The song that plays in The Walking Dead season 10, episode 17 is a cover of "You Want It Darker." The original version of "You Want It Darker" was the first single from Leonard Cohen's 2016 album of the same name, the last to be released before the acclaimed (and weirdly prophetic) Canadian singer-songwriter died at the age of 82. The album and song were heralded, with the song itself winning a Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 2018.
When listening to the song, it's not hard to see why it was chosen for this particular moment of the episode. While Maggie has agreed to return to Alexandria and live in proximity to Negan, her feelings toward him are clearly not resolved. Maggie is a rational and fair-minded person, but she's also fiercely loyal to her family and those she loves. Negan is a living testament to the forces that would do her family harm.
Typical of Cohen's songwriting, the lyrics to "You Want It Darker" are rich with allusion and specific meanings. But even to just take some of the words at face value, we can see how they match and intensify the mood of Maggie's walk back into Alexandria: "There's a lullaby for suffering / And a paradox to blame / But it's written in the scriptures / And it's not some idle claim / You want it darker / We kill the flame."
We'll have to wait and see what the rest of The Walking Dead season 10C holds for Maggie and Negan, but it seems likely that some of these intense feelings will come to a head one way or another, sooner or later.
