The Walking Dead is a television show about zombies taking place in a post-apocalyptic society.
As such, there are a lot of deaths. The fact of the matter is that all the zombies were once living, breathing human beings and all are now dead, lumbering around as Walkers, Roamers, or whatever the characters on the popular AMC series want to call them. It was clear from the pilot episode, and the comic books that it follows, that there will be plenty of deaths and as the show progressed, it turned out that no one was safe.
As the series started to get underway, popular characters would often die. From the first few episodes, only Rick, Carl and Daryl remain alive and still fighting. Even characters that fans came to love and cherish have died, whether by a zombie bite, the swipe of a sword, a bullet from a gun, or even – in some cases – from a barbed wire baseball bat named Lucille. No one is safe, and The Walking Dead comic book creator Robert Kirkman has stated that even includes the hero of the series Rick Grimes.
Now in its eighth season, the characters of The Walking Dead are involved in something known in the comics as the All-Out War. As with all wars, there are casualties, and one major character has already died in this giant battle. With many more deaths to come, here is a look at 25 of the most brutal Walking Dead deaths so far.
As expected, significant spoilers follow.
Jim
Jim was an early moment where fans of The Walking Dead realized that anyone could die at any time, and while his death was not a gruesome one, it was still a hard hit lesson that anyone could die, something that happened to almost every member of that first season’s cast.
Jim had a tragic story before he finally bit the big one. He was on the run with his wife and children and he escaped while the walkers ate his family, making him a very depressed and withdrawn individual. Jim is with the survivors when Rick finally shows up and finds them, joining the group.
Jim then started to have nightmares and began to dig holes for the dead. It wouldn’t be long until he joined them.
Jim’s end came in the season one episode “Wildfire.” The bite that did Jim in came after a zombie attack on their camp but it wasn’t noticed until someone saw the blood and realized he was infected. Daryl wanted to kill him on the spot but Rick was compassionate. Instead, they let Jim decide his own fate. He didn’t want the bullet in the head and they left him by a tree to die and eventually become a walker himself.
Spencer
Spencer Monroe was a terrible person for most of his time on The Walking Dead. The son of the leaders in Alexandria, he seemed entitled, selfish, and cowardly – a similar trait to his brother Aiden.
Aiden was antagonistic against Rick from the very beginning. While everyone tried to make it work, Aiden proved from the very start that he was only out for himself. While his parents, Deanna and Reg, worked hard to build a community, Aiden seemed to just look out for himself until he slightly redeemed himself by allowing walkers to kill him to save Glenn, Nicholas and Noah.
However, the death of Aiden set his brother Spencer on a dark path to his fate. Spencer could never fit in, especially after the death of his parents. He had a few heroic moments, but his end came when he tried to betray everyone.
In the episode “Hearts Still Beating,” Spencer tried to sell out Rick to Negan. While Rick is out gathering supplies for Negan to save Alexandria, Spencer offers to betray Rick if Negan will name him the new leader of Alexandria. This is when Negan says that Rick has guts but Spencer does not, before driving a knife into his gut and killing him.
Milton
Milton was proof that no one could trust The Governor. Milton was one of the most trusted allies of The Governor in Woodbury and was highly intelligent, working as a researcher in the town to help The Governor with his experiments on zombies. Of course, The Governor has his daughter, who is a zombie, that he wants to find a way to help – and that was Milton’s main duties.
While Milton was a close associate of The Governor, he proved from the start that he was not as bloodthirsty as his leader, especially when he showed disgust when told about massacres of other survivors, such as the National Guard soldiers.
Milton and Andrea start to work together, trying to figure out what traits the reanimated corpses have but he proves early on not to have the guts to deal with an actual dangerous zombie. However, his relationship with Andrea sets up his eventual turn. When he learns that The Governor is going to execute everyone at the prison, he finally confides in Andrea what is happening.
When The Governor learns that Milton betrayed him, he beats him horribly. The Governor then gives Milton one last chance to live – to kill Andrea. He attacks The Governor and ends up stabbed repeatedly. The Governor then places Milton in a room with Andrea tied up to kill her when he reanimated.
Amy
The Walking Dead has never shied away from pulling at the heartstrings of viewers, and one of the earliest examples came in the case of Amy, Andrea’s little sister. Andrea and Amy are on a road trip back to Amy’s college when the zombie outbreak occurs, and they end up saved by Dale.
