The show’s female characters have evolved—and now, it looks like women will finally be driving the plot.

COURTESY OF AMC.

In one night on The Walking Dead, the show’s longtime leader, Rick, went from badass conquerer to submissive subject—and understandably so. He had, after all, just witnessed the death of two close friends—and was almost forced to cut his son’s arm off. Still, it’s a huge change in the show’s alchemy to see Rick submit. This is, after all, the guy who once said, “They’re going to feel real stupid when they find out they’re fucking with the wrong people” while trapped in a train car waiting to be eaten by cannibals. And so, the season kicked off its seventh season with a fascinating question: what will the group do now that it’s finally met its match? Are they doomed to bend to Negan’s will forever and ever? It seems safe to assume the group will overcome their new troubles somehow—it’s already been renewed for an eighth season—but who will they turn to for leadership now? The most obvious answer seems to be a woman scorned—or perhaps two. And if that’s the case, this is a huge turning point for the show.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Lauren Cohan noted that Maggie’s journey will be fascinating to watch this season, as she lives her life both in honor of Glenn and in pursuit of vengeance against Negan.

“It’s a real spiritual journey that she goes on,” Cohan said. “Sasha and her are gonna be incredibly tight and they really need each other, and they really lean on each other. Within all the drive and the violence that the group has to perform and to undergo, there is going to be honor for our fallen.”

We last saw Sasha vowing to take Maggie to Hilltop and keep her safe—and agreeing with Rosita that Abraham would be avenged. At this point, Maggie and Sasha are TWD’s most unbroken characters—and as such, they seem perhaps best positioned to drive the plot going forward this season. Rick’s trying to protect his own, and can be seen in teasers for the season to come telling Alexandrians that he’s not in charge anymore—Negan is. Maggie, on the other hand, doesn’t seem willing to let this go without a fight.

“It’s funny because Negan already sees that Maggie has submitted in a way because she’s so physically crippled, and I think that once the worst has happened, then that surge of adrenaline comes and there’s nothing she can do,” Cohan told E.W. “And there’s nothing left to do. There’s no worse-case scenario now. But what Negan’s actions do to Maggie is light this crazy fuse. And we’ll see that burn pretty strong.”

Since its beginning, The Walking Dead has slowly improved its depiction of women. In the show’s early days, most of its female characters were either insufferable or, later, developed interchangeably. Over time, though, the series has allowed its female characters to become more complicated: Maggie, introduced in Season 2, has remained a beloved favorite due to her smarts and combat capability, while Michonne has developed into a strong but simultaneously maternal figure and Carol has established herself as the show’s best badass. Sure, there have still been some controversial moves—including reducing Carol from capable badass to simpering puddle of mush in Season 6—but overall, it feels fair to say the show has evolved considerably from where it started, when Andrea and Lori were both the show’s primary female characters and also its most hated. And when the show’s big, bad villains emerge, female characters are often the ones to wipe them out—whether it’s Carol roasting all of the cannibals in Terminus, or Michonne skewering the Governor with her katana.

But for all of the growth the show’s female characters have shown, its major plots still tend to center on the men: Rick consistently remained in charge despite some very questionable leadership habits, and spent the season struggling to reconcile what it means to be a leader in Alexandria; Morgan got a bloated 90-minute episode all to himself last season to explain why he took up nonviolence and aikido; and, meanwhile, almost all of the female characters’ story arcs were actually driven by men. Maggie was looking for Glenn, Carol was reeling from what Morgan’s moral code meant about her, and Sasha was falling in love with Abraham. Michonne was perhaps the only exception to this rule, as she developed her own outlook on survival through her talks with Deanna. (Though, we should note, her most memorable plot line from last season was her romance with Rick.)

Could this be the season that breaks that mold? Game of Thrones managed a similar transition with its most recent season, which arguably had much more ground to make up when it comes to its treatment of female characters. TWD has already built an impressive collection of badass female characters—Maggie, Sasha, Carol, Michonne, Rosita, Tara—and now seems like the perfect time to unleash them all on its most vile villain yet.