Rick Grimes

Rick was a sheriff's deputy before the outbreak alongside Shane, but was shot and ended up in a coma. He awoke in the hospital weeks after the outbreak began, and quickly learned of the walkers. He headed to Atlanta looking for his family, and found them in a camp outside the city, where he became the leader of the survivors.

While starting off idealistic, the events of the show have forced Rick to become more ruthless and pragmatic, and he will not hesitate to kill any threat, walker or human, to the group. His relationship with Lori has also severely degraded, as he learns of her affair with Shane and is forced to kill him once he becomes a threat due to his jealously of Rick.

Following the move to the prison and beginning of the conflict with Woodbury, Rick's mental state has grown increasingly unhinged, a problem compounded by the death of Lori.

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• Abandoned Hospital Awakening: In the pilot episode.
• Achilles in His Tent: After Lori's death, he snaps and goes on a Walker killing spree. He later gets a bit better... but, after he sees Lori's hallucination in "Suicide King", he spends most of the next episode doing "stuff" when in reality, he had been wandering around, looking for a sign for Lori. After Hershel gives a heart to heart and then The Governor does a surprise attack, Rick finally springs back to action. It takes meeting with the now crazed Morgan for him to get back to his full senses.
• Action Dad: Justified as he is a cop.
• Adaptational Heroism: Until the Season 2 finale, Rick was nicer and more compassionate than his comic counterpart.
• Adaptation Dye Job: Rick is blond in the comics.
• Age Lift: Rick is 29 at the start of the comics. He's in his mid-thirties in the show.
• An Axe to Grind:
  • Rick uses one to chop up a dead body as part of a plan to sneak past the walkers and escape Atlanta. He later buries it in the skull of a walker.
  • Also used during his Roaring Rampage of Revenge following Lori's death.
• Anti-Hero: As of Season 3, he is straddling the line between Type III and IV. He's still a fundamentally good person, but the lives of his family and friends come above all else. He has no qualms about killing anyone, living or undead, who threatens their safety. Also his loosening grip on reality and extreme mental and emotional fatigue are also impairing his judgment, it’s becoming much more difficult to tell whether Rick's harsher actions are made out pragmatism or exhaustion.
• Authority Equals Ass Kicking: He was a deputy prior to the zombie outbreak.
• Ax Crazy: Takes a level in this after Lori's death.
• Badass: When you've survived all the crap he's gone through, you count. Rick's only rival in handling a gun is Shane.
• Badass Beard: More evident in Season 3.
• Badass Boast: Rick gets one during this exchange with Merle in the second episode:
  Merle: You won't shoot me. You're a cop.
  Rick: All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody gets in the way of that is going to lose.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: One of the reasons why he went to rescue Glenn.
• Berserk Button: Threatening his family, stopping him reaching his family, trying to steal his family, suggesting he cannot protect his family etc.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Rick is likely one of the nicest characters in the show, but hitting one of his berserk buttons will end you.
• Bring My Red Jacket: By most of season 3, Rick has worn a shirt that has been covered in Walker blood (caused from his Walker rampage after Lori's death) that has changed from its brownish color to a more reddish one.
• The Chains of Commanding: As the series goes on, the burdens on him as the leader of the group grow, leading up to the declaration of a Ricktatorship at the end of the second season.
  • However, at the end of Season 3, he realizes the toll that this is taking on his mental state and tells the group that he can't keep making decisions for them anymore, and that they will decide together what to do from then on.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Averted. Rick was declared leader by popular vote the second he showed up at the camp site, despite not really asking for it. He has spent almost every second since questioning whether the decisions he's making from his position are the right ones or not, not to mention the rest of the group asking the same questions. At the end of Season 2, he browbeats them into submitting to his authority and declares the group will no longer be a democracy, indicating he plans on taking total control rather than discussing it with the group as had been the way for the past two seasons. Late in Season 3, he realizes that this is just making things worse and admits this to the group.
• Cool Hat: Counts as his Iconic Item as well, until he gives it to Carl.
• Cowboy Cop:
  • He is willing to attack and kill Merle when the latter endangered his mission to find his family.
  • Proved in "Nebraska", where he kills two men who drew guns on him.
• Crusading Widower: After Lori's death.
• Death Wail:
  • Gives one after he kills Shane.
  • In "Killer Within", after he finds out that Lori died during labor. And what a wail it was.
• Determinator: Not only did he manage to find his family in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse after being in a coma for three months, he has managed to keep the group mostly intact and forge them into an effective walker killing team.
• Fake American: Andrew Lincoln is English.
• The Fettered: He's extremely unwilling to allow loss of human life, especially when compared to Shane. He'll still kill other humans if forced to however.
• Firing One-Handed: Rick likes to do this with handguns, specifically when picking off walkers.
• Foil: Has one in Shane, the Governor and Morgan. Shane shows the different routes two very similar men could take, the Governor contrasts with Rick over leadership, and the last shows what could happen to Rick without his family and others to support him.
• A Friend in Need: Rick's reasoning to go rescue Glenn, since Glenn could have easily left Rick to die in the tank but instead risked his life to rescue him.
• Give Me a Sign: In "What Lies Ahead", Rick Grimes expresses his doubts about his leadership in a church, asking a wooden figure of Jesus for "a nudge... anything... to let me know I'm going in the right direction." Possibly subverted since in the next scene his son gets shot.
• The Gunslinger: Type D, Quick Draw.
• Heel Realization: During The Sorrowful Life, he finally realized what kind of a leader he's been since he Took a Level in Jerkass and starts remending his group, thus ending his "Ricktatorship".
• The Hero: Easily the most unambiguously heroic character in the cast. Gets deconstructed in the latter half of season two.
• Hero Stole My Bike: Rick pulls one of these on a walker. Of course, it's not like she had any legs to pedal it with.
• Honor Before Reason: He will not break any of Hershel's rules in order to keep the group from getting kicked off the farm, and is even willing to help him capture walkers to put in the barn.
• Hot Dad: of two children
• Iconic Item: Besides his hat, his Colt Python.
• The Idealist: At first, though by the end of season two, possibly lost.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Rick early in the show, but it gradually gets brutally deconstructed. Rick starts as one of the most idealistic and merciful members of the cast, but his personality is darkened severely by his experiences. By the end of Season 3, though, he's realized how far he is slipping and starts to make amends.
• In-Series Nickname: "Officer Friendly" from the Atlanta group, particularly Morales.
• Jack Of All Stats: While Rick is primarily known for his excellent marksmanship, he can handle himself quite well in melee combat.
• Kick the Dog: In Season 3, Glenn tries to talk to him and comfort him after the death of his wife Lori. Rick's response is to snap at and physically assault Glenn before giving him a psychotic Death Glare.
• Knight in Sour Armor: As of the Season 2 finale, adding to his newfound Good Is Not Nice.
• The Leader: Type II.
• Machete Mayhem: Starts using one during Season 3.
• Manly Tears: After waking up from his coma, and coming into his house only to find out that his family is gone, after he kills Shane, and after he finds out Lori died in childbirth.
• Nay Theist: He has moved into this territory ever since he asked God for a sign and, next thing you know, his son gets shot, though he phrases it to Hershel as more "trying to stay out of God's way in hopes he'll stay out of mine".
• Not So Different: He shares some similarities to the Governor, highlighted most clearly with their initial treatment of Michonne. Neither is very trusting, they put the safety of their own group far above the safety of others (although Rick doesn't murder strangers for his group's profit), both lose a wife, and both are mentally unstable.
  • The Governor plays this up during their negotiations to make Rick listen to him more.
• Papa Wolf: There's almost nothing he won't do if he feels his family is being threatened, though even then he'll first try reason.
• Perma Stubble: Almost a year after his being shot, prior to the Zombie Apocalypse, he still has the same length of stubble on his chin.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: He eventually manages to end all of the conflict in the group and led them into becoming an extremely effective walker killing group.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Shane's Red (Season 1&2), The Red to Daryl's Blue (Season 3)
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Rick's favored weapon is Colt Python revolver pistol, as he was originally a small-town sheriff.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After learning about Lori's death, he grabs an axe and goes on a walker killing spree.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Starts down that path when Lori dies, compounding his Good Is Not Nice attitude.
  • Hearing Voices: Amy, Jim, Jacqui and even Lori over the phone in the room were Lori died.
  • Hallucinations: In "Made to Suffer", he believes one of his attackers during the rescue mission on Woodbury is none other than Shane.
  • Once again in "The Suicide King," where at the end of the episode, he sees what he apparently believes is Lori's spirit in a cell on the second level of the prison, causing him to completely lose it.
  • He undergoes Epiphany Therapy after reuniting with Morgan, who after losing his son his zombified wife crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
• The Sheriff: Technically just a deputy, but damn if that's not a Nice Hat. Senior to Shane.
• Shoot the Dog: After poking holes in Shane's story about Randall escaping (who was already dead thanks to Shane) which led all the men in a wild goose chase and lured Rick in open field to kill him, Rick stabs him in the heart, killing him.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: He was in a coma in hospital after being shot. Partly justified by Shane blocking his room's door with a trolley to prevent walkers entering, and someone in such a position having a small chance of surviving dehydration.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: At the end of Season 2.

Lori Grimes

Lori is Rick's wife, who knew he was in the hospital. Shane went back for him, honestly believed him dead, and returned to camp to regretfully inform Lori. Lori and Shane became an item until Rick turned up alive at the camp thanks to Glenn. Her relationship with both Rick and Shane has soured after that, as her affair was revealed and she discovered she was pregnant. She is killed early in season 3, when Maggie has to perform an emergency C-section to save the baby.

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• Action Survivor: Making up for her stupidity in "Nebraska", Lori has a Let's Get Dangerous moment right after her car crash. Still suffering from shock, she stabs a walker clambering into the car through the eye with a torn-off piece of the car, and then smacks another over the head with a hub cap before fetching her gun from the car and headshotting it.
• Actor Allusion: Lori must be familiar with prisons don't you think?
• Adaptational Badass: Believe it or not. In the comic, Lori would often fumble with her gun, and Carl saved her on more than one occasion. Here, she is making headshots at night without panicking.
• Age Lift: Lori is 27 at the start of the comics. She's in her mid-thirties in this one.
• The Chick: Lori is the least likely of the group to use weapons and instead relies mostly on others to protect herself. She can fight, if she must, though.
• Dead Person Conversation/ Talking in Your Dreams: In "Hounded," she is one of the people who calls Rick in his dream.
• Death by Adaptation: In the comics, Lori died at the very end of the prison arc.
• Death by Childbirth: Although the C-Section by Maggie (without anesthesia) is the immediate cause, a labor proceeding exactly like Carl's necessitating said operation ultimately did, as she would have died without it.
• Does Not Like Guns: Seems to be why she rarely fights herself and instead prefers to have others protect her. She even tries to argue against it when Rick and Shane want to teach her son Carl to use a gun, despite the fact it's the most viable option for self-defense he has in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse.
• Heel Realization: Well, more like Scrappy Realization. In Season 3, Lori starts to become a lot more conscious of her bitchy and hypocritical behavior and outright states Rick has the right to be angry at her.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When trapped in the boiler room while the prison being overrun by walkers and the stress causing her to be in labor, she decides for Maggie to perform makeshift c-section with a knife so that her child would survive, knowing she would die.
• Hot Mom: Comes from being played by Sarah Wayne Callies
• Housewife: Lori was this before the Zombie Apocalypse and tries to keep it up even with the world gone to hell.
• Hypocrite: She chews out Rick for not telling her that Hershel was going to kick them off of the farm, while she doesn't tell Rick that she's pregnant until he finds her morning after pills. Rick even calls her on this.
• Mama Bear: Otis is likely lucky to have died before he met Lori and suffered her wrath for shooting Carl. She's also ready to brave a walker invasion of the farm to go hunt down her missing son, and is only talked out of it by Carol.
• Parental Neglect: Lets her son wander around freely... in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. In "Judge, Jury, and Executioner" this leads directly to Dale's death.
• Sacrificial Lion: In Season 3, when she tells Maggie to perform a Cesarian Section on her so Judith can be born, even knowing it could kill her.
• Secret Relationship: What she thought her relationship with Shane was. Turned out Dale, Daryl, and Andrea had all figured it out, and Rick caught on pretty quickly to what had happened between her and Shane while they thought he was dead.
• Stay in the Kitchen: She apparently literally believes this is what the women should be doing during the Zombie Apocalypse, and is annoyed with Andrea for wanting to protect the camp. Andrea is understandably incredulous and pissed off upon being told this.
• Who's Your Daddy?: Lori understandably isn't sure if the baby she's carrying was fathered by Rick or Shane.
• Woman in White: As Rick's hallucination during The Suicide King and Home.
• Your Cheating Heart: Did this with Shane, after they thought Rick had died.

