The Wardens

The Wardens are a group of survivors who appear in AMC's The Walking Dead. The group is led by Maggie Rhee after she lost contact with Georgie. The Wardens travel to different communities and help build up settlements to become more sufficient. The Wardens were last living in Meridian before they were attacked and forced to flee to Alexandria.

After the Commonwealth begins to occupy Alexandria, the Wardens desert the community and begin inhabiting the defunct Hilltop Colony before its eventually taken by force by the Commonwealth Army. The remaining Wardens then join forces with the Coalition and Riverbend survivors to defeat Lance Hornsby and the Milton regime, which they are successful in achieving. One year later, the Wardens disband and integrate into the greater Coalition and Commonwealth society.

Overview[]

After Maggie was separated from Georgie and her group, she eventually formed the Wardens, which consists of capable, hardened, but good-hearted survivors. They are shown to have a close bond with each other and an undying loyalty to Maggie, always following any order she gives. Eventually they were forced to flee their home after a hostile group called the Reapers attacked and took it from them. They join Alexandria and seeing that there isn't enough food for everyone, many Wardens volunteer to go on a mission to get food from Meridian. Many of the Wardens are said to be skilled fighters, such as Elijah, who shows incredible skill with his kamas. Though they lose many people heading to Meridian, they eventually succeed in getting the food to Alexandria. Since joining Alexandria, many Wardens have become core members of the group, usually seen helping around the community.

Post-Apocalypse[]

Season 10[]

"A Certain Doom"[]

Maggie checks the mail drop she set up before she left and finds a letter explaining the war with the Whisperers, the death of Jesus and the fair massacre by Alpha, leaving her visibly concerned.

Later, at Tower, Elijah helps Aaron and Alden take out several Whisperers. Subsequently, Elijah saves Gabriel from some Whisperers that were about to kill him. As one Whisperer comes up behind him unnoticed, Maggie kills the Whisperer with an arrow. Afterwards, Maggie clarifies Elijah is with her.

At the rendezvous, Elijah stands by and nods at Aaron as he arrives with the others and as Maggie reunites with her former companions. Maggie chats with Alden at the rendezvous point before sharing a hug with Gracie. Spotting Maggie, an excited Judith hugs her as well after being reunited for the first time in years.

"Home Sweet Home"[]

Maggie and Hershel were living in a village called Meridian that was full of other survivors when it was attacked by the Reapers. Many people were killed, including children, forcing the remaining survivors to flee. With their home gone, Maggie decided to bring her group of surviving Wardens and Meridian refugees to Hilltop. The non-combatants were left behind at a rendezvous point as Maggie, Cole, and Elijah went to assist the survivors at the hospital after finding Carol's latest letter revealing the existence of the Whisperers and the deaths that they've caused. By the time Maggie and her group returned to the rendezvous point, they found the building burned out and the charred corpses of Jen and Billy, with Hershel and the other survivors nowhere to be found. In the woods, Maggie finds some of her people including Maya, Ainsley, and Gus, who explain that an unseen threat had destroyed their rendezvous point and killed some of their people, including Matty while Hershel remains missing. Eventually, Maggie and her group confront the lone attacker and demand to know who he is before he commits suicide by blowing himself up with a grenade. A short time later, Hershel is found and the surviving members of Maggie's group, including her son, Elijah, Cole, Kim and one other Warden, are brought to Alexandria and welcomed into the community.

"Here's Negan"[]

The Wardens are seen momentarily when Negan returns to Alexandria. Maggie glares at him, and he looks at her with a smirk.

Season 11[]

"Acheron: Part I"[]

Over time, several more Wardens and Meridian survivors arrived or were found and brought to Alexandria, joining the Hilltop survivors as refugees now living in Alexandria. Among the surviving Wardens found are Duncan, Frost, and Agatha, of which Maggie and Elijah are overjoyed to reunite with after returning from the Fort Connors mission. As the leaders discuss the food shortage, Maggie and several Wardens agree to accompany a group of Alexandrians to retrieve food supplies from the Reaper-occupied Meridian. Maggie, Duncan, Frost, Elijah, Cole, and Agatha, along with the Alexandrians, travel through Washington DC in a storm before retreating to the underground subway tunnels.

"Acheron: Part II"[]

The Wardens and Alexandrians successfully navigate through the subway tunnels despite losing young Alexandrian Gage and almost Maggie herself. With the storm subsided by the time they exit the subway. Maggie proposes they head for a relatively nearby safehouse the Wardens had stockpiled prior the the Reapers' invasion for extra supplies. The group travel along a road when they are suddenly attacked by the Reapers, killing Alexandrian Roy and severely injuring Cole.

