AMC's The Walking Dead will return on Sunday, October 23, for a seventh season. We have been promised a death or two in the first episode, and viewers everywhere are anxious to find out just who we'll be saying goodbye to this time. In honor of the impending loss, here are five TWD deaths we didn't regret.
5. Ed Peletier
Fans may have a hard time remembering Ed, from the first few episodes of season one. This character was Carol's husband, and Sophia's father. He was abusive and just generally pretty terrible. Every time he spoke, it was a frustrating moment for the audience. When he was eaten by a walker, no one was upset. Okay, maybe Carol was upset for a minute, but she got over it and has grown tremendously since then.
4. Philip Blake/Brian Heriot: The Governor
The Governor was, atone time, the worst villain TWD had ever seen. I wish that I could say that the fact that he kept his zombie daughter in a closet was his worst quality, but then he did a bunch of other crazy shit. Remember when he massacred his own crew on the side of the road, and then left them to turn? And then after he lost Woodbury, he started going by a different name and almost redeemed himself. Then he pushed that guy in a pit of walkers, stormed the prison, got a little girl killed, and beheaded Hershel. That definitely makes the zombie daughter look pretty mild.
3. Shane
Who actually liked Shane? Anyone besides my dad? I didn't think so. I mean, who abandons their best friend in the hospital and then starts doing his so-called widow? Good people don't do that. Shane was not good. He killed that dude Otis and left him for the walkers, and that was the moment that you knew that Shane was only looking out for himself. His final sin was the massacre of the barn walkers, which ultimately revealed Carol's dead daughter Sophia. No one misses Shane. Except maybe my dad.
2. Terminus Mary
Mary was only a character for a brief time, but we hated her none the less. She was the matriarch of the supposed haven, Terminus. After the gang spent an entire season making their way to the settlement, it turned out to be nothing but cannibals. Yes, the flashbacks revealed that the Terminus people had been through some pretty awful stuff, but cannibalism isn't really a solution. When Carol took out her kneecap and let the walkers in, it left us breathing a sigh of relief.
1. Sam
Okay, part of me does love Sam for bringing us "Scarol." But he was son annoying! Sam was not built to survive the apocalypse. He was soft, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his abusive father. When the group waded out into the sea of walkers, covered in the blood of the undead, and he started whimpering "mom," you knew it was over. I'll admit, when the walkers took him down, and then his mother, and then his terrible brother, I didn't shed a tear. Alexandria will survive without them.
However, Alexandria might not survive without whoever Negan and Lucille took out last season. Tune in on Sunday to find out who made it into the new season, and whose brains are splattered all over the side of Rick's face.