Carl Grimes

Carl is Rick and Lori's son. In Rick's absence, he has come to regard Shane as something of a father figure. This causes no small amount of friction once Rick returns, as Carl loves his dad but still loves Shane and looks up to him. As the show has progressed, the Zombie Apocalypse has had an increasingly damaging effect on Carl's mind and personality, as he is forced to fight walkers to survive and other threats constantly surround his family and the group.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Carl's comic counterpart wasn't subjected to see his childhood friend Sophia die, nor having to shoot his dead mother so she won't reanimate.
• Age Lift: Went from 7 or 8 in the comics to 12 for the show.
• Anti-Hero: Ends up becoming one after the Season 3 finale, Carl didn't seem to bat an eye when he shoots a teenaged Woodbury militant member just as he was handing over his shotgun to Carl.
• Big Brother Instinct: In Season 3
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Tyreese's group in Season 3 alone.
• Children Forced To Kill: Granted, it's Walkers, but he still has had to learn to take care of himself rather quickly. And then he guns down a teenager in the Woodbury militia.
• Corrupt The Cutie: Shows signs of this in "Judge, Jury, Executioner," where he at one point entertains himself by throwing rocks at a walker he finds with its feet stuck in the mud at a riverbank, then seems to find a weird sense of pleasure, or at least fascination in Randall's situation. When Rick and Shane are beginning the execution, it's Carl wanting to watch and encouraging Rick to do it that convinces Rick that Dale is right, and that they're starting to lose their humanity. Justified in that he's a young boy and it's the Zombie Apocalypse; he's naturally much quicker to adapt to the far more brutal realities of this new world then older, more experienced people. By the end of Season 3, his experiences have taught him that killing all threats is the best preventive measure.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Downplayed. When Axel flirted with Beth, Carl is glaring at him in an annoyed way.
• Creepy Child: Getting to that territory. Justified, again, by the fact he's growing up in a Zombie Apocalypse, meaning he's developing a mindset that's quite alien to more normal civilised people. Lampshaded in season two where it's noted that Carl is starting to spook the older survivors with the way he's beginning to behave. In season three, he shoots his dead mother in the head to prevent her from turning and guns down a surrendering Woodbury militiaman. Both with a blank face.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Carl is notably pale and is a Creepy Child.
• Growing Up Sucks: Especially in a Zombie Apocalypse.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His reason for killing a child soldier from Woodbury.
• Kid Hero: Beginning in Season 3.
• Kill The Ones You Love: Shoots Lori in the head. Although, to be fair, she was already dead by that point.
• Likes Older Women: His crush on Beth.
• The Load: Understandable as he's an untrained child, but particularly after he gets shot early in Season 2. Averted in Season 3, as he gathers supplies by himself and is trusted as the main guardian of the group when the principal fighters are away.
• Mercy Kill: In Season 3, after Lori appears to have died from having Maggie cutting her stomach open to deliver the baby, he volunteers in shooting her in head so she won't come back as walker.
• Morality Pet: For Shane until he stops caring about morality.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: By the end of Season 3.
• Nice Hat: His dad's sheriff hat, which Rick gives to him after he recovers from getting shot.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Kid: Nice job getting Dale killed, Carl!
  • This trope is why he starts showing more sociopathic tendencies in the third season, culminating in killing a member of the Woodbury militia who was surrendering because he'd seen all of his father's attempts at not killing possible threats resulting in disaster for the group.
• Precocious Crush: As of season three, Carl has one on Beth.
• Sanity Slippage: Seems to be starting down that road.
• Tag Along Kid: Until he Took a Level in Badass.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the Season 3 premiere, he's carrying a gun and joins Rick, Daryl and T-Dog in raiding a walker-infested house. He is also given the job of point man when the rest of the group is looking over a map, and hunts for the prison infirmary alone, taking out two walkers with no backup. Tyreese recognizes him as 'the man' after Carl saves the former's group then locks them up.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He seems to be growing into the role of a teenager who's annoyed with his mom a few years too early.
• Youthful Freckles: Chandler Riggs' own

Judith Grimes

Judith is Lori's youngest child, fathered by either Rick or Shane.

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• Awesome McCoolname: Before getting her actual name she's dubbed "Lil' Ass-Kicker" by Daryl. Some people in Rick's group keep calling her that, too, and it's the name on her cardboard box crib.
• Babies Make Everything Better: People tend to calm down and have relatively nice, calm scenes around her.
• Dead Guy Junior: Discussed. Carl proposed the names of all the dead and believed to be dead female members before coming up with Judith, the name of his third-grade teacher.
• Missing Mom: Due to Lori's death while giving birth to her.
• Morality Pet: For Rick's group.
• Spared by the Adaptation: She died along with Lori in the comics.
• Who's Your Daddy?: It was Shane in the comicbook.

Daryl Dixon

Daryl is one of two redneck brothers who joined the group. Merle was the nastier and more vicious of the two, and eventually got left behind in a Dirty Business sort of situation. Daryl is slowly growing away from the behavior he displayed with his brother now that he is among the rest of the group without Merle's influence. He has developed a friendship with Carol and become an ally of Rick's, acting as one of his biggest supporters within the group.

Daryl and Merle will be the stars of a First-Person Shooter by Activision called The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct that tells the story of how they arrived at the Atlanta camp.

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• Abusive Parents: According to Norman Reedus, Daryl was beaten and abandoned as a child. Confirmed in "Home" when Merle, accidentally, sees the scars left by their father.
• Achilles in His Tent: After leaving them in "Suicide King", he spends most of "Home", the next episode, away from the group after leaving with Merle. He comes back.
• Alliterative Name: Fist and last name starts with a D.
• A Man Is Not a Virgin: Word Of God states Daryl is a virgin. Due to his Character Development, he swings between this trope and Chaste Hero.
• An Axe to Grind: He even uses two axes at once in the Season 1 finale.
• Anti-Hero: At the start of the series. His Character Development has turned him into more of a straight up hero while Rick has descended into being an Anti-Hero.
• Archer Archetype: We rarely see him use a weapon other than his crossbow.
• Automatic Crossbows: Averted. It can be difficult to spot, but Daryl does occasionally nock another bolt.
• Badass: Uses a crossbow, has a no-nonsense attitude to the apocalypse and panicking camp members, kills walkers with deadpan one-liners, is a fantastic shot and a very competent tracker.
• Badass Beard: Gets more noticeable after Season 1.
• Badass Biker: Becomes one in late Season 1 and afterward. Apparently the Cool Bike used to be Merle's, so he probably counts as one too.
• Badass in Distress: See below, and also happens in the mid-season finale of Season 3 when he is captured in Woodbury.
• Battle Trophy: Daryl begins a collection by making a necklace of the ears of the zombies he killed while searching for Sophia, as an indication to himself how tough and strong he is. It might also have had the practical use of masking his living scent.
• Big Damn Heroes: A few notable examples:
  • In the Season 2 opener, he saves T-Dog from becoming walker food by shooting the walker about to chomp on T-Dog and then dumping said walker's body on T-Dog to mask his scent.
  • Subverted late in Season 2 - he tackles down a walker that's about to eat Dale, but he's moments too late from saving him and he personally delivers the Mercy Kill as an apology.
  • Midlate in Season 3, he does it twice in one episode, once to save a group of Mexican strangers he didn't even know, and once to Rick.
• The Big Guy: Class 3. Becomes The Lancer after Shane is killed.
• Breakout Character: One of the most popular characters, he was promoted to the main cast in season 2 and given an entire episode to show his badass credentials. In Season 3, he's become the second-in-command to Rick and runs the group when he's not available.
• Broken Tears: Finding Merle as a Walker then having to Mercy Kill him.
• Butt Monkey: "Chupacabra" showed Daryl falling down a cliff twice, the initial fall causing one of his arrows to impale him, the second when he's trying to get back up. Then he was nearly eaten by walkers and when attempting to (successfully) climb back the second time, he had hallucinations of Merle mocking and berating him. Once he got back in the farm, his friends mistook him as a walker and was nearly killed when one of them (Andrea) shot him. Again, it all happened in one episode.
• Byronic Hero: He is cynical, determined, and brooding and also has a strict personal code with a lot of loyalty to his friends.
• Canon Foreigner
• Celibate Hero: Due to his abusive past, he has trouble with letting people get close or touching him. When Carol starts joking about the two of them having sex he gets real quiet and asks her to stop.
• Character Development: Daryl is one of the characters who has changed the most out of the cast, highlighted in the episode "Home", where his new personality clashes with Merle's outdated perception of him. While Daryl was originally a mildly racist, belligerent redneck who only looked out for himself and his brother, as Merle dominated him through mild psychological bullying, Daryl chooses Rick's group over Merle in the episode. He's now a brave, compassionate and stronger man, who has bypassed Merle and can see his flaws.
• Combat Pragmatist: Wields a crossbow, recognizing that he can both hunt food for the group and silently stealth kill any Walkers he encounters without bringing a dozen more down on his head. He also attempts to recover fired bolts if he can, allowing him to conserve ammunition. He even knows how to make new ones.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Brought to the fore in "The Suicide King", when he's forced to choose between Rick's group and hs brother Merle, and ends up going with the latter. Then in "Home", he decides that Rick's group is his real family and goes back to them.
• Covered with Scars: Seen in the episode "Chupacabra". Norman Reedus states they're from Daryl's childhood abuse. "Home" confirms that both he and Merle were physically abused by their father.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Explored in "Home".
• The Cynic
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • After a walker growls at him, he replies with a crossbow bolt through the head and "Shut up".
  • Instead of asking for help while he's bleeding from one of his own arrows on his way back to Hershel's farm, he simply notes to Rick that this is the third time Rick has pulled a gun on him at this point and then asked if Rick would pull the trigger this time. He is then shot by Andrea, who doesn't know it's him from afar. The bullet just barely grazes his head. Most would be unconscious or just plain dead, but Daryl, being... Daryl, still manages to mutter as the others pick him up, "I was kidding."
• Defrosting Ice King: Initially hostile to everyone else in the group, he slowly grows closer to each group member and becomes loyal to them.
• The Determinator: Even after being stabbed in the side by one of his crossbow bolts following being tossed from a spooked horse down into a ravine, he still manages to make it back to the camp on his own.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: After the group finds and shoots the undead Sophia, Daryl separates himself from the others in frustration. Carol, who knew how hard Daryl searched for Sophia, tells him he can't just shut the others out and that the group needs him. Daryl angrily tells her that he was better off on his own to begin with, that Sophia wasn't his problem, and that he doesn't need her to try and take care of him. Knowing that this is Daryl's way of handling what happened, Carol stands there and lets him vent as long as he needs.
• Friend To All Children: Willing to look for Sophia in Season 2, bonds with Carl, and cares for the new born Judith Grimes and even calls her Little Asskicker. His main reason for saving a random Mexican family in Season 3 is that he could hear their crying baby.
• God Created Canon Foreigner: Daryl and his brother are original characters created for the show by the creative staff. However, Robert Kirkman says he may try to find a way to make him into a Canon Immigrant to the comic.
• Good Is Not Nice: Well, not all the time.
• Hallucinations: After two falls down a riverbank and a pretty severe injury, Daryl starts having hallucinations about his brother Merle - mocking him and egging him on to survive.
• Handicapped Badass: Or, in this case, an injured one. After being badly injured after a fall and impaled on one of his own crossbow bolts, Daryl wakes up with a walker attempting to eat his (thankfully booted) foot. He kills it with a stick, and then pulls the aforementioned bolt out of his own body and uses it to shoot another.
• Hates Being Touched: Flinches back when Carol (probably the least threatening member of the group) leans in to give him a motherly kiss on the forehead. Word Of God states that he's "constantly expecting to be hit" due to his childhood abuse.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Gives Rick and the others time to escape from Woodbury by laying down cover fire. He's subsequently captured by the end of the episode.
• Hidden Depths: Shown to have this side to him in Season 2. He's the most confident that they will find Sophia alive and even comforts Carol. The Cherokee Rose scene won him a LOT of fans.
• Hot Blooded: Becomes less so as the series goes on.
  • Arguably by the 3rd season, after taking over as The Lancer, he has switched roles with Rick who was very level headed in Season 1, and is now more Hot Blooded and unpredictable. Daryl is now the calmer, more reliable one.
• Iconic Item: His crossbow.
• The Idealist: Surprisingly: aside from Rick, he was the one who was the most confident they would find Sophia alive. Sadly, he was wrong.
• I Work Alone: Used to believe this, but grows used to working with the other survivors and in "This Sorrowful Life" he tells Merle that they can't survive without people anymore.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: On Randall in "Judge, Jury, Executioner".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A mildly racist redneck like his brother Merle, but he continually goes out of his way to help others in the group, such as helping Rick rescue Glenn from the Vatos, saving T-Dog's life several times, and even revealing Merle's secret drug stash when T-Dog gets a nasty infection. He also cares about finding Sophia far more than any of the other members of the group besides Carol.
• Knife Nut: Capable of being this when he needs to be. Besides using one as a secondary weapon, he's also comfortable enough throwing them that he is able to hit a walker with in the face with a knife throw, without so much as grazing someone inches away from said walker's face.
• The Lancer: As tension between Rick and Shane rapidly escalates towards the end of Season 2, Daryl gradually became Rick's right-hand man. Following Shane's death at the end of Season 2, Daryl officially becomes this in Season 3.
• Made of Iron. He falls down a steep slope and impales himself on one of his crossbow bolts. He then climbs up the slope, falls, then tries again, eventually limping back to camp, where not even being grazed on the head by a rifle shot keeps him down.
• Missing Mom: She died in a fire when he was still a kid.
• Morality Pet: To Merle.
• The Nicknamer: Called Glenn Chinaman in Season 1 and coined Lori's newborn baby as "Little Asskicker" before being named Judith by Carl.
• Noble Bigot: While being no fan of Glenn or T-Dog, he won't simply stand by and withhold assistance if either one of them is in need, even if it means putting his life on the line. Used to demonstrate his character development in Season 3 when Merle calls Glenn Chinese. While Daryl had called Glenn a Chinaman in the past, this time he responds by telling Merle that Glenn is Korean.
• No One Gets Left Behind:
  • This is a big issue for him, possibly because of what happened to Merle. Whenever someone goes missing, he will be the first to volunteer to look for them. The only time he refused was shortly after the barn massacre and Sophia being found as a walker, as he was too torn up about his failure. He also is the most insistent on returning to search for Andrea when the farm is overrun and she is separated from the group. In Season 3, when Glenn and Maggie are kidnapped, he immediately volunteers to go after them.
  • He brings this up as a big reason for why he leaves the group in "The Suicide King". He isn't willing to abandon his brother a second time. However, he realizes that he and Merle parted ways in how they think a long time ago and decides to return to the group, with a shocked Merle forced to follow him back.
• Odd Friendship/Ship Tease: With Carol.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Mildly racist, but still willing to stick his neck out for all the members of the camp. By Season 3, he snaps at his brother's racist comments.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Beginning in Season 2.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Merle's red.
  • As The Lancer, he's the Blue to Ricks Red
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Shown when he and Rick look for Sophia at the start of Season 2.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After he and Merle are rescued by Rick's group from Woodbury, Daryl abandons Rick and the group to stay with his brother. The next episode, he pulls this on Merle and heads back to the group, deciding that they are his real family. Merle is forced to follow along so he doesn't get left alone.
• Silly Daryl, Idealism Is For Kids: His relationship with Merle.
• Sherlock Scan: Twice. He figured out that Shane killed Otis due to the fact that Shane had Otis' gun when he supposedly did a Heroic Sacrifice, and the second time when he determined Shane killed Randall by noting their footprints were walking together, the tree which Shane banged his face against to make it seem like Randall had attacked him, and Randall's broken neck.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His signature look, though sleeves are beginning to appear as winter nears.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Daryl's Character Development since the first season is very evident, to say the least.
• Warrior Poet: In "Cherokee Rose", describing the myth about the plant.