Amy is first introduced at the camp with Shane and the other survivors and proves from the start that she wants to fight to protect those she loves – specifically her sister Andrea. She was also one to stand up for others, such as Carol when her husband Ed was beating and abusing her.
However, Amy was not long for the world of The Walking Dead. Her death was shocking, came out of nowhere, and caused ramifications that lasted for a long time when it came to the survival of the heroes. On the first season episode “Vatos,” Amy simply went to the bathroom in the RV, and when she came out, a walker attacked and bit into her arm.
The most shocking thing was that this came after a small scene where the survivors were laughing and enjoying one another’s company. That proved to everyone that they could never let their guard down. This was also the event that led to the death of Jim as well.
The bite and death wasn’t the end. On the next episode, “Wildfire,” Andrea held Amy in her arms and spoke to her about everything she should have done to help her in the past. Then, Amy opened her eyes and reanimated. Andrea, in tears, said she was there for her now and shot her sister in the head, saving her from the life of a walker.
Jessie and Sam
Skip ahead fo seasons five and six, and The Walking Dead sees Rick and company arrive in Alexandria, and seemingly find a safe haven to call their home. There are walls surrounding the town and they seem protected for the first time since the zombie outbreak started.
However, inside the walls, danger lurked in the hearts of the living. Things were never right with the survivors in Alexandria. Rick, Daryl and Carol had already decided a hostile takeover might be best if the townspeople didn’t accept them. Many in town, including Pete Anderson, never took to Rick either.
Pete’s problem was that his wife Jessie seemed to have caught Rick’s eye. It also didn’t help that Rick realized that Pete was abusing Jessie, and possibly her two sons as well. Things were exasperated when Carol made a veiled threat towards Jessie’s son Sam to keep him quiet, causing Sam to slightly go crazy.
Things progressed and Pete tried to kill Rick, accidentally killing Reg instead. After this, Deanne authorized Rick to murder Pete, which he did. The death of their father caused both Sam and his brother Ron to lose their grip and this led to the moment where zombies attacked Alexandria.
When Rick tried to save a number of people – including the Anderson family – Sam lost his grip on reality and the zombies attacked him. Jessie tried to save her son but the zombies overtook her as well. The battle caused Rick to chop off Jessie’s hand to save Carl, who she was holding onto, and then it all ended with Carl taking a bullet into his eye.
Noah
Everybody Hates Chris actor Tyler James Williams joined the cast of The Walking Dead in season five when residents of the Grady Memorial Hospital saved Beth Greene and Carol and brought them to their safe haven. However, things were not always safe there.
Dawn, the police officer who ruled over the survivors in the hospital, was controlling and demanding. She kept Beth and Carol restrained until they agreed to work as part of their society to earn their safety in the hospital. Another person who worked to secure his spot was Noah.
The Grady Hospital survivors ambushed Noah and his father and Noah agreed to work for the hospital for his protection but left his father to die. Noah, a teenager, wanted to escape from the hospital and got away, although Beth was recaptured and taken back. After this Noah meets Daryl and Carol and agrees to help them save Beth.
That didn’t quite work out as well as everyone hoped. After Beth’s death, Noah joins up with Rick and the survivors and ends up in Alexandria. However, in “Spend,” Noah finally dies. He is with Glenn, Noah and Nicholas gathering supplies but is left to die thanks to the cowardliness of Nicholas, torn to shreds by walkers in a rotating door of an office building.
Denise
There have been some major changes from The Walking Dead comic book pages and some have involved different characters dying at different times. An example is Andrea dying when Carol should have died as well as Denise dying instead of Abraham.
Denise was the doctor in Alexandria, although her skills were never equipped to deal with the massive injuries that came when the walkers invaded her town. Despite this, Denise was able to overcome her doubts and insecurities and even saved Carl’s life after a bullet took his eye.
However, in the comics, there was a shocking death when Abraham was out patrolling and took an arrow in the eye, killing him right after he and Eugene finally came to terms with their fractured relationship. On The Walking Dead television show, it was a little more tragic.
Denise was moving towards a possible relationship with Tara when she went out on a scouting trip with Daryl and Rosita. Daryl had already blown up a large number of Saviors in self-defense and this was revenge. Just as Denise had talked to Daryl and Rosita about the two of them were facing self-doubt. However, just when she was ready to make a point that they needed to “wake up,” she took the arrow to the eye and Dwight killed Alexandria’s only doctor.
