Characters / The Walking Dead (2010): Gabriel Stokes

The Walking Dead Main Character Index
Rick's Group | The Grimes Family (Rick Grimes) | Georgia (Morgan Jones, Gabriel Stokes) | Atlanta | Atlanta Survivor Camp (Daryl Dixon, Carol Peletier) | Greene Family & Friends (Maggie Greene) | Prison Newcomers (Michonne Hawthorne) | Woodbury (The Governor) | Tyreese's Group | The Chambler Family | Abraham's Group | Terminus | The Coalition & Other Allies | Alexandria Safe-Zone | The Hilltop Colony (Gregory) | The Kingdom | Oceanside | The Saviors (Negan Smith, Savior Outposts, Former Saviors) | Magna's Group | The Whisperers (Alpha) | The Commonwealth | The Reapers | Other Antagonists | Other Survivors

Due to the Anyone Can Die nature of the show and quickly moving plots, only spoilers from the current/most recent season will be spoiled out to prevent entire pages of whited out text. These spoiler tags will be removed upon the debut of the following season, and the character bios will be updated then as well. Additionally, character portraits will be updated each half-season with the release of an official, complete set from AMC. If you have not seen the first ten seasons read at your own risk!

Father Gabriel Stokes

"Anything is possible until your heart stops beating."

Portrayed By: Seth Gilliam^{Foreign voice actors}Gabriel Jiménez (Spanish dub), Hiroki Eto (Japanese dub), Robin Kahnmeyer (German dub), Serge Faliu (French dub), Fabrizio Vidale (Italian dub), Svatopluk Schuller (Czech dub), Dániel Papp [Seasons 5-9], Tamás Pál [Season 10-present] (Hungarian dub)

Appearances: The Walking Dead (Seasons 5-11) | The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

Debut: "Strangers"

"I'm not asking to live. You've given me redemption, and it's that which makes me no longer fear death. What I fear is a fruitless death."

Gabriel Stokes is a priest encountered by Rick's group of survivors after fleeing from Terminus. He holds refuge in a church that he's been holed up in since the apocalypse began, having locked out his own congregation to keep out the approaching walkers. He is haunted by having to listen to his followers be slaughtered thanks to his cowardice and has no martial skills two years into the apocalypse when he meets Rick's group. Though he begins traveling with them, they do not accept him as family as they have each other. Gabriel tries to get the group evicted from Alexandria, but ultimately comes to terms with his sins and becomes a competent warrior and a loyal ally of Rick and the community.

After the Savior War and Rick’s apparent death, Gabriel becomes the political leader of Alexandria as the head of its governing council. However, he often finds himself chafing under Michonne’s hardline isolationism and cold, aloof overrides of his decisions. Eventually Michonne steps back and allows him to fully step forward as the leader of Alexandria. Having entered a relationship with Rosita since Rick’s disappearance, Gabriel agrees to help raise her child fathered by Siddiq (who was conceived before her relationship with him). During the Whisperer War, he is distraught when Dante murders Siddiq due to Dante being screened by him personally upon his arrival to Alexandria, and executes Dante for his crime.

Gabriel's faith took a hit in the aftermath of the Whisperer War but regained it following a close encounter with Mays and the triumph over the Reapers, resuming his position as a preacher at the Commonwealth. Gabriel took part in the revolution to overthrow Pamela Milton and finally got to make amends for his actions at the start of the Fall by helping save countless people stuck at the gates of the Estates. The price of victory was steep, as his now-ex-girlfriend Rosita had been scratched. After Rosita's death, Gabriel was left as the sole parent of Coco.