Merle Dixon

Merle is Daryl's much more racist and jerkass brother. He put the scavenging group sent to Atlanta at risk, and attacks other members of the group. This forces the others to leave him behind, and he ends up forced to cut his own hand off to escape, disappearing into Atlanta. He was rescued by the Governor and became his right hand man in Woodbury.

Merle and Daryl will be the stars of a First-Person Shooter by Activision called The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct that tells the story of how they arrived at the Atlanta camp.

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• A Death in the Limelight: "This Sorrowful Life", which packs in a lot of Character Development and ends with his death twice.
• Abusive Parents: He ran away from home to escape his father's physical abuse, stating that he would have killed him had he stayed any longer.
• Affably Evil: Seems to have become this by Season 3, at least to some people. To others, he's Faux Affably Evil.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Played straight in Season 1. Subverted in Season 3.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Of a sort, considering he'd had a definitive Heel Face Turn over the course of the episode, but the finale of "This Sorrowful Life", with Daryl's Broken Tears, can make many people feel sorry for Merle, who previously was reviled by many for his racism and sexism.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • He loses his right hand after having to use a hacksaw to cut it off so he can get out of handcuffs that were keeping him from escaping the horde of walkers looking to invite him for dinner, in the first season.
  • The Governor bit two of his fingers in Episode 15 of Season 3.
• And Then Merle Was A Walker: At the end of "This Sorrowful Life". Daryl reluctantly puts him down.
• Artificial Limbs: Merle ended up with a "replacement" after creating it. He replaced his missing hand with a contraption of things he found together inside a medical warehouse.
• Asskicking Equals Authority: He apparently believes in this, attempting to take over the scavenging group in Atlanta after beating up T-Dog. Luckily, Rick had something to say about that.
• Bad Guys Do The Dirty Work: By "This Sorrowful Life", he takes this approach as a Token Evil Teammate, and even very nearly says the trope name verbatim.
  Merle: Maybe these people need someone like me around. To do their dirty work. The bad guy.
• Badass: He may be a total dick, but you have to respect his quiet amputation of his own hand and his escape through a walker-infested city. Becomes a Handicapped Badass post-amputation.
• Badass Bookworm: The only thing he misses about Woodbury is the library, since he's gotten to become rather literate in at least The Bible by Season 3.
• Bald of Evil: Though less evil (and bald, coincidentally) by Season 3.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He tells the Governor that he's eager to find his baby brother Daryl when he finds out the group is nearby. In the mid-season finale, the Governor uses the connection between Merle and Daryl to publicly accuse Merle of treason, and he and Daryl finally meet again at last - in Woodbury's gladiator ring.
• Big Brother Bully: It's indicated he and Daryl don't have the healthiest relationship.
• Blade Below The Shoulder: His "replacement" version ended up becoming something akin to Ash Williams when Merle created a blade attachment. His knife once attached works like a bayonet, making it very effective in Walker killings and and hostage taking as Glenn and Maggie figured out.
• Blood Knight: While not as crazy as Shane, Merle does love combat especially the staged walker fights in Woodbury.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He really loves to fight.
• Bring It: He always tries to provoke people into fights with him using taunts. He even practices his taunts while he is alone!
• The Bus Came Back: After being unseen since the third episode of Season 1 (save for appearing to his brother via hallucination in Season 2's "Chupacabra"), he finally turns up again in Season 3.
• Death by Disfigurement: He has lost his right hand and two of his fingers by the time he died.
• Defector from Decadence: After the Governor pits him and his brother Daryl against one another in a death match, he breaks away from Woodbury.
• Defiant to the End: "I ain't beggin' you... I ain't beggin'...."
• Determinator: He sliced through his own hand, slowed the blood loss, climbed down the staircase of a skyscraper, killed several walkers, cauterized the stump and then escaped with the heroes' truck. He did all of this bleeding heavily and quietly to avoid attracting more walkers. If Merle has one defining characteristic, it's his absolute refusal to die.
• Didn't See That Coming: He's surprised, to say the least, when the Governor publicly accuses him as a traitor in the aftermath of the Woodbury attack.
• The Dragon/The Brute: To the Governor in Season 3. Until he defects. Martinez picks up the slack instead.
• Dyeing For Your Art: Michael Rooker has been a pretty big guy for years, and was perfect for Merle in season one. He then lost twenty pounds to play Merle post-amputation in season three.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: His assault on Woodbury in "This Sorrowful Life".
• Establishing Character Moment: Recklessly shooting walkers which draws attention to the survivors, beating up T-Dog and calling him a nigger, and attempting to take control of the scavenger group through violence. Plus he was hyped up on drugs at the time.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Looks thoroughly shocked and disturbed when The Governor is seen fondling a naked Maggie. Also, don't mess with his brother. Ever.
• Fan Nickname: Captain Hook.
• Fingore: Had his ring and middle fingers bitten off by the Governor before being killed by him.
• Glass Cannon: Merle mostly focused on attacking, and is one of the best in the series. However, his lack of defensive skills led him to trouble several times; such as when Rick neutralized him and not noticing a walker beside him during his solo attack on Woodbury that leads to his death.
• God Created Canon Foreigner: Original to the series. Robert Kirkman, the author of the comic, is one of his creators.
• Handicapped Badass: Even losing his hand doesn't stop him from kicking ass.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: Mostly a heel but is still capable of doing good if it is in his best interest.
• Heel Realization: Michonne exposes Merle's guilt about all the people he's killed and all the horrible things he's done for the sake of Woodbury. This results in him sparing Michonne's life and becoming a Death Seeker.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He decided to take down as much of Woodbury that he could to protect Daryl and the prison.
• Hidden Depths: Merle is very knowledgeable about the Bible, and he admits to Hershel that Woodbury's library is the only thing he misses about the town. He's kept count on how many people he's killed and doesn't seem proud of it.
• Hot Blooded: Whether it's a racist rant or beating the crap out of someone, he does everything with gusto and a big grin on his face.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: A victim of this, often with disastrous results.
  • In Season 1, shooting walkers at random led Rick to handcuff him to stop attracting attention, and his screaming at T-Dog to release him probably contributed a bit to T-Dog's falling and dropping the key.
  • In Season 3, he lies to the Governor about successfully killing Michonne, thinking she had no reason to come back to Woodbury anyway. Not knowing that Michonne is still nearby, he kidnaps and takes Glenn and Maggie back to Woodbury. Michonne seeks out Rick's group to inform them of Woodbury's location and they provide her with enough distraction for her to sneak into the Governor's office and kill the walker-daughter of the Governor. This leads the Governor to publicly brand him a traitor in front of all of Woodbury.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Fairly often to survive or for whoever he is affiliated with. Deconstructed in "This Sorrowful Life". Its discussed that he's always making bad choices and what results those actions will have, and most importantly the weight of it all for his conscious.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He employs this on Glenn in "When the Dead Come Knocking".
• Jerkass
  • Jerk With A Heart Of Jerk: He seems to have become somewhat less of a Jerkass in Season 3... but is utterly sadistic toward anyone who isn't from Woodbury or named Daryl Dixon. Which isn't to say he isn't a jerk to Daryl, too. When he leaves Woodbury with Daryl, Rick, Glenn, Maggie, and Michonne, he wastes absolutely no time in taunting and insulting all of them until one gets fed up and just knocks him out.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His final characterisation.
• Kick the Dog: He kills Gargulio for questioning his orders (even after he saved Merle's life) and takes Maggie and Glenn hostage in "Hounded".
• Knight Templar Big Brother: The reason for the second Kick the Dog moment above.
• Large Ham: He loves hamming it up. Likely why he was such a huge hit with the fans despite being a racist asshole.
• Lean and Mean: In Season 3. Michael Rooker states that he lost 20 pounds to play Merle again to invoke this.
• Life or Limb Decision: When he was left on a rooftop in Season 1. He chose life.
• The Nicknamer: He has a number of nicknames that he uses to refer to other characters:
  • Daryl: Little Baby Brother, Darlina
  • Rick: The Sheriff, Officer Friendly
  • Andrea: Blondie, Sugar Tits, Rug-Muncher, Whore
  • Maggie: Bo-Peep
  • Michonne: Mute, Nubian Queen
  • T-Dog: Spear-Chucker, Mr. Yo
  • Morales: Taco Vendor
  • Caesar: Brownie
  • Gargulio: Neil, although this is due to him not being able to pronounce Garguilo's name.
  • Milton: Miltie
• Not So Different: Michonne's long discussion with him in "This Sorrowful Life" leads him to realize that the Governor has been making Merle more like himself, turning him into a killer of men (which, for all he was a Jerkass, he was never a killer, not even in the army; he's killed 16 men since joining the Governor). So to prove that he actually is different from the Governor, he lets Michonne go and sets off on his Heroic Sacrifice, taking out 8 of Woodbury's finest and nearly the Governor before being taken down himself.
• One-Man Army: He manages to kill eight of Woodbury's troops all by himself before his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Pet the Dog: When Andrea tells Merle that Amy is dead, he looks genuinely sad and comments that she was a good girl.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Merle is quite a bit more of a racist and sexist than Daryl. In Season 3, however, he appears to have toned it down a great deal. It's possible having your hand cut off while in the midst of a coked-up racist beat-down changes your perspective.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Beginning in Season 3.
• Psycho Party Member: When he was with the scouting group in Atlanta, shooting walkers without need and attacking other group members. And in Woodbury, he kills Gargulio in order to make sure his lies about killing Michonne stay intact.
• Really Gets Around: According to Daryl, he "got the clap on occasion."
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Daryl's blue.
• Redemption Equals Death: Dies while trying to protect his brother and the prison group, and very narrowly missed killing the Governor in the process.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: At least on Woodbury's end.
• Rousseau Was Right
• Second Episode Introduction: Like with most of the Atlanta survivors, he's introduced in the second episode of the show.
• Sixth Ranger: His situation kinda enforced him to be this for Rick's group in the last half of Season 3.
• Stupid Evil: It's repeatedly pointed out in the back half of the third season that Merle is quite reckless. At one point Rick asks him straight out "Do you even know why you do what you do?" Merle eventually confesses that no, he doesn't know. This, and his long conversation with Michonne, leads to his eventual Heel Realization.
• Sword and Gun: His artificial hand has a Blade Below The Shoulder attachment for melee combat, while uses guns in his remaining hand.
• Tattooed Crook: Daryl mentions he spent some time in prison before the Zombie Apocalypse.
• Token Evil Teammate: When he's with his brother's group. He even brings it up in "This Sorrowful Life".
• Took a Level in Kindness: Not too much kindness, of course, but he's grown more even-tempered. He seems to be working on this after reuniting with his brother and the Atlanta group.