Deanna
Deanna Monroe and her husband Reg had done an amazing job in building the Alexandria society and keeping them safe until Rick came along. Deanne was the leader in Alexandria, an interesting change since it was Reg who served as the leader in The Walking Dead comic books. A former U.S. Congresswoman, she used her natural leadership skills to keep her town in line.
However, when Rick arrived in town, she realized that there was still something missing. Rick had the power to keep people under control as safe, something the town lacked. She made Rick the constable in the town and that ended up leading to her downfall.
It started with Rick wanted to save Jessie from an abusive husband. However, his attempts to deal with this led to the death of Reg and Deanne started to lose her will to lead. Finally, when the walkers crashed into town, things went from bad to worse.
Deanne was injured while helping Rick battle zombies but she realizes at this point that she is a hindrance. When the survivors realize that a walker bit Deanne, they take her to her bedroom to rest in peace. Finally, she tells them to leave her and then she takes one of the most heroic stands possible, firing her gun into the oncoming walkers and going out in a blaze of glory.
T-Dog
Theodore Douglas was known to the survivors in season one of The Walking Dead by the name T-Dog, or just T to some of his friends. T-Dog was part of one of the original group of survivors in Atlanta, along with Glenn, Andrea, Merle, Morales, and Jacqui. This was really one of the first signs of clashes between the living as the racist Merle targeted T-Dog as the source of his anger.
T-Dog was the man responsible for the survivors leaving Merle handcuffed on a roof alone. This puts T-Dog in the crosshairs of Daryl, who is angered that his brother was left to possibly die. However, it wasn’t Daryl or Merle that led to the death of T-Dog.
In season three, Rick and the survivors found a new home within the confines of the prison, where they set up shop and met a new group of survivors – four prisoners remaining alive behind the prison walls. By this point, T-Dog was showing reservations concerning the violent behavior within their own group – specifically by Rick Grimes.
His end came in the season three episode “Killer Within,” where T-Dog and Carol fight off a walker invasion. T-Dog is bitten but helps get Carol inside the prison itself, getting her safely back to the prison block where the group lived. When they find walkers blocking their way, T-Dog charges them and takes both to the ground, allowing Carol to escape, and giving his life to save her.
Sophia
The second season of The Walking Dead was very tedious at times to get through. After the first season with lots of tension and lots of battles with zombies, the second season saw the group set up shop at Hershel’s farm, and it seemed like nothing happened outside of character building with little in the way of action.
However, there was one big mystery that haunted the survivors of Rick’s camp. Carol’s daughter Sophia disappeared. While Sophia in the comics survived and became an important character down the line when the group reached Alexandria and The Hilltop, her life was not as long on The Walking Dead television series, and her death came as a shock to fans of the comics.
The disappearance of Sophia looked to be a mystery that many fans thought would result in the group finding and saving her, based on her existence in the comics. The last time anyone saw her, Rick left her by a creek while he killed the zombies in the area.
Their time at Hershel’s farm, while never as exciting as the first season’s episodes, ended in a climactic fashion. They all learn that Hershel kept walkers locked in his barn, hoping that one day the outbreak could end and they would revert to living beings. When Shane busts open the door, letting them out, they kill them all one by one until they see the last zombie walking out.
It is Sophie, and The Walking Dead proved that even children were not exempt from the horrors of the series.
Bob
Bob was never a very interesting character on The Walking Dead until his demise. However, it is always an interesting case to realize how he made it through the entire outbreak as the lone survivor of every group he was part of. That made him a little wary of getting close to anyone.
Glenn and Daryl found Bob and brought him back to the survivor’s camp. As a former Army medic, he had experience that could help the group and lives with them at the prison starting in season four. Things started to change for Bob when he developed a close relationship with Sasha and her brother Tyreese.
While Bob was able to survive the entire onslaught from The Governor at the prison, he didn’t last too much longer. In season five, Bob and Sasha grew close and that is when things go bad for the former lone survivor. In “Strangers,” The Hunters at Terminus capture Bob and cut off his leg to eat that night.
However, at this point, The Walking Dead makes a very interesting decision. Bob had been bitten on the shoulder by a walker and was infected. The Hunters were eating tainted meat. The Hunters knock out Bob and return him to the church where the survivors are taking refuge.
At this point, Bob says his goodbyes to Michonne, Sasha, and Tyreese, before he finally dies. Tyreese then puts a knife through the head of Bob, saving him from returning as a walker.