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Tropes A-H

• Aborted Arc: In the first half of Season 11, Gabriel is conflicted on his worldview as God had apparently gone silent on him, while Mancea talks to him openly. After being Out of Focus for a few episodes in wake of the Reaper Filler Arc concluding, Gabriel is back to his old self and claims to hear God again, in spite of claiming not to believe in mercy just a few episodes prior. Though he did say he was at least trying to reconcile his beliefs after the Reapers had been defeated, not to mention having gone back to preaching in the months between "No Other Way" and "Warlords", so there's that.
• Actually Pretty Funny: He can't help laughing when Negan calls him "Father Not-the-Father", in reference to Gabriel not being the biological father of his girlfriend Rosita's baby.
• Actual Pacifist: When we are introduced to Gabriel he's potentially the first character since Season 1 who isn't shown owning a weapon. Though this trope made him more detestable than admired due to his cowardice prior to his Character Development
  Gabriel: I have no weapons of any kind. The word of God is the only protection I need.
  • By Season 6, he's morphed into a Badass Pacifist who actively fights alongside Rick's group when he must.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: He has dark hair in the comics, but is bald in the show.
• Adaptation Expansion: He gets a lot more to do here than in the comics, most notably including a small subplot where he temporarily leaves the group to confirm their reports of Gareth's evil, his feud with Rick in Season 6A, taking part in the raid on the Savior compound, and becoming one of Rick's right hand men in Season 7. By Season 9 he’s the political leader of Alexandria and a main character.
• Adaptational Badass: His comic counterpart managed to gather some courage and kill a few walkers, but was still a Non-Action Guy for the most part. This Gabriel becomes a full-fledged warrior and defender of Alexandria during the show's adaptation of the "No Way Out" arc, while his comic counterpart dies shortly into his first combat mission in Issue #158, which takes place years later in the timeline. As opposed to panicking and trying to save his own skin, which leads to his demise, he calmly chooses to stay behind and make a Heroic Sacrifice to buy his friends the necessary time to escape... and survives thanks to the timely arrival of Maggie and Elijah. It's telling that his comic counterpart ultimately was killed thanks to his own cowardice that TV Gabriel overcame.
• Adaptational Jerkass: This version of Gabriel is more actively malicious in his speech to Deanna when trying to get Rick's group kicked out of Alexandria. However, he reforms, makes up for his misdeeds, and even overcomes his cowardice immediately, something his comic counterpart never did.
• Adaptational Wimp: Zig-Zagged. Originally he is even more of a coward and Non-Action Guy than his comic book counterpart. Case in point: in "Crossed" he sneaks out of the church and abandons the group, something that didn't happen in the comics. However, he does chokeslam a walker after he sneaks out of the church on his own, and kills his first walker earlier than he did in the comics. He becomes a full Adaptational Badass by Season 6 when he learns how to fight much earlier than his comic counterpart.
• Age-Gap Romance: He and Rosita are more or less two decades apart in age.
• Age Lift: He is in his late thirties in the comic. According to The Other Wiki, he is in his early to mid-forties in the show.
• The Aloner: He is first introduced living alone in his church since the start of the outbreak.
• Alone with the Psycho:
  • In "Mercy", he's surrounded by walkers and takes refuge in a trailer, only to find out moments later that he's trapped in there with Negan of all people. Surprisingly, after some initial hostility, they end up getting along quite well.
  • Happens again in Season 10 when he's talking to Dante in his cell, only this time Gabriel personally confronts him and they don't get along well at all considering that Dante is a Whisperer who murdered Siddiq and another resident and almost killed Rosita and Coco, as well as the fact that Gabriel brutally murders him afterwards.
• Amicable Exes: He and Rosita break up offscreen during Season 11, but they remain cordial and respectful towards each other. The Ones Who Live reveal that he also was happy to see Jadis return for brief visits to Virginia, and eventually after breaking up with Rosita, he admitted he still had feelings for her.
• As the Good Book Says...: A firm believer of The Bible and the words of God. His church displays readings of verses related to the dead and resurrection, appropriately enough.
• Artistic License – Traditional Christianity: His church is named 'Saint Sarah's Church'. What the writers likely intended was to reference Saint Sarah the Black, a patron Saint of the Romani people associated with pilgrimage, which would make sense since Rick's group has been on a pilgrimage for close to a season at that point. However, Saint Sarah the Black isn't actually recognized by the Episcopal church, meaning the church is likely named after Saint Sarah of the Desert, rendering that reference somewhat lost unless you suspend your disbelief.
