The Walking Dead has killed off dozens of characters over the course of its run. But
not all of those deaths have been satisfying. We're here to take a look at The Walking Dead's
most moving and meaningful character endings, as well as the most frustrating and cheap.
Whenever a new character gets a little extra screen time, savvy audiences know to start
preparing for a dramatic death. Denise Cloyd is a perfect example. Introduced as one of the
townspeople in Alexandria, she reluctantly becomes the community's doctor. When Denise sets off on
a supply mission with Daryl and Rosita in the sixth season, her modest arc kicks suddenly into
high gear. Denise is determined to become the sort of person Tara, her girlfriend, deserves.
After risking her life to get an orange soda, Denise is lectured by the others.
She starts to explain what this trip really means to her, revealing that Daryl reminds her
of her brave brother, and that lonely Rosita reminds her of who she used to be. Suddenly,
she's shot through the eye with a bolt from Daryl's stolen crossbow, now wielded by Dwight.
This moment feels like a hasty end to a relatively inconsequential character, designed to ramp up
Alexandria's impending war with the Saviors. The Walking Dead has proven time and again that it can
wrap up season-long arcs without shameless shock moments like this. The minute she starts taking
up more screen time, you pretty much know she's headed for the grave before the credits roll.
"You're my first patient. And with that symptom, I'm pretty sure I can't kill you."
Simon is a character who seems largely inconsequential. Right up until the moment
he single-handedly loses the war for the Saviors. For most of his run, this psychopath, who acts as
Negan's right-hand man, remains on his master's leash. The show takes full advantage of Steven
Ogg's acting chops whenever they need someone to demonstrate what loose cannons the Saviors can be.
"Hey do you like ice cream, we have ice cream."
Subtle signs of a power struggle between him and Negan emerge as the series winds on,
which come to a head after Negan's apparent death. Simon makes good on his promise to lead the group
in a different way, which values wiping out the Saviors' enemies, rather than converting them.
However, when Negan returns, Simon finally reaches the end of his rope and decides to stage a coup.
Simon is foiled by double agent Dwight. Negan stops the underhanded takeover,
and challenges Simon to a one-on-one fist fight to the death. Simon lands a few cheap shots before
he's ultimately strangled to death by Negan in one of the show's most thrilling sequences. This
moment proves Negan's formidable reputation is well-earned, closes out a fascinating character
arc, and brings an elegant end to one of the most intriguing power struggles in the show's history.
T-Dog never really gets his time to shine. Sure, he has some of the snarkiest lines of the early
seasons, and he definitely brings some much-needed blunt wisdom to the group. But by and large,
T-Dog is just a background character the show fails to do anything interesting with.
T-Dog meets his end in the middle of season three. When the prison becomes overrun with walkers,
he and Carol find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to re-close the gates.
In the mayhem, he gets bitten on the shoulder, which ensures his doom.
He spends the remainder of his life rambling about God's plan for him. In the end,
he charges two walkers, and allows himself to be devoured so that Carol can escape.
T-Dog's death makes the moment tense, but even that effect is muddled by the fact that Lori,
a significantly more consequential character,
dies in the same fray, making the loss of another day-one character like T-Dog just
plain redundant. His heroic sacrifice and newfound faith in the Lord feels less like
the completion of a character arc and more like a shoehorned ending created for shock value.
"And I'm the one black guy. You realize how precarious that makes my situation"
Glenn meet his end after Daryl punches Negan, prompting the villain to randomly
select Glenn to murder. The moment is violent and gruesome as Glenn chokes
out his last words to his wife who can't bear the sight of his grotesquely beaten visage.
The characters and audience watch helplessly as a character who has
been around a whole lot longer than most is brought to a bitter, bloody end.
While the show's worst deaths feel hollow, Glenn's death is heavy with actual meaning.
Negan is not an easily solvable problem, and thus, his death is not there to distract from this fact,
as so many lesser deaths are. In the wake of his death, it once again feels like
no one is truly safe. Unlike other deaths, Glenn's demise isn't signaled with shoehorned
dialogue or a sudden, significant moment of calm. He dies at the height of his life,
with a new safe haven to call home and a wife who is about to give birth to their first
child. This moment sends a clear message that the show will never be the same.
"People you love... they made you who you are. They're still part of you"
The reason that Jesus' death remains one of The Walking Dead's worst character endings has a
lot to do with the fact that his comic-book counterpart is so much better. On the page,
Jesus is a capable fighter. And as actor Tom Payne noted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,
he spent all his time training for fight scenes that never actually came.
Jesus is a big part of the war against the Saviors in the comics. His death is supposed
to draw audiences into a scary new plot featuring a powerful threat, but all it does is disappoint.
In what ends up being the only scene showing what fans wanted from Jesus,
he uses a sword to take down multiple walkers in one of the most well-done
action sequences on the show. Then it all ends with him taking a swipe at a walker,
only to discover the walker is actually a member of the newly discovered Whisperer faction, wearing
a disguise. While this is a cool way to introduce a villain, it's a lame ending for a character
who should have been the coolest thing to hit The Walking Dead since the arrival of Negan.