"Hunted"[]

In a chaotic attack, the Wardens and Alexandrians are attacked by the Reapers. Cole is killed, Duncan is left mortally wounded, and Elijah is taken captive while trying to save Maggie. The rest of the mission group is split up and forced to flee. Maggie, Negan, and an Alden eventually regroup with Agatha and Duncan, the latter of which is dying from his injuries. Duncan shares a final conversation with Maggie, asking her to get Agatha back home safely, before he succumbs to blood loss. Maggie tearfully stabs him in the head to prevent reanimation. Later on, when attacked by a large group of walkers, Agatha is bitten and begins to be devoured. Maggie tries in vain to save her, only for Negan to pull her away from the fruitless act as Agatha is eaten alive. After coming upon an abandoned church, Maggie reluctantly leaves an injured Alden behind, promising to come back for him, as she and Negan continue towards Meridian.

"Rendition"[]

At Meridian, while taken captive by the Reapers, Daryl finds that Frost has been imprisoned as well, and feigns any alliance to him in order to keep their tormentors from learning he is close to Maggie. Frost picks up on, and further elaborates on Daryl's ruse by saying they should have "let him starve", before he is taken away for further interrogation.

"Out of the Ashes"[]

Negan and Maggie make their way to the safehouse, with small amounts of food and other supplies hidden. Negan contests that they should take what little food they currently have in front of them and not risk dying going after Meridian, while Maggie argues they wait for the others to arrive and to continue with the plan to get Meridian's food stockpile back to Alexandria. Eventually, Gabriel arrives with Elijah, and the group decides to continue to wait for Daryl.

"On the Inside"[]

At Meridian, Daryl is further tested by Pope to prove his alleged loyalty to the Reapers, and is forced to torture Frost for information about where Maggie is. As he pulls off Frost's fingernails, Frost breaks and reveals the address of the safehouse, prompting Pope to send Daryl, Leah, and several other Reapers out to investigate it.

Before entering the safehouse, Daryl shakes a downed power line with a branch, signaling to Maggie, Elijah, Gabriel, and Negan that the Reapers are on their way. The four hide in a storage space under the floor boards kept out of sight by a rug as the Reapers search the house. As Daryl manages to thwart the Reapers' attempts at finding them and subtly supplying the Wardens with information about the Reaper's manpower while arguing with Brandon Carver. The latter eventually finds the storage space, but opens it up only to find it empty. Maggie, Elijah, Gabriel, and Negan escape through the house's crawl space and head into the nearby woods as the Reapers return to Meridian.

Back at Meridian, Daryl finds that Pope has tortured Frost to death, whose undead body is now tied to a tree outside the front gates of his former home.

"Promises Broken"[]

In the woods, Maggie and Elijah begin to recognize several undead Meridian residents, including Teresa. The undead woman is buried and Gabriel delivers a eulogy for the deceased friend of Maggie and Elijah. Later, more undead Meridian residents are discovered as the Wardens and Alexandrians amass a herd to bring to Meridian. One of the undead is Elijah's sister.

"For Blood"[]

Maggie and Elijah fight alongside Negan, Gabriel, and Daryl to defeat the Reapers and take back Meridian. While they are successful in killing the Reaper leader and several others, a hwacha counterattack by the Reapers forces the survivors to stay low.

"No Other Way"[]

The herd is destroyed by the Reapers' hwacha and Fisher is accidentally killed as well, but Maggie, Gabriel, Daryl, Negan and Elijah all survive it. The group engages in a cat-and-mouse game with the Reapers through a nearby building, resulting in a confrontation between Maggie, Elijah, Negan and Brandon Carver, the man who had murdered Elijah's sister Josephine. After a brutal fight, Negan manages to subdue Brandon, but Daryl stops Maggie from killing Brandon in revenge, deciding instead to trade him to Leah for the surviving Reapers leaving Meridian and its food supply to them.

Contacting Leah, Daryl sets up a trade, although the wounded Elijah insists to Maggie that the Wardens exact their revenge upon the Reapers even if it costs him his life. Using Jenson as a sniper, Leah at first has the upper hand until Gabriel kills Jenson and takes his sniper rifle for himself. During the standoff, the wounded Elijah tries to attack the remorseless Brandon in revenge for Josephine's murder, but he is nearly killed before Gabriel wounds Brandon in the leg. With no other choice, Leah agrees to Daryl's deal and she orders Washington and Boone to disarm themselves and leave. However, Elijah weakly reminds Maggie of her promise to avenge their losses and Maggie uses a gun that Daryl had taken from Austin to kill Boone and Washington and to wound Leah whom Daryl allows to escape. Out of bullets, Maggie uses one of Elijah's kamas to kill Brandon, avenging Josephine and all of the rest of the Wardens murdered by the Reapers during their takeover of Meridian.