• The Atoner: In the Season 6 premiere, Gabriel tries his best to help out around Alexandria, but is denied a chance at every turn. In the next episode he decides to start learning how to fight so he can contribute more.
• Authority in Name Only: In Season 9, after the second Time Skip, he becomes the head of the Alexandrian council, but due to Michonne usually superseding the council for alleged security reasons, she’s the one who’s actually in charge of Alexandria, a fact he laments later in the season. During the fair, however, she acknowledges him as the leader of the town when she asks him to sign the accords.
• Badass Pacifist: He still sees fighting as a last resort, but does volunteer to do all he can to help Rick's group.
• Badass Preacher: He becomes one when Alexandria is overrun by walkers in "No Way Out". Not only does he rally the community's denizens into helping fend off the herd, he later joins the group in storming the Saviors' compound in "Not Tomorrow Yet". His cold-blooded executions of both a wounded Savior and Dante must also be seen to be believed.
• Bald of Authority: Word of God implies that he served as head of his parish. He becomes this to the church-goers of Alexandria and in the Season 6 finale, he's actually put in command of Alexandria while Rick is away and later becomes one of his key lieutenants. In Season 9 he is the head of the Alexandrian council which governs the town after Rick’s disappearance.
• Berserk Button: Harming and/or killing anyone he considers to be family. Just ask Dante.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Gabriel is one of the more compassionate people on the show, but he also has a surprisingly ruthless streak that comes up at the most unexpected times. See the episodes "The World Before" and "One More" for proof. What's especially notable in that on both occasions, Gabriel speaks about what the right thing to do in the situation is, only to reveal he had no intention of letting them live anyway.
• Big Good: By the end of Season 10 he is pretty much the leader of all the allied communities with Ezekiel and Yumiko on Eugene’s mission, and Michonne searching for Rick. The only other official community leader, Cyndie, defers to him during the last battles of the Whisperer War, with Daryl and Aaron serving as the main field leaders and generals. By Season 11, he shares power with Daryl and Maggie.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In Season 5, he acts pretty pleasant and polite but turns out to be a selfish coward. In Season 6, he attempts to reform himself, becoming a genuinely Nice Guy in the process.
• Bond One-Liner: Really lets them fly as he dispatches a pair of Reapers in "No Other Way".
  I don't believe that. (after stabbing Mancea, who tries to convince Gabriel to stand down despite the Reapers hurting his friends)
  Call me Gabriel. (after ambushing Jenson and taking over his sniper position)
• Breakout Character: Gabriel is considered one of the definitive examples of an unpopular character becoming a beloved character in the series. After making his Heel–Face Turn and developing Undying Loyalty to Rick, Gabriel’s popularity increased to the point he received a Promotion to Opening Titles and became a major character. He became the first Walking Dead character to appear in a major role in one of the sequel shows released after the end of the original series as of the fifth episode of The Ones Who Live.^note not counting Simon, who made a cameo on Dead City, or the minor characters from the caravan
• Brutal Honesty: Goes hand-in-hand with his increased snarkiness, Gabriel becomes more willing to tell it like it is. On full display in "Warlords", where Gabriel outright tells Carlson his plan to approach a new community is "shit", and insults Ian's homebase to his face by asking him why the hell they would even want to take it over since it's such a shithole.
• Butt-Monkey: In Season 5, the group never really accepts him as one of their own and often disrespect him; when he tries to counsel Maggie, she harshly rejects him. Even Carl acts condescending to him, and in the first half of Season 6 it's a minor Running Gag that Rick treats him like shit. Fortunately, he manages to become a true member of the group and outgrows this.
• Cartwright Curse: Both of his exes, Rosita and Anne, end up dying within the span of about a year.
• Character Development: Goes from a selfish coward who gladly sells out the group to save his own skin to a team player who contributes greatly to the survival of his friends and becomes The Leader of Alexandria. He also morphs from a Nice Guy Badass Pacifist to being a lot more ruthless, pragmatic, and combat-ready.
• Christianity is Catholic: Averted. He's explicitly mentioned to be Episcopalian.
• Cold Sniper: To his enemies, anyway. By Season 11, Gabriel has become extremely proficient with firearms, even with the one bad eye. In "For Blood", he takes out Deaver with a headshot seconds before he can kill Maggie.
• Combat Pragmatist: Humorously informs Rick that he still wears his priest uniform on the battlefield to use it as camouflage on night missions.
