The Walking Dead Pool Mid-Season Finale: Who Will Die? (Poll)
Almost every interview we’ve read about the mid-season finale, “Coda,” promises a great tragedy is coming. Considering that Beth and Carol are both in extremely compromised positions, the obvious leap is that Daryl will not be able to rescue at least one of them from Grady Memorial Hospital and Dawn’s evil cops.
But considering that one of those evil cops, Bob Lamson, took advantage of Sasha’s kindness to clock her and run off and tell Dawn about Tyreese’s plan to non-violently resolve the situation, it’s very likely the mid-season finale will feature a plan that goes so bad other characters will die as well.
So our final poll of the half-season is multiple choice. Vote for whomever you think won’t make it out. After the episode we’ll compare the results with what happened and see how good our guesses were.
Warning: There are spoilers for previous episodes in this post and likely in the comments. But please, no spoilers for un-aired episodes. We will delete those if we see them.
RickRick has smartened and toughened up through tragedy and learning from his own mistakes until he’s almost a force of nature, a pure survivor. Woe be it to anyone who threatens him or his friends. Rick’s death would be the most surprising, since most of the comic plots, for years worth of stories, revolve around Rick.
CarlOther than chill in a boxcar, be reunited with Judith, play boy detective at Father Gabriel’s church and give Father Gabriel the machete he used to escape the church with, Carl hasn’t had much to do this season so far. There are things down the road that might be bad news for Carl, but death seems unlikely.
Baby JudithJudith has had her third major brush with death. She’s long dead at this point in the comics, but it doesn’t seem like the show has been willing to go through with it. She might be more valuable from a plot perspective as a vulnerable member of the group for others, like Tyreese, to protect. Also, we love the expressive new babies that play Judith and don’t want to see them go.
MichonneLooks like our favorite samurai got her katana back, but she’s proven she’s deadly with or without it. At the end of last season we we’re just starting to get hints of her backstory and she was getting closer to Rick and Carl. Killing her would be a wicked rug-yanking moment, but it’s more likely these story lines will be allowed to play out.
DarylThrough his relationships with both Carol and Beth, Daryl has discovered he “ain’t ashes.” He’s better than ever now, having something worth dying for has given him a reason to live. But the problem with having something worth dying for is sometimes you do. It’s not likely that Daryl will die to save Beth or Carol, but it could happen.
CarolThe only survivor more willing to do whatever it takes than Rick is Carol, as evidenced by her nearly single-handed destruction of Terminus. But she got hit by a car and is no place to use those skills at the moment. She was also the recipient of Beth’s medical care based on advice from Dr. Edwards, which so far has a 100 percent mortality rate. It looks bad.
BethBeth is strong, but also maybe a little bit too naive. Last episode she trusted Dawn and Dr. Edwards, too people who clearly don’t have Beth’s best interests in mind. Also, simply by being in Grady and being an obvious bargaining chip for Dawn puts Beth in great danger.
GlennGlenn and Maggie just headed off to D.C. with Abraham. They found out that mission was based on a lie. Unless there’s a surprise, it doesn’t look like they’re going to make it back to Grady to get involved in the action there, so they might be relatively safe.
MaggieHowever, at the end of the last episode, Maggie went to check on a groaning Eugene. Was he groaning because he was finally getting up, or was he groaning because he died and turned into a walker? If it’s the latter, Maggie could be killed in a sudden shocking scene.
TyreeseWell, we know now that Tyreese won’t kill the living. He let Martin live even and he didn’t help in the massacre of the Hunters. Can a man hold on to his humanity in the zombie apocalypse and survive? Tyreese is still trying, coming up with a less violent plan to assault the hospital. Unfortunately we know that plan is blown, and Tyreese does not.
SashaSasha is bitter and angry after losing Bob, but also vulnerable. Her compassion led her to make a big mistake and she took a blow to the head. It usually takes more than that to kill someone than that in The Walking Dead universe, though, so that period of unconsciousness might actually save her from death at Grady.
TaraEveryone welcomed Tara with open arms. But she’s still no killer, as we saw during the church massacre. She’s still loyal to Glenn and went along for the ride on the Washington, D.C., which turned out to be a bust. Unless they make it back to Grady she doesn’t seem to be in any immediate danger.
AbrahamPoor Abraham lost his one reason to live when it turned out that Eugene’s story about a cure for the walker plague in Washington, D.C. was a lie. But, crucially, he also decided he didn’t want to die. Looks like he might stick around a while longer and become a valuable member of Rick’s group.
RositaRosita is almost as shattered by Eugene’s lie as Abraham, but she took the opportunity to stand up to Abraham and be more than just an extra vote for his plans. Glenn also officially welcomed her to stay with their group and she showed useful survival skills. Plus, like the others with her group she’s not in any obvious danger.
EugeneEugene puts us in a bit of a spot because we aren’t completely sure he’s not already dead. The beating Abraham gave him and using his skull like a rubber ball on concrete should be enough to kill anyone. In the last episode Maggie went to check on him when he groaned, but walkers groan too so Eugene might simply have died and turned.
Father GabrielFather Gabriel has the opposite of survival skills and terrible judgment. Last episode he ran away from sanctuary at the church to go see for himself if what Rick’s group said about the hunters is true. On the way he got a nail in his shoe and was unable to kill a walker. If he doesn’t die from tetanus first he’ll have to toughen up or become food.
NoahNoah is clearly motivated to save Beth. He got off on a bit of a wrong foot trying to mug Carol and Daryl and almost got chomped on, but Daryl finally sees him as someone one the same side and he has been useful in helping the group infiltrate Grady. Is he only going back to meet his end there?
DawnSlap-happy, sloppy, harried middle-manager Dawn is running Grady Memorial Hospital into the ground, and human tragedy is the collateral damage. About half the cast now has extremely good reasons to kill Dawn, but it’s possible she will cut a deal and survive.
Dr. EdwardsDr. Edwards is a coward and a cruel manipulator who sent Beth to murder a man just to protect his own life. But he’s also a doctor, and those are hard to find in the apocalypse, so that bargaining chip might keep him alive.
Bob LamsonHey, free space. Okay, maybe not, but after lying to Rick and knocking out Sasha, the new Bob’s chances don’t look that good at all.