"No matter what they've done... They're people.
There's many kinds of danger, many kinds of dying."
No ending on The Walking Dead embodies the series' blend of tension, horror, and emotion more than
Merle Dixon's. After making a splash in just two episodes of the show back in season one,
Merle comes back in a big way in season three, as one of the Governor's right-hand men. However,
once his baby brother Daryl is back in the equation, it becomes clear that Merle does,
in fact, have an odd sense of loyalty. Eventually, he chooses Daryl over the Governor,
but is frustrated to find that his little bro isn't interested in choosing him over Rick.
In an effort to prove that he's the only one with the guts to do what's necessary in this new world,
Merle goes rogue and takes his very own shot at the Governor. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out.
Though Merle manages to take out a large number of the villain's men, he's quickly overwhelmed,
killed, and left to turn. This brings an end to his character arc, and brutally proves that he was
wrong all along. Daryl finds his undead brother and puts him down in a cathartic display of anger,
showing that the Dixon brothers are by far the most complicated characters on the show.
"You need to grow up. Things are different now."
One glaring issue with Abraham's death is that it is shamelessly milked as a cliffhanger. Season
six concludes with Negan's infamous introduction. An agonizing six months of speculation among fans
followed. At last, the show returned, and it was revealed that the biggest guy in the group who
isn't main character Rick Grimes is the one Negan decides to take off the board. Seeing a member of
the group who is so tough and has survived so much be violently killed while his friends are helpless
to do anything about it is hard to stomach. However, all that tension and purpose gets thrown
out the window when, in the season seven premiere, Negan murders Glenn in the exact same way.
Glenn had been around since the second episode of the series. He has a wife pregnant with their
first child, who is forced to watch as he is unceremoniously beaten to death. Glenn's death
might very well be the most gut-wrenching demise on an already bloody show. Abraham should not
have shared the spotlight with him at that pivotal moment. Despite the character arc that his death
at Negan's hands brings to a close, he'll forever be remembered as the guy who dies before Glenn.
While some of the best character endings come as the result of an impactful story coming to a
worthwhile close, others make the list simply because it's fun to see an incredibly evil
character go down. For two long seasons, Beta acts as a leader of the Whisperers while carrying out
ruthless attacks. Although he pays deference to Alpha and follows her with almost dog-like
loyalty, her death does not put a stop to his wicked ways. He carries out her legacy by
unleashing a horde of zombies on some of the only remaining non-Whisperer human beings in the area.
After making life a living hell for our heroes for several years, Beta finally bites off more than he
can chew when he leads his horde against Daryl and Negan. After losing what's left of his mind
at the sight of Negan, the man who killed Alpha, Beta throws a walker on him before slamming him
onto the ground several times. Just when it looks like it's lights out for Negan, Daryl swoops in
and jams two knives into Beta's eyes. He is then killed by the very walkers who gave him protection
all these awful years. If that's not a satisfying end to a villain, we don't know what is.
Before we dive into Rick's "ending" on the show, it is important to note that
his ending hasn't actually happened yet, but he's off the franchise temporarily.
The season nine episode "What Comes After" serves as an hour-long goodbye to The Walking Dead's main
character. Unfortunately, it doesn't make a ton of sense. In his ongoing effort to unite the groups
he now leads after the war with Negan, Rick is wounded while desperately trying to lead a herd
away from the living. Bleeding out and driven only by his desire to save the people he loves,
he continues to lure walkers away as he hallucinates some of the most emotional
moments of his life. Curiously absent from his poignant hallucinations, however,
are his recently deceased son, his very much alive daughter, and his long-deceased wife, Lori.
Those odd absences aren't the only weird things about the episode. The entire episode plays out
like a colossal victory lap for the character, but it's unclear exactly what the victory is.
His people are far from safe — in fact, they're more divided and in need of leadership than ever.
His son has recently died in the war, whose fallout he is still trying to fix.
Despite the hero's ending he gets by blowing up a bridge of walkers, Rick doesn't exactly
leave the series on a high note. It's a triumphal exit the show simply doesn't earn.
"I'm not the good guy anymore."
When Sasha first arrives in season three, the show spends a lot of time not quite knowing
what to do with her. Her life takes a major turn when she begins to develop feelings for Abraham.
Unfortunately, their romance is cut short by Abraham's death. Similar to Maggie,
Sasha spends what is left of her life enmeshed in the war with the Saviors, seeking revenge.
Unlike Maggie, Sasha isn't pregnant, and is thus able to really inflict some damage.
She and Rosita embark on an assassination mission. Before they're separated, Sasha pays tribute to
her late love interest by remarking that Negan denied him the honor of going out fighting.
Sadly, her assassination attempt fails off-screen. She's captured,
and Negan makes it clear that he plans to use her to get Alexandria to surrender. Locked in a cell,
disarmed, and having had all hope removed, Sasha still manages to hatch a pretty stellar plan.
She convinces Eugene to give her a suicide pill, so that when Negan makes his big reveal of having
taken her as a prisoner, she can attack him as a walker in front of all of Alexandria. Although she
fails to exact the revenge she sought, she still manages to honor Abraham by going out fighting.
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