• The Comically Serious: Gabriel hardens into a pretty serious, mellow guy and loses much of his outward friendliness. So when he does crack and have a laugh, it's pretty damn funny. Special mention goes to when after a long trip of dead ends during his extended run with Aaron in "One More", he laughs hysterically seeing Aaron scared after surviving a brush with a wild boar.
• Crisis of Faith: Has a few over the course of the series.
  • In "Them", with the group reeling from the losses of Beth and Tyreese, and hope at an absolute minimum, Gabriel removes his priest's collar and chunks it into the fire. When it begins raining shortly after, providing the group with some much-needed hydration, he cries and asks God for forgiveness.
  • In "New Best Friends", Gabriel admits he was starting to lose faith before Rick came to save him.
  • In "Worth", he starts to slip a bit thanks to his depression from causing Dr. Carson's death and being made a slave in Eugene's bullet factory.
  • In "One More", he drunkenly tells Aaron he doesn't see the point in preaching anymore because the world will never go back to the way it was. When Mays brings this up, Gabriel claims he was merely intoxicated, but Mays points out that a "drunk tongue is an honest one." This continues into Season 11, where Mancea (the pastor of the Reapers) recognizes that Gabriel can't hear Him anymore. The defeat of the Reapers and Alexandria finding aid from the Commonwealth seems to restore his faith at last, as he becomes quite comfortable as a local preacher again.
• Cultured Badass: "One More" reveals him to be quite the connoisseur of alcohol from his days training with his mentor, Reverend George.
• Dark and Troubled Past: After Atlanta was bombed in the early days of the Zombie Apocalypse, he locked his church and refused to let in a group seeking refuge. The noise they made trying to get in brought walkers out of the woods, and they were killed and devoured while he listened.
• A Day in the Limelight: "One More" is a Bottle Episode centered almost completely around him and Aaron. More so for Gabriel considering he gets an entire speech talking about his backstory, and the conflict with Mays being more personal for him than Aaron.
• Deadpan Snarker: Increasingly as the series progresses. In "Warlords", he shuts down Carlson's half-cocked attempt at a community outreach mission with a simple, "Yeah, I'm not doing this."
• Death Seeker: In the Season 5 finale, he approaches a walker to let himself be bitten but recants at the last minute. Later in the episode not only does he leave Alexandria in the hope that a walker will eat him, but when Sasha has him at gunpoint and Maggie stops her Gabriel tells her she should've let Sasha kill him.
• Decomposite Character: He takes Eugene's place as the guy Rosita gets together with shortly before the Whisperers arc. He also replaces Rick as the leader of Alexandria, even if Michonne usually overrides him as the head of security. With Michonne’s departure in Season 10, Gabriel is left as the Big Good of the Coalition, just like Rick’s comic counterpart.
• Defrosting Ice King: He's initially a hypocritical Ungrateful Bastard towards Rick's group, but eases up a bit more after fighting side-by-side with them. It actually gets to the point where he's able to joke around with Rick.
• Despair Event Horizon: Passes it in the Season 5 finale when he becomes a Death Seeker and takes his first human life. He gets better in Season 6, but passes it again in Season 8 when Dr. Carson is killed in front of him and he's taken to work as a slave in Eugene's bullet factory.
• Dirty Coward: He locked his church's doors to his parishioners, leading to them being devoured by the dead. He has limits though, as shown by staying quiet even when the Hunters give him a chance to leave peacefully. He grows out of this in Season 6.
• Distressed Dude: In the Season 8 finale, he is held at gunpoint by Negan, who intends on executing him to kick off the final battle against Rick.
• The Dog Bites Back: Punches Negan in the face after the latter tries to shoot him in the Season 8 finale (and actually would have if Eugene hadn't tampered with the bullets in the Saviors' guns).
• Everyone Has Standards: In Season 5 he is horrified at Rick, Abraham, Sasha, and Michonne butchering the Hunters. However, after finding Bob's decomposing, partially eaten leg at their camp, not far from Gareth's discarded Bible, he admits to Michonne that he now understands why they did what they did to the cannibals.
• Evil Stole My Faith: While he doesn't completely renounce his beliefs, dealing with the Whisperers leads Gabriel to believe that evil people are the new norm and it's pointless trying to preach anymore. He does seem to be on the rebound by "No Other Way", where he mentions to Daryl that he's working on trying to find his faith again, though he is shaken up a bit after facing off with Mancea, who claimed to be influenced by God despite taking part in the Reapers' murderous ways.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Siddiq's murder and the stress of the Whisperer conflict cause Gabriel to go absolutely apeshit as he stabs Siddiq's killer, Dante, to death.
