The Walking Dead showrunner on if Jesus and Aaron are a couple

SPOILER ALERT: Keep playing only if you have watched Sunday's "Stradivarius" episode The dead who walk.

So many questions !!! That was what more Walking Dead The fans were probably thinking of the end of Sunday's "Stradivarius" episode. We learned that Rick's disappearance had led Daryl to live alone, but we had to think about this mysterious scar X on Daryl's back that matched that of Michonne. We learned that Maggie had left the hill to join Georgie to help another new group, but now we had to wonder why she and Michonne had apparently been involved in some kind of intercommunity feud. We saw Jesus and Aaron having secret meetings, but wait … was there a romantic element in those meetings?

So many questions! That's why we asked these questions to Angela Kang, the star of the game, to get her professional perspective on all this, and more, including a preview of the first of the week at mid-season. (Read both pages for the entire interview.)

WEEKLY ENTERTAINMENT: First of all, let's get straight to the most important thing: Daryl has a dog! It's been six years since Norman told me that he wanted a dog in the series, so tell me how he finally was able to fulfill his wish.
ANGELA KANG: When I started the show in Season 2, I was also the Daryl Should Have a Dog team. It's that kind of thing that's been in a battle for a long time and never happened. And to be honest, a dog would have died quite quickly during certain seasons.

So we were talking about how can we show the state in which Daryl is? And I thought it would be nice if he left for a while after Rick's alleged death. Daryl has just left. And Daryl is someone who hunts and goes and who does things, and it seemed like a dog is a good companion. This shows that he still has the desire to have a connection. And if the dog is his faithful companion. In my mind, there is also a story behind the origin of this dog. And that's how we ended up with a dog.

And Norman wanted to help choose the type of dog. He sent me text messages for weeks on the pictures of adorable dogs. And the two dogs playing the dog are great. The main dog, his name is Seven, and he is so adorable and so wonderful. So it's very funny to see that Norman is finally working with the puppy.

Oh my God. You made me totally depressed when you said, "Yeah, but you know, if we had given him a dog some time ago, I'm sure he would be dead at some point." And I'm like, "Oh my God, this dog is going to die!" You're getting ready, and you're preparing Daryl to love this dog, and then something really bad will happen to him.
Oh my God. I do not know if I have the heart to kill the dog, dude.

Look, you can kill the person you want. Do not touch the dog! But staying with Daryl, he seems to have had some difficulty with the closure after losing Rick. What's going on here in search of his boyfriend, then stick to himself? I do not know if there is a grid in the apocalypse, but if there is one, it lives on it.
He lives permanently out of the gate. I think that after Rick left, he said to himself right away, "What am I going to do next?" After this grief. And I think he would have continued to look for a form of closure, for himself but also for Michonne, who is a great friend and who was his brother's love in the apocalypse.

When that came to nothing, he became in some way the lone wolf that he was always half-threatening to become. He always says, "I'm better by myself." There are times when he wants to somehow run away from the group and he finally does it. I think in our brief, he probably spent some time talking to the communities. He kept a little in touch. Obviously, Carol knows where he is. But the contact has become less and less constant. And that seemed to me quite true to Daryl, but also to where he was. Because what will he return to? He does not really want to be the bureaucratic leader of a community. He lost his brother and, in a way, he lost his way when it happened. So it's a good starting point for him. Then we will see what I hope will be an interesting bow for him throughout the season, as Carol will come and bring him back to the team.

Speaking of people who do not want to be leaders, we see Hilltop for the first time and Jesus is leading it now since Maggie left with Georgie to help a new community. It's interesting because Jesus is a guy in both the comics and the TV show who never wanted to lead, and you're really exploring that here, do not you?
Some characters, even if they show leadership in certain situations, have the idea of ​​staying behind a desk or making sure that food counts and that food is distributed, this and that, but it's not what they are. And I think that Jesus, as someone who was sort of the right arm of Maggie and someone who had been there in Hilltop since the beginning, is one that people would naturally look for.

And yet, it's something he's struggling with, because he's the guy who likes to ride or run around the landscape. He was the recruiter. Just as Daryl and Aaron used to go out, Jesus loves to be in the world. He likes to pick up. He likes to find new things, new places and new people. And so he's in a place where he's struggling with that.

And in some ways, Tara actually takes on some of the responsibilities that Jesus should perhaps be responsible for. So, he is sort of in this strange place. Even early in the story, Maggie said, "Why do not you run this place instead of Gregory?" He says, "It's not me." And that's really the character we've always seen . And so we wanted to somehow play that.

How much was Tom Payne excited for the man?
I think he was very excited. And I must say that he has pretty well shaken it. That suits him well.

Speaking of Jesus, you put him together with Aaron at these secret meetings they have. Comic fans know that they become a couple there. Are you starting to put this in place here?
I can not talk about the future of this. What we thought to be true is that there are two people who have a lot in common and who certainly have very similar philosophies. They were the respective recruiters of their communities. So there seemed to be a natural friendship there.

We started, Alexandria and Hilltop having a kind of freeze between them. They did not have much contact. Obviously, there is only beef that has happened and just the idea that there are at least people who are … it's almost like conducting secret diplomatic missions with each other. But there is a friendship there. They like it. But it's really about who they are as characters, people who want to maintain links, because they are the ones who forged those links. (The interview continues on the next page.)