Andrea
Andrea might be the most controversial character on The Walking Dead when it comes to fans of the comic books. See, in the comics, Andrea was the toughest female fighter of the entire group, possibly only challenged in that role by Michonne. She survived longer than anyone from the start outside of Rick and Carl.
However, The Walking Dead TV show decided to change two characters around. In the comics, Carol was lost after the death of her abusive husband and ended up suicidal, despite her daughter Sophia needing her to remain strong to protect her. On the TV show, Andrea became suicidal and Carol became the stronger.
Andrea had attempted suicide before, after the death of her sister Amy, but Dale saves her against her wishes. Andrea almost dies again in the second season before Michonne saves her life. When it seemed she was going to make it through, she met The Governor.
The Governor took a liking to Andrea and took her in. However, when she realized that the peace treaty that The Governor made with Rick was a lie and that he planned to kill everyone, she betrayed him. As a result, The Governor killed Milton and locked Andrea in a room, chained to a chair, for Milton to turn and kill.
However, Milton was not yet dead and told Andrea that he left a wrench in the room for her to free herself with. The sad thing is that she was too late and Milton bites her before she takes him down. Andrea asks for the right to finally end her own life and Rick gives her a gun and leaves her to finally end things the way she wanted from the start.
Merle
Merle Dixon was never a decent person. He was a racist and an antagonistic jerk, even to those people who tried to help him. He proved his malevolence when dealing with T-Dog and was left, his hand chained to a pipe on a roof, as a result of his self-destructive personality.
However, at the same time, Merle cared deeply for his younger brother Daryl and was looking out for his protection from the start. It was his mix of being a complete jerk to his being a strong and protective brother than made Merle a very nuanced character on The Walking Dead.
He was also very popular. The the first season, when Daryl, Rich, Glenn and T-Dog go back for Merle, he is gone and only his hand remains on the roof. Thanks to the popularity of his character, it was clear that he would return to the TV show at some point.
That return came when season three showed that he joined up with The Governor at some point after amputating his hand and escaping from Atlanta. Merle is one of The Governor’s right-hand men and is helping him kill anyone needed to keep his control.
However, when he sees that Daryl is still alive and the survivors have watched out for him, Merle starts to come around. The Governor orders Merle and Daryl to fight to the death in “The Suicide King,” but Merle finally betrays The Governor and joins Rick’s group.
However, betraying Merle may have redeemed Merle, but it also doomed him. Merle tries to kill The Governor rather than betray Rick’s group, and The Governor shoots him in the chest. The most heartbreaking part was when Daryl found his brother, who was now a walker, and had to put down the one man who always protected him.
Sasha
One of the most recent major character deaths on The Walking Dead came in the season seven finale. Sasha and her brother Tyreese joined the survivors in season three and was part of the battle at the prison. At first, she was the younger sister of Tyreese and was a little antagonistic due to her age.
She does seem to lighten up somewhat when she meets up with Bob. However, fans of the comic books might have expected their relationship to end up bad, something that strayed from the comics for good reasons. Sasha became a very conflicted character as the seasons wore on.
After the deaths of her brother Tyreese and her boyfriend Bob, Sasha became suicidal. She had moments where she lied in a pool of dead zombies and moments where she went into battle with what seemed like the decision to end her own life.
However, she survived and became a stronger fighter over time. After she developed a short-lived relationship with Abraham, his death drove her further to the edge. That is when she met Negan.
Sasha decides after Negan kills Abraham that she will kill him herself and sets up her plans. She heads to the Sanctuary with Rosita and the two plan an attack to kill Negan – but they fail. However, her attempt to kill Negan impresses him and he asks her to join them.
Sasha then agrees to help Negan figure out if Rick is planning to betray him and she agrees. Negan explains that he needs to execute people from Rick’s group to show they can’t doublecross him and she agrees to go with him to Alexandria. However, while on the way there she asks to rest in a casket that Negan is taking with them.
On the trip, Sasha then takes a suicide pill that Eugene gave her before leaving, and she peacefully commits suicide in the casket. This act was a tactical move because when Negan opened the coffin, Sasha had reanimated and attacked him, saving Rick’s camp from Negan’s vengeance.
Tyreese
Tyreese Williams was a huge change from the pages of The Walking Dead comic books to the television series. In the comics, he was a strong fighter, someone who could stand by Rick and beat just about anyone standing in their way. On the TV show, Tyreese was more of a pacifist.
