want him to be a changed man -- yet it feels unrealistic that someone with such careless disregard for his past actions can be redeemed in the eyes of the people he hurt.
In Season 11, Episode 17, "Lockdown," Negan is trusted enough to carry out a rescue mission for the people stuck at the Commonwealth. This is the same Negan who never apologized for lining up the group and bludgeoning Glenn and Abraham to death, and recently expressing how he would've killed them all if he could do it all over again. Negan -- with the help of Daryl, who seemed to forget he was tortured by Negan as a prisoner -- heads over to team up with Carol and fix the mess Lance created. Negan and Carol share an odd bonding moment over his new baby, and Melissa McBride's facial expressions say this friendship was designed from throwing darts in the dark.
The introduction of Annie as Negan's wife and mother to his unborn child was an all-time low for The Walking Dead. A marriage and a baby that were both conceived (metaphorically and literally) in the matter of a few episodes off-screen is cheating, as it's the easiest method to make Maggie feel empathy for the man. And it's quite misogynistic to draw up a female character to be a chess piece in Negan's game of redemption. Annie has no other qualities than to be a mother to Negan's child, and if she hypothetically dies, her death will drive his story once more. House of the Dragon faced the same issue with Viserys and Aemma Targaryen: Aemma was sentenced to death by the writers to "strengthen" Viserys' character, making her another dead soldier in a man's story.
Besides the glaring "wife and unborn child are the key to redemption" issue, Negan frankly has no redeeming qualities himself. "Lockdown" proves just that by upping his snarky jokes (the same jokes he's been playing out since Season 7) to 100 and having him attempt to make himself a god of sorts. He even proclaims to Sebastian, "Do you know who I am?" Yes, Negan, everyone knows who you are: a man so full of himself that he can't remember why he's in a position where everyone laughs at him. Having Negan rhetorically ask Sebastian who he is disregards the fact that Negan has failed numerous times at being a capable and feared leader.
It's difficult to like Negan when the writers forget that he's a bad guy. Conceptually, Negan is a great character when he's allowed to be horrible and the writers don't try to mask him as anything else. Having Negan as a "protector" of children and unborn children (the sudden care he has for pregnant women only pops up when it's his child, not Maggie's or anyone at the Sanctuary's) makes him a caricature that holds him back from who he truly is.
No one wants good guy Negan. No one wants Negan to constantly fret over being redeemed in Maggie's eyes. He's not deserving of that, so the writers shouldn't have spent every minute of the Season 11, Part 3 premiere trying to convey that. And knowing that Negan and Maggie are "teaming up" in their spinoff The Walking Dead: Dead City muddles his character even more, forcing fans to endure another round of Negan's failed attempt at being the good guy.
New episodes of The Walking Dead air Sundays at 9:00 p.m. on AMC and stream a week early on AMC+.