Shane Walsh

Rick's best friend and fellow police officer. He saw Rick in the hospital, then went back in to serve and protect. Before the hospital was given up for lost, Shane checked one last time on Rick. He heard no heartbeat but tried to leave things in a way that his friend would be safe if he did wake up. Believing Rick dead, he broke the news to Lori, which led to a full romance, which was broken off abruptly when Rick returned.

Shane has not coped well since losing both his position as leader and his position in the hearts of Lori and Carl. He has a increasing ruthless streak which we get to see more and more of as the show progresses. He was killed by Rick in the penultimate episode of season 2 after attempting to murder him to regain leadership of the group and Lori.

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• Action Dad: Was a surrogate sort to Lori and Carl when they all thought Rick was dead. Possibly one to Judith too.
• Actor Allusion: Huh. Shane was a cop in New York when 9-11 went down.
• Adaptational Villainy: Justified due to being Spared by the Adaptation. As a result, Shane was fully utilized as a character compared to his comic counterpart.
• Age Lift: Shane is 25 at the start of the comics. He's in his mid-thirties in this one.
• And Then Shane Was A Zombie: For about ten seconds.
• Anti-Hero: Started the series as a Type IV, ultimately sliding towards Type V as the series progresses.
• Apologetic Attacker: He tells Otis he is sorry before shooting him in the leg and leaving him as bait for the walkers.
• Asskicking Equals Authority: When he was the Atlanta group's leader.
• Badass: Best seen when he goes to the school with Otis for medical supplies.
  • Adaptational Badass: If only because he sticks around longer to show it.
• Bald of Evil: After his Important Haircut.
• Bad Guys Do The Dirty Work: Subverted. For all his Cowboy Cop, "do what must be done" and "take over the farm" crap, Rick's the one that has to shoot Sophia after Shane doesn't have the nerve to do it.
• Blood from the Mouth: After Rick fatally stabs him in the chest.
• Comforting the Widow: When he and Lori believed Rick was dead. It unfortunately led him down the roads to how he ended up.
• Cowboy Cop: More so than Rick, though the cop part gets increasingly consumed by Crazy Survivalist
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Begins developing into this after Rick finds the survivors and Lori & Carl go back to him.
• Crazy Survivalist: Increasingly as the series goes on.
• Death by Irony: After (and aside from) his Karmic Death, Shane's reanimated self was shot and killed by Carl, the boy he taught to shoot.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: When training Andrea to shoot. He realizes that he's gone straight into Jerkass when he brings up "the Walker that bit Amy".
• Fallen Hero: He is a genuine friend of Rick until he fell in love with Lori. After Rick returned from his coma, reunites with Lori and took over as the group's leader, Shane gradually changes and thing ultimately went From Bad to Worse.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Especially poignant if you consider the title of the show.
• Hot Blooded: He has a lot of trouble reigning in his emotions and is on the verge of yelling a lot of the time.
• I Can Live With That
  Rick: You gonna kill me in cold blood? Screw my wife, have my children, my children call you daddy?! Is that what you want? That life won't be worth a damn. I know you; you won't be able to live with this.
  Shane: What you know what I can live with? You've got no idea what I can live with. With what I live with!!
• Important Haircut: After killing Otis he shaves his head, after snagging his hair almost got him killed. It also helped conceal the fact he murdered Otis to escape rather than escaping because of a Heroic Sacrifice on Otis' part.
• It Gets Easier: Deconstructed.
  "There is nothing easy about taking a man’s life no matter how little value it may have. But when you get it done, you have to forget it. I guess I haven’t quite got that last part down."
• It's All About Me: The ultimate reason why Shane ends up a villain.
• Jerkass: He casually threatens other group members lives when they inconvenience him and handles most situations in the most aggressive way possible without giving much thought to how other people may think or feel about them.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He may be brutal, but most of his suggestions for the safety of the group are correct. He's just too ruthless, stubborn and quick in trying to implement them.
• Karmic Death: Killed by his former best friend who he attempted on multiple occasions to kill.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He shoots Otis and leaves him for the walkers to get time to run away. Although this was partly done to get medical supplies for Carl, he was saving his own skin too.
  • Threatening to kill Dale if he causes too much trouble.
  • Ruthlessly massacring the walkers in the barn in front of Hershel, who, bear in mind, believed said walkers were his potentially curable friends and family.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Shane beating the crap out of Ed probably had a little more to do with his own frustrations than with doing the right thing, but damned if he didn't pick a deserving target.
  • His murder of Randall might count, if you believe that Randall wasn't so innocent after all.
• The Lancer: Shane is Rick's right-hand man, and often offers completely contrasting advice, normally of a harsher nature.
• Lawman Gone Bad
• The Leader: When he was in charge of the group, Shane was a combination of Type III and IV.
• Love Makes You Crazy and Evil
• Mr. Fanservice: The writers seem determined to have him show as much skin as possible in Season 2.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Multiple times.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Shane nearly goes through with it. Twice. In "Better Angels", after hinting at trying it a third time, Rick kills him.
• The Needs of the Many: Played straight.
• Perma Stubble: Grows a Beard of Evil in at least in one of Rick's visual hallucinations, as the Woodbury soldier who kills Oscar.
• Pet the Dog: His scene with Carol after Sophia is found to be a walker and then shot. However, it's been pointed out that, even though he's doing this for Carol, most of Shane's dialogue in this scene is still about his own problems.
• Really Gets Around: An entire scene in season two was devoted to he and Rick talking about his... escapades back in high school, including mention of the 30-year-old PE teacher. He's also gotten with 2/3 of the remaining original female group members - Andrea and Lori.
• The Resenter: Of Rick.
• Sanity Slippage: Mostly generated by guilt and rage.
  • When Rick comes back from his coma, Shane loses his relationship with Lori and Carl. He takes it badly enough to contemplate shooting Rick to have his spot back as group leader and loved-by-Lori.
  • When walkers close in on them, Shane shoots Otis, presumably so he can get away to bring the medical equipment to Carl, but also to save himself.
  • Dale calls him out on pointing his gun at Rick. Shane asks Dale what he thinks Shane would do if he's the kind of man who'd shoot his own best friend. He's doing some very creepy swaying and other body language all the while.
• The Sheriff: Again, just a deputy, and junior to Rick. Also, no hat.
• Silly Rick, Idealism Is For Kids: Repeatedly calls Rick out on thinking they can live like they used to, arguing that the rules of the old world don't apply anymore.
• Sociopathic Hero: He shows a distinct Lack of Empathy towards most of the other group members and routinely advocates the most ruthless or violent solution to every problem.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Until "Better Angels." This was one of the reasons the creator wanted to do the show; so he could explore more fully the character of Shane. Boy howdy.
• The Starscream: Although Rick is not a Big Bad, on at least one occasion Shane has considered killing him and taking back leadership of the group (not to mention giving Shane another chance with Lori).
• Tall, Dark and Snarky: Shane is literally half-an-inch short on fitting the trope to a T. ^note Jon Bernthal stands 5'10 1/2
• Team Killer: Kills Otis and threatens to kill Dale. Attempts to kill Rick three times.
• Token Evil Teammate: Almost shooting Rick in cold blood.

• The Unfettered: He gradually loses his moral restrictions, including repeatedly considering killing Rick before ultimately being killed by him in the penultimate episode of Season 2.
• What You Are in the Dark: Fails early on, after trying to shoot Rick in cold blood and only stopping when Dale sees him.
• Wife-Basher Basher: Although it turned into a way for him to take out his frustrations.
• With Friends Like These: He and Rick used to be really good friends, but the pressure of the Zombie Apocalypse and the Love Triangle with Lori has driven a massive wedge between them, resulting in them arguing all the time.
• Yandere: Of the Obsessive flavor.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: To Dale when he wouldn't return the weapons, he was right.

Glenn Rhee

Glenn is more than he seems. He's quick, clever, and brave, and these traits helped him save Rick when they met in zombie-overrun Atlanta. He is kind of laid back personality-wise, though, and has a tendency to let youthful exuberance override common sense. This causes the group to underestimate him and sometimes take advantage of him, while also causing him to sometimes not think out all his plans clearly. While staying on Hershel's farm, he began a relationship with Maggie, who he became engaged to in Season 3.