With Meridian retaken and the Reapers wiped out, the group loads up the town's food supply to take it back to Alexandria. Maggie returns to the church where she had left Alden, only to find that Alden and Montanio had killed each other and reanimated. Maggie puts them both down and Negan, recognizing that she will never let go of her need for revenge against him, exiles himself from the group rather than give her the chance.

The group returns to Alexandria with the food where the injured Elijah is supported by the other Wardens who try to get answers from him without success. The Wardens join the Alexandria residents in listening to Lance Hornsby's pitch about the Commonwealth.

Six months later, Maggie, Elijah and presumably the other Wardens are living at the Hilltop when a confrontation occurs with the Commonwealth Army.

"The Lucky Ones"[]

The Wardens have joined their leader's efforts to rebuild the Hilltop. Despite the hardships that the community faces, Maggie refuses to accept the help of the Commonwealth, creating a great deal of dissent amongst the residents.

"Warlords"[]

As Lydia prepares to leave for the Commonwealth, the mortally wounded Jesse arrives at the Hilltop seeking help for Riverbend before he dies. Although Maggie is at first reluctant to get involved, she ultimately joins Lydia and Elijah.

On the road to Riverbend, the group encounters and puts down three zombified Commonwealth soldiers. They are then joined by Aaron who had escaped after first contact at Riverbend had gone wrong. Maggie, Elijah, Lydia and Aaron make their way to Riverbend, sneaking in to help the residents and killing Hodges and another soldier.

"The Rotten Core"[]

Searching through Riverbend, the group ends up in a brief standoff with Annie before Negan defuses it and leads them to a large group of survivors, including Gabriel. While the others stay behind, Maggie, Annie, Aaron, Elijah and Gabriel head out to help the other residents of Riverbend who are being hunted through the building by Toby Carlson and his soldiers.

As the others move throughout the building, Negan spots Hershel being captured by Jake Daniels, having snuck into his mother's truck before she had left the Hilltop. Negan kills Jake and rescues Hershel, reporting the situation to Maggie and promising to keep her son safe while she continues searching the building. However, Hershel deduces that Negan is the man who had killed his father and he tries to kill Negan in revenge. Negan manages to talk Hershel down as the gunshot would draw the attention of the Commonwealth soldiers, thus dooming all of the innocent people hiding with them.

Maggie eventually comes up with a plan and, as Toby and his men close in on the survivors' hiding spot, Aaron and Gabriel lure Toby, Green and another soldier up to the roof. While Toby is distracted, Maggie and Annie eliminate his two remaining soldiers and a masked Elijah ambushes his men on the roof, killing them with his kamas. Although Toby tries to talk his way out of the situation, Aaron shoots him several times, causing Toby to fall off the roof and break his back, leaving Toby to be devoured by his own reanimated victims.

In the aftermath of the fight, Maggie, Elijah and Lydia put down the reanimated Riverbend residents and dispose of the Commonwealth soldiers' bodies, agreeing to help the surviving residents out.

"Trust"[]

In the aftermath of fight at Riverbend, Lance Hornsby visits the Hilltop, demanding an inspection for the Riverbend survivors and the Commonwealth's missing guns. With Daryl asking Maggie to trust him, Maggie lets them in. However, after they don't find anything, Elijah catches Lance intimidating Hershel, leading to a brief standoff. After Daryl backs Maggie up, Lance agrees to leave with his men.

"Acts of God"[]

With Lance Hornsby sending forces after them, Maggie has her people abandon the Hilltop for their own safety with only Maggie, Elijah, Lydia and Marco remaining behind to finish the fight.

The four set an explosive trap for the soldiers, killing three of them and severely damaging Barrington House. However, Marco is killed by Leah Shaw, the last surviving member of the Wardens' old mortal enemy, the Reapers. Recognizing Leah from the fight in Meridian, Maggie leads the others in running away. Maggie sends Lydia and Elijah away to link up with the others while she lures Leah away. After a brief game of cat and mouse in which Maggie manages to shoot Leah in the leg, Leah knocks Maggie unconscious and captures her.

Leah takes Maggie back to her old cabin where Leah reveals that she intends to kill everyone that Maggie loves in revenge for Maggie's massacre of the Reapers whom Leah had considered to be her family. Maggie manages to free herself and engages in a brutal fight with Leah, resulting in Maggie being defeated and nearly killed. However, Daryl tracks the two women to Leah's cabin and he shoots Leah in the head, killing her to save Maggie and bringing a final end to the Reapers.

In the aftermath, with Lance and his forces taking over all of the communities, Daryl and Maggie link up with Gabriel and Aaron while Lydia and Elijah get the Riverbend survivors and Hershel.