'The Walking Dead' showrunner explains why they didn't reveal Glenn's fate until episodes later

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Maggie with Rick on "The Walking Dead."

Sunday's episode of "The Walking Dead" finally revealed the fate of fan-favorite Glenn (Steven Yeun) who was left for dead earlier in the season.

However fans had to wait four episodes to find out whether the character survived falling into a large zombie horde. (You can read more on that here.)

Why?

During the series' aftershow, "Talking Dead," host Chris Hardwick asked showrunner Scott Gimple why it was so important for fans to think Glenn may be dead for so long.

"The story we were telling was one of uncertainty," explained Gimple. "When people leave the walls, in this case of Alexandria, they don't have cell phones, you don't know what happens. When they leave, that could be the last time you ever see them. And, I think it was important to do a story this year about uncertainty and that the audience would share that uncertainty that the characters had, like in episode five. [Glenn's wife] Maggie didn't know what happened to Glenn and I wanted the audience to be exactly where she was, to feel the exact same way."

So, according to Gimple, while Glenn's wife Maggie was going through this grieving process, not knowing whether or not Glenn was alive, fans were supposed to be feeling the same thing.

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Maggie, unsure whether or not her husband, Glenn, is alive on "The Walking Dead."

"If you're trying to create this sense of what it feels like to be in this world, what better way to do that than to kind of vicariously live through this with the other characters on the show?" Hardwick chimed in.

While that may be the case, we could also say it was just for the ratings, right?

Executive producer Gale Ann Hurd, who was also on the aftershow, explained how secretive keeping Glenn's fate was for the cast and crew.

"It's absolutely insane," said Anne Hurd. "First of all, people on the show all have to sign NDAs, non-disclosure agreements. But, in this case, we literally said, 'Do you talk in your sleep?' And if someone said yes, we offered them some duct tape so they could duct tape their mouths and not spoil it for their wives or husbands."

"When you sign an NDA on this show, you can't talk to anyone," she added. "And then I think it's something that helps create our Walking Dead family on set because we can only talk to each other."

Steven Yeun, who could finally talk about the big reveal, also appeared to briefly discuss what it was like staying mum for weeks on end.

"I have not been out much," admitted Yeun. "I frequent a lot of take out. My apartment looks like a hoarder's house."

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Steven Yeun plays Glenn on "The Walking Dead."

Even though he was now in the clear, Yeun appeared to carefully choose his words as he spoke, "I feel relieved. I feel very grateful. I feel so amazed at the response. I feel bad that I couldn't say anything to everyone - family and friends. I'm pretty sure I lost some friends along the way," said Yeun.

The mid-season finale of "The Walking Dead" airs Sunday, November 29 at 9 p.m. and is directed by Greg Nicotero.