• Eye Scream: He loses sight in one of his eyes as a result of an infection brought about by covering himself in walker blood.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • He actually has to work very hard at earning Rick and the group's trust when they first meet. Fortunately, the good priest manages to earn their acceptance after pulling his own weight as one of their fighters when fending off walkers and Saviors.
  • He earns Negan's respect by managing to creep him out and later pry a confession out of him in "Mercy", and they fight their way out of the horde together. After Negan is incarcerated they still maintain a solid trust between them, with Negan giving Gabriel advice on leading the Coalition. They also fight together against the Reapers, and Gabriel is even disappointed when Negan leaves the Coalition.
• Friendly Sniper: Turns the standoff with the Reapers in Maggie's favor by taking out Jenson and shooting Carver in the leg.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: In Season 5 and part of Season 6 before his Character Development.
  • Gabriel never quite fits into Rick's group before they arrive in Alexandria, and it's made clear that several members dislike him and don't consider him to be "family". Gabriel seems to realize this too, as he becomes an Ungrateful Bastard as soon as the group gets to Alexandria and tries to get Deanna to kick them out.
  • Pushed to its logical extremes in the Season 6 premiere, where Rick doesn't even want him burying bodies. And when Gabriel offers his help with the group's walker-control plan, Rick shuts him down without even looking at him. And later in "Heads Up", when he's putting up signs for a prayer circle later that day, and Rick tears them down nonchalantly.
  • After taking a huge level in badass in "Start to Finish" and "No Way Out", he's finally earned the group's respect. Rick originally plans to leave Judith with Gabriel when they visit the Hilltop in "Knots Untie", and the two are shown joking around before they storm the Saviors' compound in "Not Tomorrow Yet." By the Season 6 finale, Rick actually leaves him in charge of Alexandria in his absence. In Season 7 he is one of Rick's most faithful allies, having complete trust in him.
  • In "Rock in the Road", he mysteriously disappears into the night with a bulk of Alexandria's supplies and weapons, and Rosita believes that Gabriel just went back into being a petty man, deserting them. Of course, Rick doesn't believe in this. He's right — Gabriel was kidnapped by one of the Scavengers and forced to take the supplies.
• Friend to All Children: After defrosting, Gabriel is trusted to babysit Judith, which is a job he seems to cherish very much.
• Genre Savvy: Years of dealing with hostile survivor groups make Gabriel much more adept at realizing which groups want to be approached and which ones would rather be left alone. Comes up in "Warlords", where Gabriel doesn't like the idea of making contact with a group of people holed up in a rather sinister-looking apartment complex, pointing out how places like that always contain some lunatic with a shotgun just itching for the chance to kill somebody stupid enough to wander onto their property.
• Give Me a Sign: Believes that Rick was sent by God.
• Good Shepherd: Completely averted at first, as he allowed his congregation to get eaten to save himself. He later reforms and becomes Alexandria's main pastor.
• Handicapped Badass: Still combat-capable despite being blind in one eye. Carol even describes him as one of the group's best sharpshooters.
• Hate Sink: In Season 5. Despite his pleasantness, his selfish and cowardly attitude render him unlikable for the most part.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: In Season 6, he tries to atone for all the horrible things he did in his past, but nobody is willing to give him a chance, very likely because they don't feel safe with him...
• Heel–Face Turn: Thankfully, it evolves into one of these when he actively helps out the group in "Start to Finish" and makes it clear that he will no longer be a coward.
• Heel Realization: In Season 6, he realizes the error of his ways and desires to atone for his sins.
• Heroic Wannabe: Gabriel wants to be a genuine hero like Rick, but he doesn't exactly have the skills or intelligence to back him up. A major part of his Character Development involves him growing out of this and becoming a true leader who other people can count on.
• Hidden Depths: In "One More", Aaron is surprised to find that Gabriel has an intimate knowledge of whiskey and is a good poker player. Gabriel mentions taking after his mentor, who was a prolific drinker and gambler when not on the clock.
• Hypocrite: He encourages Deanna to kick out Rick's group on the basis that they have done "unspeakable things"—Never mind that Gabriel was the one who locked out his entire congregation at the beginning of the apocalypse, letting them all get eaten by walkers. This ends up being lampshaded later when talking to Carl after his Heel–Face Turn, saying he's realized that he was projecting his own feelings of self-loathing onto them.

