The Walking Dead’s Biggest Mistake Was This Rarely Discussed Death

After three great starting seasons, followed by two good seasons that changed The Walking Dead's approach to storytelling, The Walking Dead came to a fracturing, dragged-out standstill. Season 6 is mostly tense thanks to the slow buildup to Negan Smith and his hierarchically inclined savages that are the Saviors, but its first half feels dented by the pointless half-season fake death of fan-favorite Glenn Rhee (followed not even a season later by his actual death) and a focus on uninteresting characters. Then, during Seasons 7 and 8, the two seasons most agree are the most monotonously written TWD seasons, Carl Grimes, The Walking Dead's lead Rick Grimes' son, gets bitten.

While Carl's Season 8 death was identity-stripping, his, Glenn's, and many other unnecessary deaths that birthed more problems for the show to untangle occurred frequently—becoming one of The Walking Dead's central problems as it aged. However, they start much earlier than some may think, back in Season 2. While that season is considered one of The Walking Dead's best, it featured a lot of issues, such as a dragged-out missing kid storyline and too many people arguing over nothing. However, its biggest (yet most unnoticeable) mistake was the killing of Dale Horvath (Jeffrey DeMunn), the group's leading moral compass and one of the cast's best performers.

Dale's Comic Significance

In the comics, Dale remains a key part of the group well beyond his Season 2 death. He makes it through the entire prison era and downfall, even surviving out in the wilderness for a time before dying in the church Gabriel later gets found in. He loses his leg as farmer-vet Hershel Greene does in the series' third season before losing his other leg to cannibals, leading to a grisly death instead assigned to the brief but charismatic Bob Stookey in Season 5.

He has a romantic relationship with fellow killed-too-soon-on-TV co-star Andrea, whom he takes twin boys under his wing with after the pair's parents get eaten. Dale often reminded the group why remaining morally upstanding despite the world's end was necessary, a theme so vital to his character that it became the group's way of honoring him after he died in both the comics and the show. He had much more to do to help the main The Walking Dead group keep themselves grounded, but he never got the chance.

The Real Reason Dale Was Killed Off on The Walking Dead

Dale's death is complicated, partially because it was not a creative decision Season 2's writers thought was a necessary surprise. Jeffrey DeMunn, Dale's actor, had and still has a personal relationship with The Walking Dead's first-season showrunner, Frank Darabont. Aside from a years-long friendship, the pair have also worked together on past projects, such as the Frank Darabont-directed films The Green Mile and The Mist, so working together on the show was one of the reasons why DeMunn signed on. Thus, with The Walking Dead's production company/cable channel AMC treating Frank Darabont so severely that he still openly curses them out, DeMunn left in solidarity with his friend.

Though they did not leave outright as DeMunn did, two other vital early-season co-stars—Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori, Rick's wife and Carl's mom) and Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh, Rick's best friend)—got the ax from Kirkman and co. because they, too, backed Darabont; within a handful of episodes across two seasons, this resulted in The Walking Dead killing three of its central original characters because of BTS political nonsense. However, the latter pair's deaths are much less jarring, as Shane already outlives his comic counterpart satisfactorily, and Lori does not live past the prison era on the page anyway. But Dale, with so much story left untouched, especially as the Season 2 writers worked to unwind his comic-accurate relationships before he died, was the first of the franchise's wasted potential.

AMC Still Hasn't Learned From Their Mistakes

Despite deaths like Dale's dealing tragic continuity blows to The Walking Dead's long run, AMC never learned from its past mistakes. Characters like Andrea still got their arcs flipped to die off early; two of the three Greene family members, Hershel Greene and his youngest daughter, Beth, still died purely for shock value, the latter pointlessly given the one character she saved dies episodes later; Glenn's fake death still runs for half of Season 6, only for him to be the surprising second death by Negan's bat in the Season 7 premiere, rendering his last season feeling purely like we-have-no-idea-what-else-to-do-with-him filler; Carl still dies less than a season before his father, and the show's lead character, leaves the show, with the one character he saves dying rather pointlessly as well in Season 10.

AMC still overdid it for a zombie show where death is supposed to be a central component, with too many good characters being shed and replaced by less interesting successors, if replacements arrive at all. But it all started when the retired, bucket-hat-wearing, morally inclined, and upstanding RV driver and rifleman got killed off because AMC could not treat their integral staff well.

If more early-season characters survived to The Walking Dead's end—or at least a lot longer—one of the franchise's most significant problems would have dissolved because more intriguing characters that feel necessary to the show's overall run would have covered more screen time. But, alas, in this The Walking Dead timeline, just about everyone comes and goes, and AMC has only learned in its post-main-series-finale spin-off era to rely on its integral cast's power. Hopefully, the handful of remaining long-term characters will stick around if the universe does not get a reboot. Even so, fans should align themselves with Daryl's last words to Dale, feeling "Sorry, brother" to him and all other unnecessary The Walking Dead tragedies.