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• Action Survivor: Though he's become more capable in Season 3.
• Adaptational Badass: He is more combat proficient from the get-go than his comic counterpart.
• Adorkable: He's really shy and awkward in social situations, but he's also the nicest group member, which endears him to everyone else.
• Almighty Janitor: He knows his way around Atlanta better than anyone else in the group because of his former job delivering pizza.
• Asian and Nerdy: References playing Portal and other video games.
• Bad Liar: His utter inability to lie ultimately results in revealing Hershel's barn is full of walkers in the second season. Seemingly gets better at lying by Season 3, as he was able to tell Merle that most of the initial camp group would come to rescue him and Maggie without a problem. Too bad Merle already knew the truth of what happened to the group beforehand.
• Battle Couple: Him and Maggie as of Season 3.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Glenn finally snaps in Season 3, starting with The Suicide King.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He's introduced rescuing Rick, who he doesn't even know, and agrees to go back into Atlanta to rescue Merle even though he hates him.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: His introduction to Rick, saving him from the Walker herd.
• Deadpan Snarker: His first line was snark, and he hasn't let up on it since.
• Due to the Dead: He is a great believer in this.
• Good People Have Good Sex: Initially subverted, though he and Maggie have gotten better at it by season 3.
• Guile Hero: He would rather sneak around the walkers than fight them.
• The Heart: Easily the most "pure" and nicest member of the group, he's one of the few people that has gotten along with all the other member of the group without many issues.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Towards Maggie.
• Hidden Depths: Who would expect a pizza delivery guy to be so good at strategy? Maggie even lampshades that Glenn is more useful than the others give him credit for and shouldn't always be sent out on supply runs or be used as bait for the walkers.
• Hollywood Nerd: References playing Portal.
• I Work Alone: Glenn as much as said this to Maggie. This changes when Glenn and Maggie become the Official Couple of the group and comes back to bite him in the ass when he and Maggie are interrogated at Woodbury, and the Governor manipulates their concern for each other into telling him the group's current location at the prison.
• Kick the Dog: A frequent victim of this.
  • Glenn was able to come up with a decent plan to get to the guns in Season 1, only to be kidnapped.
  • Being The Heart, he was the natural choice to go find and comfort Rick in the prison after Lori's death. Rick, not finished grieving, snaps and shoves Glenn up against the wall, giving him the most jarring Death Glare in the series so far.
  • Tortured at Woodbury by Merle, who seems to be taking out his collective rage at Rick's group on Glenn by the way he's been beating on him. He doesn't divulge the group's location even after the heavy beating, but Maggie, unable to take the sight of Glenn dying, does.
• Nice Guy: He's the nicest person in the whole group next to Dale and T-Dog.
• Nice Hat: His baseball cap.
• Machete Mayhem: As of Season 3.
• Official Couple: With Maggie, including becoming engaged in "This Sorrowful Life".
• Ordinary High School Student: He's certainly not a Naïve Newcomer, but he's only the Guile Hero when he's dealing with walkers. Get him around normal people and he's the Adorkable Hollywood Nerd. His naivete in dealing with Dave and Tony serves to counterpoint Rick's and Dave's escalating tension.
• Plucky Comic Relief: As much as someone in a zombie apocalypse can be, anyway.
• The Scrounger: He's often sent out on supply runs for the group.
• Second Episode Introduction: While the viewer’s heard his voice at the end of the pilot, Glenn made his proper introduction in the second episode.
• Secret Keeper: Forced into this role during Season 2, though he admits that he is a terrible one.
• The Smart Guy: Glenn can make effective and safe strategies for dealing with walkers, and is the best in the group at maneuvering around Atlanta.
• The Sneaky Guy: Even after being away from the group in so long, Merle states that he remembers Glenn as this.
• The Stoic: Puts up this front when things get serious in Season 3, especially while being tortured by Merle.
• Surnamed By The Adaptation: Glen Mazarra said on Twitter that his last name is "Rhee". Glenn's surname wasn't mentioned in the comics.
• Token Minority: Most of the Atlanta crew are Caucasian, whereas he's Korean. As of the third season another Asian character has appeared, though said Asian was killed off shortly. Also after T-Dog's death in the same season, he's been the only non-white survivor in the group until Michonne joins.
• Took a Level in Badass: Several actually, during the eight month time jump between Seasons 2 & 3. He even kills a walker while tied to a chair and then scavenges it's bones to use as weapons in his and Maggie's breakout.

Andrea

Andrea was a civil rights lawyer before the outbreak, but was on a road trip with her sister Amy when the apocalypse began. She and her sister were doing fine at the camp until her sister got bitten. Andrea had to put her own sister down rather than let her continue as a walker. This experience led her to having a death wish. Dale guilt tripped her into not going through with it; she holds something of a grudge against him for that, but is beginning to shake the death wish off. She does, and by the end of the second season has become one of the group's protectors before she gets separated from the rest in the finale and forced to fend for herself. Is forced to shoot herself after she gets bitten at the end of Season 3 after the Governor locks her in a room with a dying Milton.

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• Action Girl: Andrea is the female survivor who carries a gun the most. Once she gets some training she's mowing down walkers with the best of them. Best shown in "By The Dying Fire", as she is on the run through the forest for hours while being hounded by walkers and carrying an entire bag of weapons. She takes down a ton of them, but running out of ammo and exhaustion allowed one to finally jump her. Thankfully, Michonne chose that moment to make her debut.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Her depression was highly increased over the comic version.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. While she's a credible Action Girl here, she's nowhere near the competence of her comic counterpart.
• Age Lift: In order to further increase the differences between her and Amy.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Has a fling with Shane and falls for the Governor, even after she knows that he kidnapped and tortured two of her friends.
• Badass Damsel: She has her moments earlier in Season 2, but she officially earns this title in the Season 2 finale, having fought and run her way through a walker infested forest from midnight until sundown the next day.
• Blood Knight: After getting gun training, she seemed to enjoy cutting down walkers a little too much.
• Bound and Gagged: At the end of ''Prey.
• Broken Bird: While Amy's death initially sends her into a depressed suicidal state, she eventually bounces back and resolves to survive by becoming as Badass as possible.
• Captain Obvious: A lot of the things she says, especially in her introduction, are self-explanatory.
• Chickification: She seems to undergo a bit of this during her time at Woodbury, though she tries to keep from being forced away from battle.
• Conflicting Loyalty: In Season 3, big time.
• Cradling Their Kill: Her sister Amy, after she turned into a walker.
• Death Seeker: She becomes one at the end of the first season, following Amy's death. She really, really doesn't appreciate having her gun taken away, either.
• Death by Adaptation: She is currently alive and well in the comics.
• Despair Event Horizon: First her sister Amy gets killed by a walker, then Andrea has to put her down.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: To Michonne.
• Distressed Damsel: Near the end of Season 3, she gets kidnapped an brutally tortured by the Governor.
• Go Out with a Smile
• Hello Attorney: Prior to the Zombie Apocalypse, she was a lawyer. The judgment one would expect of a lawyer, however, doesn't seem to be in evidence given her on-screen record.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • She was one of Shane's greatest supporters, so she has a track record of taking a liking to the series' villains.
  • She still listens to the Governor after seeing his collection of severed heads and the staged fights.
  • Trusts Milton, who Andrea knows is completely loyal to the Governor, to aid her rendevouz from Woodbury. He predictably tells the Governor of all Andrea's plans. Subverted, as he later wises up and becomes an asset to Andrea.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Trying to prove she's a badass made her do some idiotic things in Season 2, including shooting a gun despite knowing the shot could attract other walkers and nearly shooting Daryl's head off as a result.
  • Choosing to side with the Governor over Michonne, who kept her alive for seven months!
  • Her firm grip on the Idiot Ball leads to her death at the end of season three. She stops working to get off her handcuffs several times to talk with a dying Milton. It gets even worse when you consider the fact that even Milton tells her that she needs to hurry. She easily talks to him for a few minutes in a situation where a mere ten seconds may have been enough to keep her from getting bitten.
• I Just Want To Be Badass: She wanted gun training in order to defend the camp, but her desire to prove herself led to her accidentally shooting and wounding Daryl.
• Jack Of All Stats: She's a well-balanced Action Girl, effective in handguns and melee weapons.
• The Load: Her Season 2 character arc involves wanting to grow out of this. She succeeds admirably.
• Martial Pacifist: Tries so hard to be this in season 3.
• Ms. Fanservice: After Maggie, she's the second closest thing to one on the show. She dons thong underwear in "When the Dead Come Knocking" and gets completely nude in "I Ain't a Judas".
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once she realizes what the Governor is really like, including what he did to Maggie and Glenn.
• Only One Name: Her last name, like Amy's, has never been revealed.
• Only Sane Woman: In Woodbury as of the second half of Season 3.
• Plucky Girl: As of "Beside the Dying Fire". On her own against a horde of walkers, she runs and fights her way through the forest for the better part of eighteen hours. She only gets overwhelmed when she loses her knife, and luckily Michonne shows up to save her.
• Redemption Quest: Andrea decides to go after the Governor herself to make up for not realizing he was a sociopath before.
• Replacement Goldfish: She bears a remarkable resemblance to the Governor's late wife, seen only in a photograph.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Subverted in Prey, where she finally realized her mistake of siding with The Governor and flees Woodbury to warn Rick and the others only to be recaptured.
• Second Episode Introduction: Although she was still credited in the first.
• Survivor Guilt: In Season 1.
• Too Dumb to Live: In Season 3.
• Took a Level in Badass: After Shane trained her on how to shoot, to the point that she can run all night carrying a bag of guns (but no ammo) killing walkers with a knife.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Sorry your sister died, Andrea, but you don't need to tell Lori you hate her because her family is still alive.
• Zombie Infectee: Why she killed herself.

Dale Horvath

Dale is an old man who is kind of the father figure to the group. He is quiet and observant, and often something of a trickster as he'll let the others believe incorrect information if he believes it's in the best interests of the group. He is killed when he gets gutted by a walker on Hershel’s farm and Daryl is forced to Mercy Kill him.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: Dale went from an Anti Heroic Grumpy Old Man in the comics, to a Nice Guy Team Dad on this one. The change was well received.
• An Axe to Grind: He decapitates a walker with an axe in "Tell It to The Frogs".
• Badass: We rarely see him without his scoped rifle.

• Badass Bookworm: He has a ton of books in his RV that he lends out the other group members. He does regret not having a better selection, and states that he would have brought more if he had known the world was going to end.
• Badass Grandpa: 64 years old and can swing an axe like a much younger man.
• Badass Pacifist: Very evident when dealing with Shane in season 2, although it was heavily implied that he's a Martial Pacifist.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He wasn't afraid on standing up to Shane regarding the latter's controversial decisions.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Which the internet became fans of.
• Boom, Headshot: Via Daryl, to prevent Dale from suffering after getting attacked and gutted by a walker.
• Cool Car: His RV.
• Cool Old Guy: Lends out books to the group, swings a axe with the best of them, stands up to Shane's aggressive tactics, and tries to steer the group along a moral path.
• The Conscience: Even more so than Rick. Partly deconstructed though in that he can come off at times as preachy, and his moral advice is not always useful in the harsh situations the group find themselves in.
• Death by Adaptation: In the comics, Dale died at the cannibals arc (which was after the prison arc).
• Guile Hero: He's willing to trick and deceive his camp members if he thinks it will keep the group together and safe.
• Gutted Like A Fish: By a Walker's hands.
• Nice Guy: Aside from Glenn, he is the most openly caring person in the group and his main focus is keeping everyone from doing immoral things to survive.
• Nice Hat: His omnipresent white bucket fishing hat.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: His actor (Jeffrey DeMunn) was upset at original showrunner (and longtime friend) Frank Darabont's dismissal, and quit in protest, thus necessitating Dale's death.
• Team Dad: Dale is the member of the camp most dedicated to keeping it together, and who takes the most time to make sure its members are ok. Whether they want him to or not.
• What You Are in the Dark: After taking the guns to prevent Shane from arming everyone to kill the walkers in the barn and take over Hershel's farm, he has the opportunity to kill Shane, who he knows is a threat to people in the group. However, he can't bring himself to actually pull the trigger and take a human life.