Tyreese and his younger sister Sasha joined the group when they reached the prison in the third season. There were some similarities, such as his fighting skills at the prison and the fact that he developed a relationship with a woman (Karen) who died at the prison.
However, the story drifted after that when Tyreese ended up caring for Baby Judith as well as helping Carol with the young sisters Lizzie and Mika. Through all this, Tyreese struggled with his own morals and reluctance to kill, making his storyline with Carol, and later with his own sister, so intriguing.
After surviving the prison, watching Bob die and finishing him off after his death, and then watching the aftermath of Beth’s death at the hospital, Tyreese was losing his hope for humanity. It was his protective nature of his sister keeping him alive.
His end came in “What Happened and What’s Going On.” After leaving the hospital and burying Beth, they head out with Noah to see if his mother was still alive but this was a huge mistake. Noah’s family is dead and his twin brother bites Tyreese. At this point, Tyreese starts to suffer hallucinations of the ones who died before him. While Michonne amputated his arm to try to save him, Tyreese realized he wanted to die and gave in to his fate.
The Governor
Before Negan showed up, The Governor was the most prominent villain that the survivors of the zombie plague ever faced. If you ask some fans who left last season disappointed, The Governor is still the greatest villain that ever reigned terror on Rick and his band of survivors.
Before Negan came along and killed Glenn and Abraham, The Governor murdered Hershel and Merle and caused the death of Andrea. The difference between Negan and The Governor is that Negan kills people to make a point while The Governor killed because he was a sociopath who took out anyone who he thought could be a threat.
The end of The Governor was a huge moment as well. He had struck a deal with Rick for the two sides to live in peace but then betrayed Rick when he chopped off the head of Hershel. His sins in the comics were worse, as he killed Lori and Baby Judith, but fans of The Walking Dead TV series were spared that horror. The death of Hershel was traumatizing enough.
Then, The Governor looked like he may win as he was choking the life of Rick Grimes. Just as he proved that he was stronger than Rick, and right as fans watched the life pass from the eyes of Rick, Michonne thrust her sword through The Governor and ended his reign of terror once and for all.
Eric
The most recent Walking Dead death came this season when Aaron lost the man that he loves. Viewers met Aaron when he sought out Rick and his band of survivors and invited them back to Alexandria with the intention of bringing them into their society.
While Rick was leary at first, it turned out that the invitation was sincere and Rick became an influential force when it comes to Alexandria and Aaron became a stog ally for the heroes. However, Aaron also had the first openly gay relationship in the series and worked with Eric as scouts for the town.
After Eric almost died, Aaron decides that he wants Eric to retire from scouting to keep the man he loved safe. Eric appeared little in the rest of the season outside of some scenes with Daryl and the townspeople.
Eric never wanted to fight, but soon Aaron convinced him to help. That lead to season eight where they were part of the team attacking a Negan stronghold looking for weapons. It was during this fight that Eric took a gunshot through the gut.
In “Monsters,” Aaron took Eric to a tree to rest away from the battle and said he would help him. However, Eric told Aaron that he had to finish what he started. This is where Eric said that he didn’t want to fight – until he did – and said Aaron had to keep fighting. When Aaron returned after the fight. Eric was dead and lumbering as a walker into the woods.
Beth
Maggie Greene has lost everyone in her life. She lost family members before they left her father’s farm. She lost her dad at the prison. She lost her husband to Negan and Lucille. However, in between Hershel and Glenn, Maggie also lost her sister Beth – something that destroyed Daryl as well.
Beth was a polarizing figure on The Walking Dead. Many fans hated her due to the fact she was a very annoying character. Others loved her because she was the most innocent character on the show – proof that innocence could survive in a world like this post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Beth was not only Maggie’s only remaining family member, but she was also someone who meant a lot to Daryl. The two bonded in season four when Daryl taught her how to fight better and defend herself while she taught Daryl how to trust someone. However, their time together ends when Beth disappears.
Beth is gone until season five, most people assuming she died. However, Daryl refuses to believe this, and soon he and Carol are led to a hospital in Atlanta, where Beth was saved by the survivors there and brought in. She was kept as a captive, forced to work to pat them back for saving her.
Beth’s end was another shocking moment on The Walking Dead. Rick, Daryl, and others arrive to rescue Beth and offers a trade to Dawn, the police officer who rules over these survivors. However, Beth, who believes that Dawn is a danger to everyone, stabs her with scissors, causing Dawn to accidentally shoot Beth in the head.
