When we first meet Negan in the series ‘The Walking Dead‘, the charismatic and brutal leader of the Saviors, we learn that his barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat is named Lucille. In the comic book series on which the TV show is based, Lucille is revealed to be the name of Negan’s wife. She was diagnosed with cancer before the apocalypse, and Negan cared for her as she deteriorated.
When the deaths began to rise, Negan was devastated by losing his wife and became increasingly violent and ruthless to survive. But the show has frequently diverged from the comics, and thus, the fate of Lucille is quite unexplored. Until now!
Related: Why Is Negan’s Bat Called Lucille In ‘The Walking Dead’?
Theories On Lucille’s Fate In ‘The Walking Dead’
Negan made the show as a character in the final episode of the sixth season. We soon come to know that Negan is deeply attached to his baseball bat, but we don’t know why he named it after his wife. In season 7, Ep 4, ‘Service’, we catch a glimpse of a framed wedding photo in Negan’s room in the Sanctuary.
The photo shows Negan and a woman with dark hair and a wide smile, presumably Lucille. But we are left with little information about her beyond this brief glimpse. The major theory that surrounds Lucille is her inevitable death due to cancer, as in the comics, but the TV series never confirmed anything till Season 10.
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What Really Happened To Lucille?
In season 10, Ep 22, ‘Here’s Negan’, the plot finally clears. The episode is dedicated to Negan, played by Jeffery Dean Morgan, and his wife, Lucille, played by his real-life partner, Hilarie Burton Morgan. It is revealed in this episode that Negan acquired the treatment required by Lucille but couldn’t get it to her in time due to his capture by men hunting him for information about the medical facility run by the father and daughter.
By the time Negan was able to reach back to his wife in their shared cabin with the medicine she needed, she had passed away of cancer and become one of the undead. With a throbbing pain and guilt, he sat beside her growling corpse till he couldn’t anymore. Negan finally burnt the cabin with Lucille in it, ending her existence as a person and encompassing a new identity for Lucille as his dearly loved barbed-wire bat.
Negan’s Attachments And How Does It Relate To Lucille?
Regardless of what really happened to Lucille, it’s clear that Negan’s attachment to his baseball bat goes beyond mere sentimentality. Lucille represents everything that Negan has lost and everything he has become. She is a symbol of his power and his brutality and a reminder of the man he used to be before the world went to hell.
In the end, the extended episode of this series cleared out the story behind Lucille’s death but left the audience speechless. Like so many things in ‘The Walking Dead‘, the story of Lucille is a reminder that an apocalypse is a place where the past is always present and where the line between love and violence is constantly blurred.
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