5 Significant Deaths in The Walking Dead

Did they have to die? In the name of forwarding plot and possibly establishing another portion of a characters personality — yes.

As Walking Dead fans, we are used to the fact that at any time one of our favorite characters could meet a grisly and untimely end. It’s just the nature of the show, and much like fellow Game of Thrones fans know — no one is safe. But there were some character deaths that have forwarded the storyline through the years that the Walking Dead has been on television, and while we miss some of these characters dearly, it’s all for the sake of the storyline (And maybe to shock the audience a bit). Here are our five significant deaths in the Walking Dead series.

JIM – It’s been a long time since season one and Jim was a relatively minor character in the Atlanta survivors group, but he was an integral part of how the survivors coped with someone being bitten. During a walker attack on the camp, Jim suffers a bite to his side. Controversy then erupts between everyone; Daryl wants to kill him right away, but Rick doesn’t, and he gets his way. They decide to leave the ruined camp behind and in the RV Jim just gets more and more sick as the fever hits and the illness takes over. He asks to be left behind and although it’s clearly not what the group wants to do, they obey his wishes. Jim’s fate is not known though it’s suspected he died from his wound and reanimated.

Still, this is the first time we see Rick take control of the group and decides what is going to happen. We began to see him slowly take his place as a leader of the group, trying to keep them and his family safe. Also, at this point in the show we knew very little of the disease that was affecting the population and it was rare to see anyone going through the processes of slowly dying. Even throughout the second season Jim is not forgotten about as people talk about him and what happened.

SOPHIA – Sophia and her mother Carol are a part of the Atlanta survivors and are the only ones left of the family after her father’s death at the hands of walkers. She is close friends with Carl Grimes and seems to be adapting well despite circumstances. After the attack on the camp the survivors all decide to leave and on their journey come across vehicles blocking all lanes of traffic that they are unable to get through. While some plot a way around, others scavenge in the cars. That’s when disaster strikes. A horde moves through and the survivors are left hiding under cars. Unfortunately, Sophia is detected and runs off into the woods. Rick manages to find her but leaves her side for a moment to kill some walkers. When he returns, Sophia is gone. For five episodes (and what I assume are weeks that go by), she is not found. It’s not until the mid-season finale of season two that we learn of Sophia’s fate. When releasing a horde of walkers kept in Hershel’s barn, the young girl emerges, fully zombified. Carol breaks down screaming in Daryl’s arms, and Rick must do what he hasn’t since he first woke up in the apocalypse. Kill a child.

While Sophia’s death had a devastating effect on Carol and Rick, the hunt for her substantially changed the make-up of the group. Daryl becomes determined to find her, and in the end is eaten up with the guilt of failing. Despite the loss, this causes the group to become closer still in the way that they operate and how they care for one another.

DALE – Dale Horvath is not only Amy and Andrea’s rescuer in the initial days of the outbreak, but is also an original member of the Atlanta survivors. On the show he displayed many different characteristics including a calm and level head in a crisis, a willingness to help and negotiate as well as offer knowledge to those who actively sought it out. Dale would keep watch from the top of his RV over the camp to make sure that there were no impending threats and while he was frequently at odds with Shane, he became close to Rick upon his appearance in the camp and offered him lots of advice. Despite being older, Dale frequently helped dispatch walkers, bury the dead and was a great repairman.

It’s one night on Hershel’s farm that Dale is attacked by a walker that Carl had spotted earlier in the day. The walker had managed to pull itself free from the mud that immobilized him and attacked Dale, ripping into his stomach before someone can come to his aide. When members of the group find him he is still alive but in horrible pain. Rick can’t bring himself to kill the man that has done so much for him, so it is up to Daryl to end the man’s life, marking the first time in the show that a member of the group has had to kill another member while they were still human. Dale’s death was a shock to many and left everyone wondering what they might do without the ‘moral compass’ of the group. Andrea is especially devastated by the death of the man that rescued her and Carl can’t seem to shake the guilt of being the one that brought the walker around in the first place.

SHANE – Shane Walsh is one of the Atlanta survivors and is Rick’s best friend. He even takes up the mantle of having sex with Rick’s wife, Lori, and attempting to be a (half assed) father to Carl. He’s the groups ‘leader’ until Rick shows up alive and seemingly falls naturally into that same leadership command, pushing Shane to second place not only in the group but to Lori. Shane became obsessed very quickly with her and couldn’t understand why she gave her up for Rick when he returned.

As the seasons rolled on we watched Shane turn from a hero to an eventual villain as his morals became decayed and corrupted. When Shane has become so far gone he plans out killing Rick, the leader of the group has no choice. During a heated argument, Rick drives a knife through Shane’s heart while yelling, “This is on you, not me! You did this to us, not me!”

Shane’s death is an important one because it begins to show the cracks in the survivor’s foundations, as well as in Rick. He’s a good man and he believes that, but Shane is convinced otherwise. In order to protect the ones he loves, he makes the ultimate sacrifice by killing his best friend. This is also the first time we see someone reanimate that hasn’t been bitten, which brought Rick to eventually have to tell the group that they are all infected and only have to die to reanimate.

HERSHEL – Hershel Greene’s death was one we all feared. We could feel it creeping closer as he gave his now infamous speech about survival to Rick:

“You step outside, you risk your life. You take a drink of water, you risk your life. And nowadays you breathe, and you risk your life. Every moment now…you don’t have a choice. The only thing you can choose is what you’re risking it for. Now, I can make these people feel better and hang on a little bit longer. I can save lives. And that’s enough reason to risk mine.”

Any comic book reader knew that the end was coming for the elderly doctor, but none of us wanted to believe it. And, in the end, it was heartbreaking.

After being kidnapped by the Governor, Hershel and Michonne are used as bargaining chips to try and get the other survivors out of the prison. Rick’s attempts at compromise with the madman quickly fall apart and the Governor draws Michonne’s katana and hacks into the man’s neck, severing his carotid artery. All war breaks loose then and while Hershel makes a feeble attempt to escape, the Governor catches up to him and cuts through his neck with the katana until he’s been decapitated.

Now with the good doctor gone, Maggie and Beth, the only two surviving Greene’s — are split apart in the chaos that ensues. With no doctor (who also doubled as the groups moral compass after Dale’s death), who knows what kind of mistakes could be made without someone with a level head to guide their way?

While The Walking Dead makes us angry with character deaths and the loss of our favorites, sometimes it’s a sacrifice the writers have to make in order to further the storylines. All the characters in the Walking Dead that have passed we all well and truly miss. Maybe even Lori. Sometimes. A little. If we have to.