Daryl kills Dawn, and then the episode ends in a tragic moment as he carries Beth’s dead body out of the hospital where Maggie is waiting.
Lizzie and Mika
The most controversial moment on The Walking Dead television series came with the young sisters Lizzie and Mika. Lizzie, 12, was growing disturbed after the death of her parents. Carol had adopted both Lizzie and her 10-year-old sister Mika, but she was unable to fulfill what Lizzie needed to survive.
Lizzie had started to take on a disturbing trait where she was giving names to the walkers, saying that they were all people once. She also believed that the walkers could one day be her friend – making her a very dangerous person to be around when zombies showed up.
The tragedy came in the fourth season when Carol and Tyreese were staying at a cabin while caring for Lizzie, Mika and Baby Judith. Carol and Tyreese were out when walkers attacked. They killed the walkers, but one almost got to Lizzie and Baby Judith, where Carol killed it.
The death of the walker affected Lizzie more than the fact that she almost died and Lizzie started to believe that it might be better to be a zombie rather than fight one. In her mind, Lizzie wanted to prove that walkers were not dangerous and killed her younger sister to prove it.
Carol was shocked at the murder and saw that Baby Judith was still alive and that Lizzie was a danger. Then, the most heartbreaking death of the entire series occurred. Carol walked out to talk to Lizzie and the little girl began to cry because she thought Carol was mad at her. The sad thing is that she didn’t think it was due to Mika’s death but because she pointed a gun at Carol.
With that in mind, Carol felt she had no choice. She asked Lizzie to look at the pretty flowers, and while the little girl was distracted, Carol shot her in the head.
Lori
Both on The Walking Dead television show and in the comic books, Lori was a very polarizing character, with many fans considering her the one they most wanted to see dead. While she was the wife of Rick Grimes and mother of Carl Grimes, her personality, overreaction to everything and ability to cause problems for the rest of the survivors, it seemed her time was coming.
It also didn’t help that Lori’s death in the comics was so horrific, with her and Baby Judith gunned down by The Governor. Most believed that her death in the series couldn’t match the one in the comics because of the brutal murder of a baby. However, the series found an even more tragic way to take out Lori.
Lori was pregnant with Baby Judith, and instead of having the baby and then dying with the child in her arms, Lori had a problematic pregnancy. While the prison was under attack, Lori, Carl and Maggie are hiding in the boiler room, and Lori goes into labor.
Beth has the baby and Maggie takes the child – a baby girl. Carl then looks at his mother, sees all the blood, and realizes that he only has one choice in this situation. As Maggie takes the baby out of the boiler room, a gunshot rings out. While it is never shown, the idea is that Carl shot his mother to make sure she couldn’t return as a walker – something that destroyed him and his father for a long time.
Dale
If there was one overly gruesome moment on The Walking Dead early on in the series, it had to be the death of Dale. He started out his path traveling with two sisters that he saved in Andrea and Amy. He is part of the group that Shane leads before Rick shows up.
It is Dale that seems to warm up to Rick the quickest, and while he is 64, he could hold his own against the walkers when they attack. However, Dale is also slightly obsessed with protecting his friends and caused quite a problem when he saved Andrea from taking her own life back in the first season.
Dale finally resigns himself to the fact that it was Andrea’s choice to make and the two try to make up and get back on good terms again. However, it wouldn’t last. Dale died, and that sad thing is that Carl – still quite young and innocent at the time – was partially responsible.
In the episode “Judge, Jury, Executioner,” Carl comes across a walker and provokes it but does not kill it. He doesn’t tell anyone that the walker was around the camp, so no one knows to watch out for it and beware of the dangers. That proves fatal as Dale is patrolling and the walker attacks him.
This death was the first time that a walker disemboweled a significant character on the show in a horrific and gory manner. Daryl is the one who ends up putting the gun to Dale’s head and ending his life before he can turn.
Abraham
In the comic books, Abraham died much earlier than he did in the TV series. Whether that was because Abraham was such a fan-favorite character or because the writers wanted to throw fans off, that is debatable.
In the comic books, Abraham is walking with Eugene and the two of them make up after a period of fighting. Just as they finally come to an agreement, Dwight shot him in the eye with an arrow. On The Walking Dead TV series, that death went to Denise.