Tropes I-P

• I Hate Past Me: Long after his Character Development, Gabriel still makes several comments showing he still regrets his cowardice at the start of the Fall.
• I Lied: In "One More", he gives an impassioned speech to Mays about how there are still good people left in the world and that it's never too late to change after you've seen and done so many horrible things to survive. It seems to work, and Mays lowers his gun and unties Aaron. Gabriel then immediately bashes Mays' head in, telling Aaron that a man who killed his brother's family is too dangerous to take back to Alexandria with them.
• In Mysterious Ways: He's a firm believer in this.
• Irony: In Season 5, the priest is temporarily the Token Evil Teammate.
• It's All About Me:
  • In Season 5, he feels that he is the only member of Rick's group who deserves to live in the "paradise" that is Alexandria. In "Conquer", he mocks the deaths of Bob and Tyreese to Sasha's face in a selfish attempt to get her to Mercy Kill him. He grows out of this, thankfully, and begins sticking his neck out for other members of the group.
  • It comes back a little bit in Season 10 when he is emotionally distraught over Dante killing Siddiq and being outed as a Whisperer plant. He doesn’t pay too much attention when Rosita vents to him about losing focus in a fight with walkers and quickly assures her everything will be fine, since he’s more interested in beating himself up for not seeing Dante’s true nature.
• It's Personal: He is absolutely seething after learning that Dante is a Whisperer, since he personally interviewed him when he joined Alexandria and thus feels responsible for Siddiq’s death.
• Jerkass Ball: Picks it up in the aftermath of Siddiq's murder. He becomes a bit more vicious and willing to take the fight to the Whisperers, something that unnerves the other members of the Alexandria council.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: In Season 5. In case you thought that Gabriel was trying to redeem himself, in "Spend" he tries to convince Deanna to kick Rick's group out of Alexandria on the basis that they are "bad people". Then, in "Conquer", he tries to force the mentally unstable Sasha to kill him. Subverted in Season 6 when he finally begins making genuine strides to redeem himself for his cowardly and selfish actions and ultimately moves out of this trope entirely.
• Karma Houdini: Maggie convinces Sasha to spare him after he attacks her, and thus he survives Season 5 without much of a comeuppance for his actions. In Season 6, however, he is still hated by Rick's group for most of the first half of the season, subverting this since his road to redemption is not an easy one.
• Kick the Dog: He taunts Sasha over the deaths of Bob and Tyreese in an attempt to make her kill him.
• Knight in Sour Armor: As of Season 10. While he still does all he can to keep Alexandria going and puts on a reassuring face to the populace he (while drunk) expresses doubts that the world will ever return to the way it used to be and says he doesn't see the point in preaching anymore. When Mays calls him out on this Gabriel tries to claim it was just the liquor talking, but Mays points out, "a drunk tongue is an honest one." He seems to have grown out of this by "Warlords", where he goes back to preaching in the new church the Commonwealth has given him and tells Aaron he's happy to have started to discover God again.
• The Leader: In Season 9 following the second Time Skip, Gabriel is the head of the council that governs Alexandria. However, Michonne usually usurps the council’s authority as the town’s head of security, meaning she is the one running the show. In "The Calm Before", she allows him to sign the community charter, solidifying Gabriel as the head of Alexandria. In "A Certain Doom", with Michonne Put on a Bus and Ezekiel and Yumiko on Eugene's quest to find Stephanie, Gabriel is the one who spearheads most of the plan to defeat the Whisperers and the walker horde.
• The Load: At first he's not even wanted as a counselor, but finally manages to start pulling his own weight in the mid-Season 6 finale.
• Made a Slave: In Season 8, he's captured by the Saviors while trying to reach Hilltop and forced to produce ammunition that will be used to kill his friends at Eugene's bullet factory.
• Meaningful Name: Gabriel is a Hebrew name which means "man of God", a phrase repeated frequently around Gabriel especially late during the series' lifespan.
• Mercy Kill: His first human kill is this. Later, he asks Sasha to grant him one when he passes the Despair Event Horizon. She almost does, but is stopped by Maggie.
• Milky White Eyes: His right eye never heals following his Temporary Blindness in Season 8.
• My Greatest Failure: He admits to Negan that he considers locking his congregation out of his church at the start of the outbreak to be this, and has spent everyday since his Heel–Face Turn in Season 6 trying to atone for it.
• My Greatest Second Chance: In the finale, he's the one who lets the Commonwealth citizens into the Estates to save them from the walker horde, finally making up for locking his parishioners out of his church to be eaten at the start of the outbreak.
