Lauren Cohan has opened up about her emotional return to The Walking Dead, reflecting on a particularly poignant scene during the Season 10 finale that saw her character, Maggie Rhee, reunited with Cailey Fleming’s Judith Grimes.

According to Cohan, who left the popular AMC show following the ending of Season 9, the Season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” used her return to great effect as a means of showcasing the passage of time since they last shared any screen time together. She highlighted how the moment captured the resonant idea of how they had grown as people during their time apart, before praising Fleming’s performance as Judith.

“It’s such a marker of time. It’s crazy because we see the other characters, the adult characters, and you can sort of tell their hair is longer and maybe everybody looks a little bit more weathered,” Cohan said. “We tell the story of time passing, but then it really does hit you like a ton of bricks when you see the children grown up and how they cope in a world… Not even how they cope, but how they just take this as standard.”

“And then seeing characters like Cailey’s, especially with an actress like Cailey, who’s able to transmit this amazing wisdom… She’s just such a wise soul,” Cohan continued. “And it is one of those things that’s like this bright light in this dark world, to see a child like that who’s just able to offer comfort to people, to offer friendship.”

The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton and Cooper Andrews.