Abraham was one of the best fighters on the entire team of survivors, a former military man who was handy with a gun and very adept at killing the enemy. That made him someone that Negan knew he needed to eliminate when he finally rounded up Rick and the survivors.
In the comics, it was Glenn that took Lucille to the head in issue #100, a shocking death of the longest-running hero outside of Rick and Carl Grimes. However, the TV show had a different idea. When it came time for Negan to set an example by killing a man in front of his friends, it was Abraham that he chose.
Abraham’s story had come to a close. He had made up with Eugene. He had broken off his relationship with Rosita and started one up short-term with Sasha. As he did with his entire life, after Negan smashed his skull in with Lucille, Abraham sat back up and said “suck my nuts” before Negan finished him off.
Shane
The very first scene of The Walking Dead showed Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh as police officers and best friends. They got a call about two criminals on the ring and they set up a roadblock. Things don’t go well and one of the criminals shoots Rick, leaving him in a coma.
When the zombie outbreak happens, Shane takes Rick’s wife Lori and son Carl and protects them both, while also taking in other survivors and becoming their leader. Things are going well for Shane, who has started to move into a relationship with Lori before Rick shows back up.
For the first two seasons of the show, Rick and Shane work together to support the group and protect everyone, even though they disagree at times about their methods of protecting people. However, further into the second season, Shane starts to find that Rick is ruining his plans for leading this group and winning over Lori.
However, after Shane is forced to kill Otis for his safety, as well as that of Carl, Shane starts to lose his grip on sanity. That is when Shene tries to convince everyone that Rick’s actions will get them all killed and he develops a plan to kill Rick and make it look like Randall did it.
That is when Shane decides to kill Rick. While he tries to talk his former best friend out of it, Shane seems unwilling to back down. Rick goes to hand Shane his gun, in a seemingly last-ditch opportunity to make peace but instead, he stabs Shane in the stomach and kills him. Rick cries over and over that Shane made him do this. In the comics, it is Carl who shoots Shane and the TV show paid homage by having Carl shoot a reanimated Shane after the fact.
Hershel
Hershel Greene had a fantastic character arc. When the group first encountered him, he lived with his family on his farm and, unbeknownst to everyone, and he was keeping walkers locked in his barn, believing that one day a cure would come and he could save them, including his loved ones.
Hershel had a vast moral standing and did everything to stand for what he believed in – which included not killing anyone at the time – even walkers that he thought could be cured. However, beyond that, he lived to protect his two daughters, Maggie and Beth.
However, once the barn emptied, Hershel begins to follow Rick and becomes his most trusted advisor. Herchel is also the first person on the entire Walking Dead TV show to survive a zombie bite by having his leg amputated while inside the prison.
Hershel, throughout the third season, went from being an untrustworthy outsider to one of the most popular characters on the entire show and that made his death so tragic to everyone- fans of the show and the characters themselves.
Hershel was a great asset to the survivors, serving as a doctor and peacekeeper within the prison walls. However, when The Governor attacked the prison in retaliation in the fourth season, both Michonne and Hershel are outside the gates. He takes both of them prisoner and then, with Rick, Maggie, and Beth all watching, The Governor takes Michonne’s sword and then slashes at Hershel until he decapitates the beloved father of two.
Glenn
For a long time, Hershel was the most devastating death on The Walking Dead but that all changed with the season seven premiere. Outside of Rick, no one had survived as long on the series as Glenn Rhee. If anything, the one-time pizza delivery driver had proven with his marriage to Maggie and their baby on the way, that life could start anew even in the zombie apocalypse.
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Glenn had even survived numerous near-death experiences, but fans of the comic books knew that when Negan arrived, the first thing he did was kill Glenn with his barbed wire baseball bat Lucille.
However, things looked like they might change from the comics when Negan instead killed Abraham on that fateful night. Sadly for fans of Glenn, and for Maggie who is pregnant with his child, Glenn died in “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.”
Just when it looked like Glenn would survive to live and fight another day, Daryl attacked Negan, and that meant that Negan had to make another example from the group of survivors. That ended up being Glenn. Negan than took the bat and smashed Glenn in the head with it.
Maggie, who had lost her father Hershel and her sister Beth, now lost the last person in her life that she could call family in Glenn. As she cried, Glenn said “I’ll find you, ” and Negan finished the job, killing one of the most beloved characters in Walking Dead history.
Next: 30 Bold Predictions for The Walking Dead season 8
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