The zombie show The Walking Dead has gone downhill pretty steeply over the past few years.
But there's was a recent episode that changed me on a deep level. The kind of change we strive for in any art...even a zombie TV series.
The episode is called "Here's Negan." If you're not familiar with the show, Negan is one of the main antagonists.
When we're first introduced to him, he's brutally evil. Kills people left and right. Mostly humans. Sometimes zombies. All in the name of survival.
But in this episode, we're introduced to Negan's backstory. Back when the zombie apocalypse first began.
We discover that Negan wasn't a bad guy at all. Pretty likable, actually.
And when the zombie apocalypse begins, he has a hard time even putting down zombies. Let alone humans.
I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the episode, so I'll leave it as this.
Negan suffers a number of losses as an innocent person that lead him on a path towards killing and taking advantage of other people to survive. Believing that it's the only path to survival in this new world.
The episode was well-done. I almost cried at the end. And that doesn't happen very often, my friends.
I had a new perspective on this character that will stick with me forever. It's hard to see him as a real "bad guy" anymore.
But so it goes for everyone else, right?
The boss who's a jerk. The friend who blows you off. The family member you want to love, but can't help but hate.
Everyone has a backstory. And more often than not, that backstory makes sense in an almost-beautiful way. It's often not the other person's fault they're the way they are.
And when we understand the backstory, it finally opens up new possibilities to connect and understand in a way we never could before.