This past week’s episode of The Walking Dead, "Silence the Whisperers," saw an emotional moment take place between series favorites Michonne and Ezekiel as the two kissed. However, according to showrunner Angela Kang, the kiss was never meant to happen.
"And the interesting thing is the idea of doing this kiss here came about in an unusual way," Kang told Entertainment Weekly. "I was having a conversation with Danai and she said, 'You know, it’d be interesting if somebody tried to kiss Michonne and she responded.' Because Michonne’s got all of her own things that she’s dealing with and there has been no exploration of her romantic or sexual side with her since Rick’s supposed death or disappearance. And so we bounced that around and were like, 'Ah, I don’t think we’re going to do that.' And then this other pitch came around, which is because we were working on this Ezekiel story, the room kind of came up with this idea of. what if Ezekiel in his depression wants to connect? He just feels so alone, and he feels so sad. He just gets some signals crossed for a second, and then immediately realizes that he kind of screwed that up and pulls back."
“It becomes the start of a deeper conversation between the two of them," she continued. "So we liked the idea of giving a nod to the comic book relationship between Ezekiel and Michonne. And there’s even that little nod to maybe in a parallel universe or something. So a lot of different factors went into it, but it felt like the kind of thing that sometimes happens between friends, and we thought it was an interesting thing to explore. You see Michonne being so gentle with him, knowing that it did not come out of a bad place. He’s just in so much pain and confused."
This tender moment of emotional confusion comes in the wake of Kang’s confirmation that Michonne will be missing from a few episodes following the ending of "Silence the Whisperers." She will eventually return before exiting the series for good.
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC, The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton, Cooper Andrews, Avi Nash and Samantha Morton.