Maggie burned Ginny’s dinosaur as a way to keep Negan from realizing that she was in Manhattan and getting distracted from their mission.
Maggie may have only burned Ginny’s dinosaur to keep Negan from being distracted from their plan to rescue Hershel, but this also helps to conceal the fact that she is lying about Hilltop’s grain shortage.
Dead City: Why did Maggie burn the dinosaur?
So far, most of Dead City has revolved around Maggie and Negan trying to get her son, Hershel, back from the Croat and his band of followers. But it has also given fans some juicy insights into the characters’ pasts along the way.
This includes a flashback explaining some of Negan’s bond with Ginny, who is occasionally accompanied by her beloved dinosaur toy and who has been making her way back to Manhattan (presumably also to Negan) in the present timeline.
However, once Maggie spots Ginny’s dinosaur and realizes that it could tip Negan off about her reappearance, she decides to burn the toy before he can find it.
At this point, given Maggie’s singular focus, it is fair to assume that her main motivation for this is to simply avoid the possibility that Negan could get so sidetracked by finding Ginny that this would distract him from their Hershel-rescue-plan.
This dinosaur toy represents something much deeper
It is obvious that Ginny’s great attachment to her dinosaur toy sprouts from the association that the toy has with her long-lost father.
But this toy, like all of the souvenirs that the characters hold onto in this episode, actually represent the characters’ unwillingness to let go of their past lives and the people that they lost along the way.
Furthermore, the burning of this dinosaur symbolizes just how far-removed that past is at this point in the series.
Why Maggie does not want Ginny and Negan to reunite
Maggie does not want anything to pull Negan’s focus away from rescuing Hershel.
Additionally, she may also not want Ginny and Negan to reunite because Ginny knows that Maggie’s story about Hilltop’s grain storage is a lie (from what she witnessed at the silo and her Hilltop meal).
There is no telling what Negan would do if he was faced with the truth that Maggie had been lying to him about her history with the Croat (until it eventually happens, of course).
What burning the dinosaur means for Maggie’s character
Maggie is still exceedingly far from ever being considered one of the ‘bad guys’ in The Walking Dead.
However, her decision to effectively place Ginny in harm’s way (by ensuring that she stays alone and unprotected) – to save her own son and conceal her lies, does place her squarely in the morally dubious area.