Theodore Douglas/T-Dog

T-Dog is a member of the original survivor group and former football player. He feels that that he doesn't really have a place in the group, and seeks to find a way to prove himself to the others. By the third season, he has become one of the group’s main fighters, working alongside Rick and Daryl. He is killed early in season 3, when he gets bitten and then Eaten Alive holding 2 walkers back so Carol can escape.

---

• Action Survivor: All of them are of course, but T-Dog is the only guy in the original group who's not a badass survivalist or ex-cop.
• Badass: With a Badass Beard.

• Batter Up: Several times in the first season.
• Belated Backstory: The audience only starts to learn of his time from before the apocalypse after being in the show for nearly two seasons before he's killed in the prison.
• The Big Guy: He really steps into this role during the third season.
  • Stone Wall -> Mighty Glacier: At first, he focused more on defending and escorting the other members. By season 3, he finally starts going on the offensive.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Has a Heroic Sacrifice holding off a hoard of walkers to save Carol in Season 3.
• Black Best Friend: To most of the survivors, but especially to Glenn. His statement while digging a grave for T-Dog is very touching.

  Glenn: T-Dog wasn't just a good guy. He's the best.

• Black Dude Dies First: Lampshades this early in Season 2, after he becomes delirious due to a fever. He comments to Dale that both of them would be the first ones to go if their situation ever got bad enough, and thinks that he'll be "lynched". Averted in that he's outlived several members of the group so far. Until Season 3's "Killer Within" where he was the first of the group to die in the season, although he was quickly followed by Lori.
• Canon Foreigner: Filled most of Tyreese's roles and characterizations in the first two seasons.
• Captain Ersatz: His background as a football player belongs to comicbook's Tyreese. Ironically, Tyreese showed up four episodes after T-Dog's death.
• Car Fu: How he takes out a walker in "Beside the Dying Fire".
• The Cynic: Possibly the most cynical character in the series, though, surprisingly, he's actually one of the most sympathetic and nice to the prisoners, who are morally ambiguous at best.
• Deadpan Snarker: Quite a few times, but most notably after the disastrous attempt to remove the well walker on Hershel's farm results in it splitting in half and dumping its guts into the well.
  T-Dog: (bashes the walkers brains in) "Good thing we didn't do something stupid like shoot it."
• Drop the Hammer: He dispatches a few walkers this way.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Holding off two walkers to allow Carol to escape after he got bit.
• Eaten Alive: After saving Carol the walkers overwhelm him.
• Fingerless Gloves: He starts wearing some at the end of the second season.
• Genre Savvy: He is well aware about how dangerous it is to be the only black guy in a group.
• The Klutz: Deconstructed and Played for Drama. His dropping of the keys to Merle's handcuffs is frequently referenced, and he sliced up his arm when there was a herd of walkers nearby.
• Luckily My Shield Will Protect Me: He gets a riot shield at the beginning of Season 3.
• Must Make Amends: He felt terrible about dropping the key to Merle's handcuffs, even if the guy was racist, figuring that no one deserved his fate. He decided to go with Rick, Daryl, and Glenn to help rescue him, but by the time they got to the roof, Merle had cut his hand off and disappeared.
• Nice Guy: He most defining characteristic is how willing he is to help others and give people second chances, as shown when he volunteered to go back for Merle and advocated giving Axel and Oscar a chance to join the group.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Heck, he only mentioned his real name while ranting under the effects of drugs and a fever!
• Out of Focus: During Season 2.
• Sacrificial Lion: For Season 3 alongside Lori.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the farm falls to the walkers, T-Dog escapes with Lori and Beth. He wants to head to the east coast, and is only convinced not to when Lori and Beth both threaten to leave unless he tries to find the others.
• Second Episode Introduction: Along with the rest of the Atlanta scouting group.
• Token Minority: Often accused of being this in season two by fans and reviewers who felt his character was extremely underused.
• Word Of God: Warning, link has spoilers for early season 3: Glen Mazzara has stated that T-Dog is a former football player, and that a line in which it was mentioned got cut during the first season.

Carol Peletier

Carol survived the initial stages of the zombie apocalypse with Ed, her husband, and Sophia, her daughter. Ed abused her, but he died during the walker attack on the camp. After that, Carol became more independent, but the disappearance and later death of her daughter demoralized her again.

However, she has since recovered and started becoming more assertive, taking a larger role in the group as both as shooter and medic. Carol has also established a strong friendship with Daryl and began to deeply care about him after he kept looking for the missing Sophia in Season 2.

---

• Action Survivor: In Season 3.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: She's having it much worse here than in the comics.
• Adaptational Badass: By Season 3, she becomes more combat proficient and emotionally stable than her comic counterpart. Which is a good thing because she really needs to be.
• Adaptation Dye Job: Went from having medium length blonde hair in the comics to short cropped grey-black hair. Justified in that outside of a few plot points, she has very little in common with the character from the comics.
• Age Lift: Carol is younger than Rick and Lori in the comicbook.
• Butt Monkey: In Season 1 she suffers abuse from her husband, and then in Season 2 she has to deal with Sophia's disappearance and death. Things look up for her in season 3, but then T-Dog dies to save her and she still nearly dies of exhaustion and lack of water.
• Broken Bird: First she gets broken by her husband's abuse, and then Sophia's death. Since then, she's taken numerous levels in badass to become a skilled shooter and valuable member of the group as the secondary medic.
• Deadpan Snarker: Seems to be becoming more and more of one as of season 3.
• Despair Event Horizon: Seeing the undead Sophia walking out of the barn. Daryl has to stop her from running to her.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Subverted, in a way. Sophia's death does indeed push her to her Despair Event Horizon, but she gets back up after enough time, arguably sooner than any other woman normally would after losing a daughter the way she did. It's everyone else that insists on awkwardly avoiding her for a while afterward. When Carl, who can't find a way to handle his own grief at Sophia dying, tells Carol that heaven is a lie, Carol then confronts Lori, telling her that Rick and Lori need to control Carl and that everyone needs to stop pitying her and treating her like a headcase.
• Last Place You Look: After going missing in Season 3, she ends up being in the room Daryl, Carl, and Oscar first encounter while looking for her, and the last one they check.
• The Load: Averted between Seasons 2 and 3 onward.
• The Medic: Well, she's working on it.
• Mistaken for Gay: By Axel, due to her short hair.
• Never Found the Body: Presumed to be dead, a grave was made for her. Later it turns out she wasn't yet deceased.
• Odd Friendship/Ship Tease: With Daryl.
• The Quiet One: Due to Ed's abuse, and then to Sophia's disappearance and death.
• Shrinking Violet: Due to her abusive husband, she's somewhat reserved around others.
• Spared by the Adaptation: So far, she managed to stay alive longer than her comic counterpart, who should have died before the Woodbury's (second in this adaptation) attack on the prison, thanks to her Adaptational Badassness.
• Surnamed By The Adaptation
• Team Mom: Takes up this role after Lori dies.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the break between Season 2 and 3. She apparently learned how to headshot walkers from a considerable distance.
• Widow Woman: She doesn't mind much, since Ed abused her and "looked" at Sophia.

Sophia Peletier

Sophia is the daughter of Carol and Ed, and is a friend of Carl. She went missing in a forest after running away from walkers, and was eventually found in the barn of Hershel's farm, having become a walker. She was put down by Rick.

---

• Abusive Parents: Her father Ed.
• Age Lift: Similar to Carl's.
• And Sophia Was Found As A Walker
• Bus Crash: Disappearing after the first episode of season 2, she came back (un)dead.
• Creepy Child: After becoming a walker.
• Dead All Along: Much of the second season the group searched for her without effect. Near the end of the season, it's discovered that she's one of the walkers captured by Otis and kept in Hershel's barn.
• Death by Adaptation: Sophia is currently still alive and well in the comics.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Carl.
• Dying Alone: After getting lost in the woods and bitten by a walker.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her shirt.
• Kill The Cutie: Twice, if you count her getting bitten, and then her walker self getting shot by Rick.
• The Load: Good job getting lost in a walker-infested forest for days, kid.
• Morality Pet: To Daryl in the second season.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: One of the reasons she got killed off was because Madison Lintz was growing too fast for the timeframe the show is supposed to take place in.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Gets lost in the woods, and a long search for her ends at the farms barn where Otis had put her walker form but died before telling anyone.
• Surnamed By The Adaptation
• Tagalong Kid: From Season 1 to the first episode of Season 2.
• Tragic Monster: After becoming a walker.
• Trauma Conga Line: Has an abusive father, watches said father get the crap kicked out of him then eaten, barely survives multiple attacks by walkers while watching people die around her, and then get lost in the woods and becomes a walker. Poor kid.
• Undead Child: Her tragic fate.
• Youthful Freckles: Madison Lintz's own freckles

Maggie Greene

Maggie is Hershel's oldest daughter, and the most welcoming member of the farm to the group. She quickly established a relationship with Glenn and became one of the groups defenders. She accepted Glenn’s proposal near the end of Season 3.

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• Action Girl: Developed into becoming one.
  • In Season 2, after making her explosive entrance stunning a walker with a baseball bat from horseback, Maggie did nothing but remain on the farm and freak out the one time she gets attacked by a walker on a scavenging trip with Glenn. Taken in account before she met Rick and company, she lived and worked on a farm, was a Farmer's Daughter, and had little to no real experience in killing Walkers (especially ones that would become faster and aggressive). It would make sense why Maggie wasn't a Walker killer like the rest of the group, who had experience and had worked in team formation.
  • As of Season 3, however, she begun to get better; showing herself able to hold her own along with Rick and the men. By the time the season ends, she's the most skilled gun user of all the women.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: While her comicbook counterpart isn't unattractive, she's notably taller and well-endowed in this adaptation.
• Adaptational Badass: Probably the straightest example.
  • Compared to her initially fragile comicbook counterpart, she's more assertive and emotionally strong from the get-go.
  • She's also a credible Action Girl here. In fact, she is the most competent female member of the group in Season 3 until Michonne joins them. ^note But as Michonne is literally a bad shot, Maggie is still the group's best Action Girl in terms of firearms
• Age Lift: From around 17 in the comic to 22 in the show.
• Aloof Dark Haired Girl: She has dark red hair, tall and is usually composed.
• Badass: Smacking a walker in the head with a baseball bat while charging it mounted on a horse is the most inventive attack on a walker we've seen so far.
• Batter Up: Though Season 3 sees her switch to Machete Mayhem alongside Glenn.
• Battle Couple: With Glenn.
• Calling the Old Man Out: When Hershel wants to kick Rick's group off of the farm.
• Dawson Casting: Maggie is 22-23, while actress Lauren Cohan is 30.
• Distressed Damsel: Recently kidnapped by Merle alongside Glenn, but gets rescued.
• Fanservice Pack: Helps that she's played by former model Lauren Cohan
• Farmer's Daughter: Lampshaded by Glenn.
• Fake American: Sort of. Lauren Cohan was born in the United States, but lived in the UK for some time and naturally has a British accent.
• Fiery Redhead: She's never afraid to voice her opinion or back down in an argument.
• Horseback Heroism: When she saved Andrea at the beginning of Season 2.
• Jack Of All Stats: After becoming a well-rounded Action Girl in Season 3. She's good with firearms, but not as great as Rick, Daryl, Hershel or Carl. She's effective in melee combat, but not as competent as Rick, T-Dog, Glenn or Michonne.
• Ms. Fanservice: She takes off her shirt and bra on more than one occasion, although the Shameful Strip by the Governor in Season 3 is most definitely not fanservice.
• Official Couple: With Glenn.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Beginning in Season 3.
• Promotion to Parent: Takes care of Lori's baby after her death in Season 3.
• Shameful Strip: The Governor forced her to do this in season 3.
• Statuesque Stunner: Stands 5'8 and is good looking.
• Toplessness From The Back: In "Cherokee Rose".
• Woman in Black: In Season 3.

