Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 11B ahead. The Walking Dead is not wasting time in the final season. Maggie’s not messing around with the Reapers. She has a good reason because it’s thanks to them that Alden is dead on The Walking Dead in Season 11. If you forgot who that is, and were confused as to why Maggie was so upset when she went to check on him only to discover his reanimated corpse, don’t feel bad. A lot of time has passed since we’ve seen Alden. Let me jog your memory as to who he is and why Maggie cares about him.
We last saw Alden in the third episode of Season 11, “Hunted.” He fought off Reapers with Maggie and Negan as they searched for supplies to bring to the Hilltop. He got injured and asked to be left behind. As we learn in “No Other Way,” the Season 11B premiere, he didn’t make it and died off-screen. The last time we saw him alive he was building a barricade to keep himself safe.
Callan McAuliffe joined The Walking Dead as Alden in Season 8.
He was actually one of Negan’s Saviors and a war prisoner. He butted heads on Maggie, who was leading the Hilltop at the time, on more than one occasion. They ultimately become allies. You may have even caught a vibe between them. In an interview with TVLine, The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang said that the original plan was for Alden to be Maggie’s love interest. They switched it up when actress Lauren Cohan briefly took a hiatus from the series.
Instead, when Alden defected to The Hilltop he instead dated The Walking Dead‘s resident emo kid Enid. (He also became a blacksmith.) However, that ended tragically when Alpha and the Whisperers beheaded her. Alpha previously captured Alden and tried to trade him for her daughter Lydia. There’s no proof, but I think she targeted Enid because that plan failed. So by the time we get to Season 11, Alden is not a huge fan of fellow defect Lydia. Otherwise, he is fully assimilated into our gang of survivors.
He had a full character arc going on in the background… and that character arc is now over. RIP! It is nice that the last part of his story brought him back to Maggie, where it all began. Too bad they never got to do that whole enemies-to-lovers thing. Enemies-to-mourning friends is nice too. And if this early death is any indication of what the final season of The Walking Dead is going to be like … watch out!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