• Nice Guy: Subverted in Season 5. Gabriel may seem an affable if nervous fellow at first, but in this case being pleasant doesn't mean he's good. He's a judgmental coward with no understanding of how the world has changed. Played straight following his Heel–Face Turn in Season 6, as he has become one of the friendliest characters on the show. Subverted as of Season 10 — while still a decent man who is good-natured to his friends, as the official leader of Alexandria he has become rather cold and pragmatic in making decisions and can be rather standoffish when he's morally conflicted.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After leaving the church to examine the Hunters camp for evidence of what kind of people they were, he returns only to accidentally lead a herd of walkers inside the church.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His decision to leave Alexandria's gate open brings zombies inside the safe zone. Fortunately, Rick finds and kills them before anyone's hurt. But it's this action that contributes to the people accepting Rick into Alexandria permanently.
• Non-Action Guy: He is first seen lying on top of a rock, kicking at walkers and yelling for help and is rescued by Rick and his group. Later, he has to be aggressively prodded by Rick into joining the scouting mission at the food bank. During the mission, he even tries to bail as he's so frightened by the walkers. In "Them", he steps in and helps the group hold the barn door shut when a large herd of zombies try to break in, although "Spend" shows that Gabriel actually has no intention of being accepted by the group, and in fact wants them kicked out of Alexandria for the "unspeakable" actions they have committed. In "Conquer", he finally kills his first walker, and mercy kills a partially eaten human a few seconds later. He breaks down in tears because of this. In Season 6 he looks to grow out of this by asking Carl to teach him how to fight. He succeeds in "Start to Finish", and as of "No Way Out", is a fully qualified badass.
• Not His Sled: "A Certain Doom" looks set to adapt his comic death from the same arc, but Gabriel survives his You Shall Not Pass! moment when Maggie’s party saves him.
• Number Two: In Season 7, with Glenn and Abraham dead, Daryl captured by Negan, Maggie at Hilltop indefinitely, Carol missing, and Michonne's relationship with Rick on shaky ground, Gabriel steps up as one of Rick's right-hand men alongside Aaron.
• Odd Friendship: Develops one with Negan, to the point that he's actually stung when Maggie announces that Negan has left the Coalition on his own terms.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After discovering that Dante killed Siddiq, and nearly killed Rosita and Coco, and that he's been working as The Mole for the Whisperers the entire time he's been in Alexandria, Gabriel visits Dante in his cell, and gives his usual speech about people deserving second chances that he had previously used on both Rosita and Negan. Just as it seems like he might take his usual pacifistic route, and possibly even let Dante go, Gabriel then pulls a knife and brutally stabs Dante to death. Given Gabriel has always been the voice arguing against violence in response to many enemy actions - not to mention, the only people we've seen him actually kill have been either out of mercy or in the heat of battle - this scene just goes to highlight just how much Dante's betrayal and attack on those Gabriel holds dear really shook him to his core.
• Parental Substitute: He becomes the official "father" of Rosita's baby after Siddiq dies and Eugene relocates to Hilltop and then leaves on a mission to find Stephanie. In Season 11 he outright refers to Coco as his and Rosita's daughter.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: With the exception of the wounded man he mercy killed, every person we've seen Gabriel murder has had it coming. A (not) special mention goes to Dante, who killed Siddiq, poisoned Alexandrians with tainted water, and almost let Coco be eaten by her zombified father.
• Pet the Dog: Before his Heel–Face Turn, he had a few moments of decency even though he was The Friend Nobody Likes and he knew it.
  • Provides Bob a peaceful death in comfort.
  • Presides over the funeral for Tyreese (and presumably Beth).
  • Tried to offer his counsel to Maggie after Beth's death.
  • Mercy kills a wounded man out in the woods.
• Preacher Man: What he is. He presides over Tyreese, Sasha, Siddiq, and presumably Beth's funerals. He also becomes Alexandria's pastor and is shown with a new church after the two-month Time Skip in Season 6.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Gives one to a wounded Reaper who asks Gabriel to pray for him because he is a man of God.
  Gabriel: God isn't here anymore.
• Promoted to Love Interest: He and Rosita become a couple during the six-year Time Skip in Season 9, which did not happen in the comics.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 8.