Hershel Greene

Hershel is the owner of a farm that was mostly spared by the zombie apocalypse. He allowed the survivors to stay on the farm during their search for Sophia, but secretly kept a barn full of walkers, including his wife and step-son, believing they were simply sick. After the group is forced to leave the farm, his medical knowledge is vital to their survival and makes him one of their main assets and leaders.

When the group occupies the prison, Hershel tries to keep Rick on a moral path during the conflict with Woodbury and encounters with other survivors.

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• Abusive Parents: His father beat him badly, causing Hershel to leave the farm until he died.
• Action Dad: When he needs to be.
• Adaptational Badass: He is more emotionally stable than his comic counterpart ever was. He's also more combat proficient as evidenced in the Season 2 finale. Also, losing his leg later on didn't stop him from kicking Walkers' ass. He even conceals a gun on his leg stump.
• Adaptational Heroism: He is more doting and compassionate than his comic counterpart.
• Age Lift: Went from being a few years to a decade older than Rick in the comics to being old enough to be his father.
• The Alcoholic: Got sober the day Maggie was born.
• An Arm and a Leg: Type III. Due to getting his leg bit while searching for Maggie and Glenn in the prison, Rick promptly makes a tourniquet then uses a hatchet to cut off the leg to stop the spread of the infection.
• Badass: He sure knows how to use his God shotgun. His actor Scott Wilson speculates that Hershel was pretty wild in his youth.
• Badass Beard/Beard of Sorrow: Sporting one in Season 3.
• Badass Grandpa: Possibly older than Dale, and even more badass than him.
• Closest Thing We Got: Despite being a veterinarian, Hershel mostly treats the various scrapes, bullet wounds, and arrow wounds that the survivors tend to accumulate.
• Composite Character: Because of Dale's early death, his characterization for the prison arc (specifically the leg amputation) was fused with Hershel.
• Cool Old Guy: "Triggerfinger" shows that Hershel is a fair shot, and he later prepares to amputate a man's leg while walkers are approaching on all sides.
• Crusading Widower: Twice.
• Despair Event Horizon: When he sees first hand his walker neighbor shot and then put down by Shane. Then Shane forces his own group to massacre the walkers in the barn, including Hershel's zombified family and neighbors. He manages to recover quickly.
• Doesn't Like Guns: But he sure knows how to use them.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After the walker barn massacre and realizing that the walkers can't be helped.
• Farm Boy: He owns a farm.
• Handicapped Badass: By "Killer Within" (and following his amputation), his leg amputation didn't slow him down or really phase him to any degree. He even uses his crutches as a weapon to kill a walker.
• Last Stand: Tries for one in the second season finale but gets rescued at the last moment.
• The Medic: As a veterinarian, he's the closest thing the group has to a doctor. Also serves as the Combat Medic in Season 3, until he loses his leg.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: Hershel reveals to Lori that he's a veterinarian, not a practicing surgeon. This does not comfort Lori at all considering that he's about to attempt a complicated surgical procedure on a critically injured Carl.
• Off The Wagon: Following the barn massacre of the walkers. Luckily, he gets better quickly.
• Open Heart Dentistry: After Carl is shot, Hershel has to operate to remove the bullet fragments, but he had only done the procedure on animals before, since he is a veterinarian.
• Overprotective Dad: Both to his blood relatives and his step-kids.
• The Patriarch: Both of his family and a little so of the group
• Politically Incorrect Hero: He initially only refers to Glenn as the "Asian boy", although he never treats him poorly. He later tells Glenn the country was built on immigrants, however. Eventually averted, as he gives Glenn his father's watch after realizing that Glenn and Maggie are attracted to one another, saying, "No man's good enough for your little girl until one is."
• Selective Obliviousness: Towards the fact that walkers are no longer people. Shane shooting one without it dying convinces him he was wrong.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Hershel didn't survive the prison attack in the comics.
• Team Dad: Takes the role over from Dale after he dies. It helps that he's actually the dad to two members of the group. By Season 3 he advises on how to care for Judith, advises the rest of the groups on relationships, is Rick's main source of advice, and is the one who tries hardest to help Rick with his loosening grip on sanity.
• Technical Pacifist: He knows how to use a gun, but just doesn't like to.
• Token Religious Teammate: One of the few group members to keep any faith in God after the apocalypse started.
• Zombie Advocate: He considers them merely sick people who could one day be cured until Shane finally demonstrates otherwise by shooting one through various vital organs to no effect.

Beth Greene

Beth is Hershel's youngest daughter, and the girlfriend of Jimmy. She develops a friendship with Carl and helps keep the groups spirits up through her singing.

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• A Day in the Limelight: "18 Miles Out".
• Angst Coma: Following the barn walkers being shot and being attacked by her own undead mom. She snaps out of it, but starts thinking about suicide.
• Broken Bird: In Season 2, she outgrows it in Season 3
• Break the Cutie: The loss of her mom and brother plus the barn massacre traumatized her pretty heavily. Her emotional state after Jimmy's death isn't really shown due to the time skip between season 2 and 3, but she seems to have recovered pretty well.
• Canon Foreigner: Never appeared in the comics.
• The Cast Showoff: Because Emily Kinney is a singer, Beth gets a couple big singing scenes in Season 3, performing the traditional ballad "The Parting Glass" (along with Maggie) in "Seed" and Tom Waits' "Hold On" in "I Ain't a Judas".
• The Chick: Compared to all the women in the group (and cast), Beth fills every aspect of the trope in spades.
• Dawson Casting: Beth is 16-17. Emily Kinney is 27.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it following the barn massacre of the walkers. She eventually recovers.
• Driven to Suicide: Halfway through Season 2, she comes to believe there is no hope left in the world, and tries to convince Maggie that they should kill themselves together. When she tries, she only makes a shallow cut on one wrist and can't go through with it. Ultimately it's Interrupted.
• Fanservice Pack: Thanks to her wardrobe
• Farmer's Daughter: Not so obvious as with Maggie.
• The Generic Girl
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: By far the most innocent and sweetest character on the show.
• The Heart: On her way of becoming this.
• Hidden Depths: Turns out to have quite a pleasant singing voice.
• Mauve Shirt: Some were fairly surprised she survived to see Season 3, considering how little she contributed up until that point. Fans were even more surprised when she was made a main cast member for Season 4.
• Oblivious to Love: Has no clue that Carl likes her.
• Pink Means Feminine: Until Arrow on the Doorpost where she switched on wearing a white blouse. She dons a pink jacket at the season 3 finale, though.
• Promoted To Parent: She's the main caregiver for Judith.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Promoted to series regular for Season 4.
• Technical Pacifist: If firing a pistol just to stop three of her teammates from arguing are any indication.
• Took a Level in Badass: Pretty much the everyone in the group did (to varying degrees) during the time skip between seasons 2 and 3, Beth included. She doesn't take part in much on-screen action and is presumably still pretty low tier in her group, but the sole fact that she even can fight is a huge step up in and of itself.
  • During the Season 3 premier, she's briefly seen standing watch with a gun. Later that episode, we see her stabbing walker-heads through a chain link fence and then joining in with the rest of the group as they open fire on the horde.
  • After a fight breaks out between Maggie, Glenn and Merle, she promptly storms into the room and fires a pistol into the air to stop them.

Tyreese

Tyreese is the leader of a small group of survivors, including his younger sister Sasha, that discover the prison. His neighbor Jerry helped them survive the initial outbreak in a bunker, but they later left and joined a group of 25 people that slowly got whittled down.

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• Adaptational Heroism: Tyreese is much nicer, compassionate and diplomatic compared to his comic counterpart.
• Adaptational Villainy: Subverted. He joined Woodbury*
  Tyreese never joined The Governor in the comics. In fact, The Governor was the one who killed him.
  in "I Ain't No Judas" after Rick kicked them off the prison, forcing him to find another safe place for his group and Woodbury is the only available option. Once there, he and his group decided to help The Governor in his "war". Tyreese though has remained a good person, acting very reluctant to harm the prison group, and protesting the use of walkers against them. He flat-out refuses to take part in the second prison attack during "Welcome to the Tombs" and joins Rick's group after learning the truth about the Governor.
• Ass Kicking Equals Authority: He is the most capable fighter of his group, hence the leadership.
• A-Team Firing: He's almost worthless when using a gun. It takes him four shots to hit a very slow moving walker with a sniper rifle.
• Badass: Dispatches walkers with complete ease using only a hammer. He's also sporting a Badass Beard.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Tyreese is one of the kindest and most decent people on the show. When Allen attacked him near a pit of walkers though, Tyreese almost threw him in.
• Brother-Sister Team: With Sasha.
• Drop the Hammer: When first shown, he's using a small sledgehammer as a weapon.
• Gentle Giant/Nice Guy: He's the only one who shows nothing but gratitude to the prison group for saving and harbouring them.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With his sister.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: To Allen, after he antagonized Tyreese out of petty jealousy and advocated the use of walkers against the prison group.

  Allen: I'll protect [my son].

  Tyreese: Oh, like you protected Donna?

• Large and in Charge: He twice as big as the rest of his group and clearly in command of them.
• The Leader: Of his small group.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's very agile for a guy his size.
• Martial Pacifist: Tyreese can definitely kick ass, but he always chooses to be diplomatic.
• Only Sane Man: The most level headed of his group.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Promoted to series regular for Season 4.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to his sisters red.
• Sixth Ranger: Subverted for Rick's group in The Suicide King. Played straight for Woodbury in I Ain't No Judas, although he is having second thoughts. Played straight to Rick's group as of Welcome To The Tombs.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Always wearing A-shirts until fall comes late Season 3.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Justified as he debuted much later than his comic counterpart.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Oscar, and, by second degree, to T-Dog, as the Blue Oni black man set to be a member on the heroes' side.
• Token Good Teammate: Tyreese is the only member of his team who isn't an Ungrateful Bastard and is levelheaded. While his sister isn't an Ungrateful Bastard, she's very Hot Blooded and argumentative, while Donna was given no characterization due to her early death. This becomes a factor when they arrived in Woodbury, where he is one of the few ready to argue against the Governor's decisions.

Sasha

Sasha is Tyreese's younger sister.

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• Action Girl: She shows off some pretty sweet shovel swinging skills in her introductory episode.
• Brother-Sister Team: With Tyreese.
• Canon Foreigner: Never appeared in the comics, although she appears to be taking the place of Tyreese's daughter Julie.
• Hot Blooded: She gets riled-up easily.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With her brother.
• The Lancer: She is her brother's most trusted teammate and the second most capable fighter of her team after him, but also has a much more confrontational personality than he does.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Promoted to series regular for Season 4.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Tyreese's blue.
• Shovel Strike: Originally appeared with a shovel as her weapon.
• Sixth Ranger: Subverted. At first.

Michonne

Michonne is a mysterious hooded survivor who saves Andrea after the attack on the farm. The two of them traveled together for several months as of the beginning of the third season. She used two armless and jawless walkers to carry supplies and ward off other walkers, only telling Andrea that they were barely men before becoming walkers. After joining Rick's group, she starts becoming more open and friendly while serving as a main fighter.

