The Walking Dead: 6 Characters Or Groups Killed As A Result Of Threatening Or Harming Maggie's Family

As The Walking Dead heads towards its grand finale later this year, the action is ramping up. In episode 11x15, 'Trust', Lance Hornsby orders a raid on Hilltop, believing them responsible for the deaths of Carlson and other Commonwealth soldiers at Riverbend in the previous episode. The raid ends badly, with Hornsby earning Maggie's ire by delivering a thinly veiled threat to Maggie's son, Hershel.

In response, Maggie angrily informs Hornsby that most of the people who have threatened her family in the past are dead now. This is very much true. While Maggie is not always responsible for the deaths herself, and many of Maggie's family members have died along the way, their killers rarely survive long afterwards to tell the tale.

Here are six characters or groups killed as a result of threatening Maggie's family.

1. Randall

During a trip into town to retrieve Hershel, who finds himself in an emotional crisis after Sophia is found among the Walkers in his barn, Rick's group clash with another group. In the aftermath of this skirmish, the other group abandon an injured member, Randall. Rick's group rescue Randall and treat his injuries, blindfolding him before they take him back to Hershel's Farm.

Initially planning to drive Randall a safe distance from the Farm and dump him when he is recovered, Randall complicates matters when he reveals that he knows Maggie, making him a potential threat who could reveal the Farm's location to any other survivors he comes across. It doesn't help when it comes out that Randall's previous group were clearly unsavory types. The decision of what to do with Randall becomes the group's first major moral dilemma. While it is initially decided to execute him, Dale's death causes the group to change their mind and allow him to live. Shane, who has more or less descended into madness by this point, frees Randall, claiming to want to join his old group. Unfortunately for Randall, Shane then kills him as part of a plot to lure Rick to his death.

Randall never explicitly threatens Maggie and her family, and in fact claims he would never hurt them early in his captivity. However, the fact he was so willing to lead Shane back to his previous group proved he was every bit the threat that Rick feared he was. If Shane hadn't killed Randall, someone else probably would have had to.

2. The Governor

The Governor is one of the most iconic The Walking Dead villains of all time, and is responsible for one of the series most heartbreaking deaths. Rolling up to the Prison gates with a new group, a tank, and Hershel and Michonne as hostages, The Governor announces his plans to take over. Rick tries to talk him down, but The Governor cannot be reasoned with. He brutally beheads Hershel with Michonne's Katana, as Hershel's daughters Beth and Maggie watch in horror.

In the ensuing battle, The Governor almost kills Rick, before being stabbed in the back by Michonne. As Rick and Michonne escape, Lily, The Governor's Girlfriend, approaches. Horrified at the brutality of Hershel's death and the subsequent carnage he had made her a part of, Lily shoots The Governor dead.

3. The Terminants

In season four's finale, the group's hopes of finding Sanctuary in Terminus are shattered when they learn its inhabitants, the Terminants, are Cannibals. Rick, Daryl, Bob, and Glenn are taken for slaughter, but just as Glenn (Maggie's Husband) is about to be killed, the Terminants' attention is diverted by a large explosion, courtesy of Carol Peletier.

Most of the Terminants are killed during Carol's subsequent assault and the group's escape. The few survivors are wiped out after tracking the group to Father Gabriel's Church.

4. Dawn Lerner

After being kidnapped in season four, Beth is taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where she is made a ward of the manipulative Officer Dawn Lerner, the leader of the small community living there. Initially told she can leave when she pays off her debt, Beth soon learns this is an impossible task. When Beth's friend Noah escapes the Hospital, finds our group and informs them of Beth's location, they immediately set out to retrieve her. Maggie, who had been away at the time, follows a short while later.

Rick takes a few of Dawn's Officers hostage, intending to trade them for Beth. At first, the trade seems to be going well, until Dawn demands Noah return as her ward in exchange for allowing Rick's group to leave. Beth, unwilling to let Noah make that sacrifice, stabs Dawn with a pair of scissors, and a startled Dawn shoots Beth in the head, killing her instantly. Daryl immediately shoots Dawn dead in response. Maggie is heartbroken, but takes comfort in the fact her sister's killer was dealt with.

5. Gregory

From the moment the alliance between Alexandria and the Hilltop begins, the Hilltop leader, Gregory, clearly dislikes Maggie. This dislike worsens when Maggie moves to Hilltop, becoming Gregory's first true rival for leadership of the Community. After the war against Negan, Maggie is officially elected as Hilltop's new leader. Gregory arranges for Earl Sutton, who is grievng the death of his son after a run gone wrong, to attempt to assassinate Maggie so he can take Hilltop back for himself.

Maggie survives the attack, but baby Hershel's pram is upended, tipping him onto the ground, and Enid, a surrogate daughter of sorts to Maggie, is seriously injured when she rushes to help. Earl is eventually forgiven, but Gregory, the mastermind, is hung for his crime to send a message to the residents of Hilltop: Serious crime will not go unpunished, and don't mess with Maggie Rhee's family.

6. The Reapers

Following her Husband Glenn's murder at the hands of Negan, Maggie is left with their son, Hershel, as her only blood relative. However, the pair are not alone, as Maggie views her fellow survivors, the residents of Alexandria, Hilltop, and later Meridian, as family. Unfortunately, prior to Maggie's return at the end of season ten, tragedy strikes when Meridian is taken over by a brutal, militaristic group known as the Reapers, with many of its residents killed. The few who survived, save for Maggie and Elijah, are killed when Maggie leads a raiding party back to Meridian in a desperate search for food to aid the struggling Alexandria.

With heavy losses on both sides, Maggie's group and the Reapers agree to a truce. However, having promised Elijah revenge for the Reapers' murder of his sister, and still angry herself at the loss of her Meridian family, Maggie goes back on her word, shooting the retreating Reapers dead. Only Leah escapes.

Again, the message is clear: Don't mess with Maggie Rhee's family, blood or chosen. Lance Hornsby had better watch his back.