Tropes R-Z

• Religious Bruiser: Not only does he kill walkers now, but he also retains his religious beliefs.
• Rousing Speech: He delivers an awesome one to rally the Alexandrians into helping defend the town from the walker herd in "No Way Out".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Decides to leave Rick's group and his church because he feels he needs to go to the Hunters camp and see if they were really as bad as what he had been told. Although he finds a bible, he quickly returns to the church after discovering Bob's partially eaten leg. He later admits to Michonne that he understands why they did what they did to the Hunters.
  • Happens again, albeit under mysterious circumstances in "Rock in the Road", taking most of Alexandria's supplies with him. Rick doesn't believe for one second that he would have deserted them. He's right, as Gabriel was kidnapped by one of the Scavengers, who wanted supplies back after Rick and Aaron unknowingly looted from their boat.
• Second Episode Introduction: Introduced in the second episode of Season 5, "Strangers".
• Secret-Keeper: He and Aaron dig a fake grave for Maggie to help hide Alexandria's alliance with Hilltop. In The Ones Who Live, he's shown to have been visited by Jadis in private for the three years between Seasons 9-11, and kept her presence quiet at her request.
• Ship Tease: With Anne in Season 9. He helps her adjust to life after the war and they end up having sex in "The Bridge". Turns into Ship Sinking an episode later when she almost trades him to the CRM and then decides to flee, leaving him a breakup note. In The Ones Who Live, she's shown returning to meet with him privately once a year for the last three years of her life, and eventually they briefly rekindle their old attraction after Gabriel broke up with Rosita offscreen. Even though Gabriel moved on, Anne never stopped loving him and even took his surname as her own.
• Sinister Minister: Averted, despite Rick and Sasha's suspicions. He's just an ordinary priest on his own. Played straight in "Conquer". The first thing Negan does when he sees Gabriel is to call him "creepy", although ironically, by this point, he has long since outgrown this trope. Gabriel is actually playing it up just to unnerve Negan on purpose. The loss of one of his eyes also gives him this vibe to strangers such as Gamma (see the picture above).
• Sixth Ranger: To Rick's group in Season 5.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: Betrays Rick's group when he realizes he's The Friend Nobody Likes. In Season 6, he sees the error of his ways and redeems himself.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Outlives his comic counterpart, who met an especially gruesome end being gutted alive and left to the walker horde by Beta at the beginning of the Whisperer War. He also ends up surviving to the very end of the series.
• Stepford Smiler: Takes a page from Carol's book in Season 7, playing the part of an overly pleasant and harmless priest to fool Negan. He is the only member of the group who can look the Savior leader dead in the eyes and smile, with no hint of fear (which actually disturbs Negan, who calls him "creepy as shit").
• These Hands Have Killed: He has this reaction after he kills Dante. It's the first murder Gabriel commits that isn't a Mercy Kill or out of self-defense.
• Token Religious Teammate: He is a priest, after all.
• Too Dumb to Live: In "Conquer" where he accidentally leaves the gate open and thus allows walkers to enter Alexandria, but his biggest offense is taunting Sasha about the deaths of both her brother and her boyfriend, knowing she's become unhinged. Granted, he is doing it to be mercy-killed by her, but considering he witnessed what Sasha did to one of the men who ate her boyfriend, you'd think he'd go for a less painful option.
• Took a Level in Badass: The most obvious example on the show after Carol. Perhaps even more notable given that Carol, while initially defenseless, was never a serious hindrance to the group like Gabriel was. Originally, Gabriel is a cowardly Non-Action Guy who can barely even kill walkers, but finally becomes a capable fighter mid-Season 6. He can now use knives, machetes, shotguns, sniper rifles and assault rifles to deadly effect and even personally murders Dante, an Army vet who was strong enough to choke Siddiq to death and nearly did the same to Rosita. Also, as head of the council of Alexandria, Gabriel is effectively the leader of the community by Season 9.
• Took a Level in Cynic: In "Conquer", he becomes a Death Seeker and takes his first human life, getting progressively worse as the episode continues. However, unlike most, Gabriel succeeds in bettering himself afterwards.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After coming back from the brink of despair, he becomes a genuinely loyal and friendly member of Alexandria in Season 6.
• Took a Level in Smartass: He grows more sarcastic as the tragedies the group endures pile up. It's especially noticeable around fellow Deadpan Snarker Negan.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • During Season 7, Gabriel puts up an act to appear like he did when we first met him: a timid, cowardly yes-man. Looking at his eyes and overall demeanour, however, and you can see he is giving off a surprisingly cold and hostile vibe whenever he speaks to Negan. It works in creeping out Negan, to say the least. Right from the get-go, he knows that they must fight the Saviors and will one day go to war, unlike Rick who is initially content with submission.
  • He gives off the same vibe when he confronts the Whisperer Dante in his cell before he brutally murders him.
• Undying Loyalty: To Rick. Near the end of "Start to Finish" he tells Rick that, no matter what happens, he will not run or abandon them. After having spent the first half of the season harassing Gabriel for his betrayal, Rick responds, "Yeah, I know." From this point on, Gabriel has an unshakable faith in Rick, defending him against Spencer when the latter accuses Rick of being too power-hungry for his own good, and admitting that when he was being held prisoner by the Scavengers, he took comfort in knowing Rick would eventually come to rescue him.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In "Spend", he tries to get Deanna to kick Rick's group out of Alexandria and let him stay because of all the "unspeakable things" they've done — the same unspeakable things that saved Gabriel's life several times over.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Originally a hapless Non-Action Guy, Gabriel is nevertheless shown to have strength if nothing else. He has enough power in him to choke slam a walker, wrestle a violent Sasha off of him, and hold off one of the Wolves long enough for Morgan to save him. He eventually develops the martial ability and marksmanship to grow out of this trope.
• Villain Killer: He slays many Saviors during the group's conflict and eventual war with them. During the Whisperer War, he coldly murders Dante as extrajudicial punishment for his betrayal and murder of Siddiq, and after the war he dispatches Mays, who had tried to force him and Aaron to shoot each other. During the Reaper conflict, he personally kills four - Nichols, a Reaper who had the gall to ask him to pray with him; Deaver, who was about to kill Maggie; Mancea, the Reaper priest; and Jensen, the Reaper sniper. Taking down Jensen is what turns the stand-off in the group's favor and leads to Maggie executing the remaining Reapers besides Leah. He later helps bring about the death of Toby Carlson, Lance's agent.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Gabriel is in fine form whenever he gets ahold of a sniper rifle (despite having one blinded eye, no less). Like a sniper rifle, Gabriel is quick and ruthless in a fight, and has several times taken his opponents by surprise like a sniper. One could also view Gabriel's proficiency with a sniper rifle as representing a form of God's aid coming from above, like a sniper post.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Is quietly shocked by Rick's group's butchery of the Hunters within his church.
  • He's also on the receiving end of this from Aaron in "One More", when Gabriel suddenly bashes Mays' head in after the latter had started to come around and was considering going back to Alexandria with them.
• When He Smiles: Whenever he's not feeling sorry for himself, Gabriel does have a barely recognizable innocent look to him while smiling.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Chokeslams and impales a walker after he splinters off from his church after the Hunters debacle.
• You Are in Command Now: Already in command of Alexandria, Gabriel is pretty much in charge of all the allied communities as they hunker down together at the Tower in "The Tower".
• You Can't Go Home Again: Gets his own church overrun, and is forced to abandon it and join the group on the road.
• You Shall Not Pass!: In "A Certain Doom", he stays behind to help the other survivors in the Tower escape. He survives when he is rescued by Maggie’s party.
• Zombie Advocate: Like Hershel and Lizzie before him, he thinks that walkers are still people. Thankfully, he ends up following the former's way instead of the latter's.

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"You came to me to help you find an answer. You just found it."