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• Action Girl: By far the most adept female at fighting walkers on the show.
• Angry Black Woman: At Woodbury, especially towards The Governor and Merle. She mellows towards the latter when she notices his guilt
• Adaptational Heroism: Her humanity is more evident here than the comics.
• Arch-Enemy: For The Governor.
• Badass: The most competent Action Girl in the series.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: As The Governor soon found out.
• Big Damn Heroes: Her debut, saving Andrea from a walker by cutting its head off.
• Black Cloak: Her hooded jacket
• The Cassandra: She was immediately able to sense that the Governor (and by extension, his men) is someone who shouldn't be trusted and warned Andrea. Andrea being Andrea...
• The Cavalry: Served in this role to Andrea at the end of the second season.
• Cry Cute: When she saw Andrea dying.
• Death Glare: Appears to be her permanent facial expression, with few exceptions.
• Dead Person Conversation: Sometimes talks with her dead boyfriend.
• Defrosting Ice Queen:
  • She seems to be mostly out for herself, but still tries to help the prison group in Season 3. And then there's her sad reaction to Penny... before learning she is a Walker.
  • In "Clear" she opens up to both Carl and Rick, showing her soft side and helping them with both their problems. As a result they accept her into the group.
• Dreadlock Warrior: Female example
• The Drifter: Prefers travelling then trying to find a place to settle down safely.
• Fingerless Gloves: Her brown leatherette glovelettes.
• Good Is Not Nice: She may be one of the noblest characters, but she doesn't hesitate to kill if necessary
• Genre Savvy: Figures out something's off about Governor the moment she meets him. Also the way she had her Human Pack Mule.
• Glass Cannon: She's good on the offensive. However, her opponents were not usually able to hit her back, and when she's travelling alone she can't treat her own injuries.
• Hidden Depths: In "Clear" she turns out to be a lot more relatable with Rick having went through the same mental trauma. She also displays a soft side with Carl, helping him get a photo of his mother, and generally acting in a weird, cool bodyguard/aunt combination.
• Human Pack Mule: She uses two walkers to carry supplies around.
• Iconic Outfit: The green jacket she was wearing in the last episodes of Season 3.
• In the Hood: In the Season 2 finale.
• I Work Alone: When she's leaving Woodbury and Andrea refuses to go with her, Michonne claims that she just slowed her down anyway.
• Katanas Are Just Better: As her weapon of choice.
• Lady of War: Cool and collected, she's usually seen disposing of walkers with grace and quickness.
• Last Episode New Character: In Season 2.
• Only One Name: She's never referred to as anything by "Michonne".
• Perpetual Frowner: She rarely has any expression on her face besides a distrusting or concerned frown.
• Plucky Girl: Not so obvious because of her The Quiet One demeanor
• Pretend We're Dead: Two variants:
  • With her walker pack mules, their scent overcomes her own, which disguises herself partially to walkers.
  • She also takes advantage of a time when she's Covered in Gunge to walk freely among the dead.
• Properly Paranoid: She quickly picked up on the Governor's lies and all the subtle things wrong with Woodbury and decided to leave as quickly as possible.
• The Quiet One: She never says any more than she has to, and often prefers to use a Death Glare to communicate.
• Shoot the Dog: Slicing the heads of her Human Pack Mule so she and Andrea won't be caught by The Governor and his men. Merle still found them, however.
• Sixth Ranger: After joining the group at the prison. She was then promoted as The Big Girl.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: The only times we see her in one is when she's wearing her Black Cloak in the season 2 finale and while wearing her green jacket from the comicbooks in the last two episodes of season 3.
• When She Smiles: After recovering a rainbow-striped cat sculpture from the diner.

The Governor (Philip Blake)

The Governor is the leader of Woodbury, a closed-off and seemingly peaceful community of survivors. He's apparently an upstanding and charismatic leader to his people, but he harbors dark secrets that only his inner circle knows about.

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• Action Dad: Villainous version.
• Action Survivor: Worked an office job and a normal suburban life before the end of the world.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: He has long unkempt hair in the comic along with a much more overall menacing appearance.
• Adaptational Badass: He is extremely cunning compared to his comic counterpart.
• And Starring: David Morrisey gets the "And" treatment.
• Authority Equals Ass Kicking
• Ax Crazy: He keeps decapitated heads of people he has had killed in fish tanks and stares at them for hours.
• Bad Boss: He murders his entire militia after they are routed at the prison and refuse to obey his orders to go back and fight.
• Badass: When Woodbury is ambushed he effortlessly kills walkers while barely looking at them. When he later has a pack of walkers set on him in an enclosed space by Andrea, he pulls through and survives armed with a pistol and a shovel.
• Badass Longcoat: He is occasionally seen wearing one starting with the mid-season finale.
• Berserk Button: His authority and power being questioned or threatened. You can see how he barely keeps himself from snapping.
  • Comes to a head in the Season 3 finale when he guns down his entire militia for wanting to give up on the prison.
• Big Bad: Much like in the comic book.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His public face is that of a stern but fatherly leader, when in truth he's a sociopath with a massive Messianic Archetype complex willing to use walkers as weapons and flips out and kills his entire militia when they refuse to perpetuate his revenge-driven feud with Rick's group.
• Blood Knight: Anytime he gets involved in a violent act, he starts smirking like he's having the time of his life. Merle also says that the Governor always said not to waste bullets on walkers you could kill otherwise, but that he always suspected that the Governor beat and stabbed walkers to death because he liked it.
• The Cast Showoff: We see him golfing in "Walk With Me." David Morrisey is reportedly the best golfer in the cast.
• Cold Sniper: In "Home".
• Composite Character: The TV version of the Governor seems to be a combination of the comic and book's Philip and Brian Blake, as he's both the Governor and the real father of Penny.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: After jumping off the deep end, he kidnaps Andrea, and tortures her, then tortures Milton for helping Andrea. He then tries to force Milton to kill Andrea against his will.
• Consummate Liar: His claims to the citizens of Woodbury about the National Guard soldiers getting killed by walkers and his branding of Rick's group as "terrorists" after they attack the town to rescue Glenn and Maggie.
• Crusading Widower: Villianous example.
• Cry For The Devil: When he clutches Penny's body.
• Cultured Badass: Loves tea, golf, public speeches... and blood baths.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy:
  • His plan to assault the prison in "Home" seems rather haphazard, but is in fact a good aversion of Hollywood Tactics aside from him not taking cover (probably because he's insane). The Governor sets up his men on higher ground and in the trees to unload automatic weapon fire on everyone inside, even the women and children. He also slams a truck through the gate and has a driver dressed in body armor release a cargo of walkers into the prison yard, cutting off any of Rick's group outside the prison. Lastly he fires guns into the air to attract even more walkers. In one attack he almost took out half of Rick's group.
  • Seen again on his second attack on the prison where he orders his men to immediately bomb the guard towers using grenade launchers. The main reason the attack fails is that Rick's group use the undertrained nature of the Woodbury militia against them by detonating flashbangs in close quarters, sounding deafening sirens, and releasing walkers on them, and when they flee the interior of the prison in a panic, heavy use of automatic gunfire by a heavily-armored pair of Maggie and Glenn ensures a complete rout.
  • Also seen with his actions in Woodbury. Guarded walls and a strict curfew make sure no walkers can get in, and manipulative propaganda such as branding Rick's group as terrorists is used to keep Woodbury citizens on his side.
  • After losing to the prison group, he gunned down his cowering men without shooting them in the head so they'll reanimate. He did the same with Milton earlier by stabbing him in the gut and leaving him to reanimate and kill the Bound and Gagged Andrea.
• Dark Messiah: An Ax Crazy person with messiah complex will make you this by default.
• The Dreaded: Goes with being a Hero Killer. Merle even invokes this during a conversation with Hershel. The fact that he matches Rick on killing the most named characters proves this.
• Establishing Character Moment: His introductory episode had him walking the line between "stern but good" and "a little too demanding, in a creepy way", until he walks into an armed camp of US soldiers, telling them about their missing comrade, waving a white flag. Then he whips out a pistol and his men gun them all down.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Has a photograph of a wife and daughter, both of whom are seemingly deceased, much like the comics. It turns out, however, his daughter, Penny, is a walker and he keeps her hidden.
• Evil Counterpart: To Rick. Also Hershel to some extent.
• Evil Overlord: Of Woodbury, although most of the town considers him a benevolent leader. They finally learn the truth the hard way when he guns the majority of them down
• Eye Scream: Michonne does this to him with a shard of glass in "Made to Suffer", setting up for an Eyepatch of Power.
• Fake American: David Morrissey is English.
• A Father to His Men: After Merle had killed Gargulio, the Governor correctly tells him Gargulio's name. Also, regardless of his Blatant Lies about people who invade, he does seem to genuinely want to keep Woodbury's people safe and happy. This is subverted however after his breakdown, when he cares far more about revenge and power than protecting his people.
• Faux Affably Evil: He may have been a good person at one point, but now his entire demeanor has become one of false reassurance hiding lie after lie.
• Hot Dad: He's hooked up with Rowan and then Andrea.
• Fingore: Bites Merle's ring and pinky fingers off before killing him.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He had a very average life before the zombie outbreak.
• Handicapped Badass: Post-Eye Scream.
• Hero Killer: He personally killed Axel, Merle and Milton, while he directly and deliberately caused the death of Andrea.
• Humans Are The Real Monsters: He exemplifies this in both the comic and the TV show.
• Iconic Item:: His black eyepatch, despite its late arrival, due to its part in creating his comic counterpart's image.
• Iconic Outfit: His black vest.
• Karma Houdini: He survives season 3.
• The Leader: Of Woodbury. He's a combination of Types I, II and IV.
• The Lost Lenore: Both his wife and Penny.
• Madness Mantra: Apparently, after Penny got bit, he lost it. From taking careful notes on food and sanitation and the like, he instead filled page after page with slash marks.
• Man Bites Man: Bites off Merle's fingers off when fighting him.
• Manipulative Bastard: Lies and manipulates the citizens of Woobury into following him, pulling the wool over their eyes on a number of issues while increasing their loyalty to him.
• Moral Myopia: As evidenced during his conversation with Milton during Arrows on the Doorpost.
  The Governor: (on killing everyone at the prison) It's the only way to prevent a slaughter.
  Milton: ...That is a slaughter.
  The Governor: Not on our end.
• Obviously Evil: In the second half of season 3, he walks around in a black longcoat wearing an eye-patch.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Despite saying he dislikes nicknames, he refuses to tell Andrea his real name. Though in "Killer Within", he tells Andrea his name is Phillip.
• Race Lift: His comics counterpart was of partial Latin descent.
• Papa Wolf: Violently loses it when Michonne kills Walker!Penny.
• Perma Stubble Of Evil: Un like his counterpart's Danny Trejo-esque mustache
• Plot Armor: Tons of it. Minor characters will literally walk into bullets for him. And he survives Season 3 without having to fight Rick, much to the ire of fans.
• Psychotic Smirk: When Rick and the group comeback to rescue Daryl while firing at his henchmen causing the townspeople to run in panic, he's the only one that seems to enjoys this.
• Sinister Scraping Sound: He drags around a shovel to scare Andrea when he's chasing her in a warehouse.
• The Social Darwinist: His "Kill or die" lecture seems like this.
• The Sociopath: Perhaps not entirely in the beginning, but definitely after Penny is killed by Michonne. He becomes completely obsessed with power and revenge. He turns Woodbury into a militia including anyone over 13 years of age and people with health concerns. He then spends the rest of the season preparing both sides for an all-out war, convincing Woodbury they're fighting terrorists and Rick that death is inevitable. At the end when its clear that Woodbury's soldiers aren't willing to go through with his plans, he guns them down.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The Governor didn't survive the prison attack in the comics.
• Stepford Smiler: He smiles a lot to charm Andrea, hiding just how insane he is underneath it all.
  • He also uses this a lot to try to put Rick at ease during negotiations. It looks very fake.
• Team Killer: He will not hesitate to take down his subordinates if he thinks they are no longer useful to him.
• Two First Names: Blake is a gender neutral first name.
• Übermensch: Season 3 is pretty much dedicated on showing that he has his own set of morality.
• The Unfettered: He clearly has no moral restrictions. Shane, at his worst, looks like a bratty kid in comparison.
• Villain Exit Stage Left: After he snaps and guns down the entire militia save Shumpert and Martinez, he just hops back in his truck and continues down the road. His location and intentions are unknown as of the end of "Welcome to the Tombs", but it seems unlikely that Rick's group has seen the last of him.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Overlaps with being A Father to His Men. He does seem to care about the people of Woodbury, but he antagonizes other group to provide for them. He also won't think twice on dispatching his subordinates if he sees it fit. In the season 3 finale he snaps, and reveals himself to others as the villain by gunning down most of his people
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • First, his Suddenly Shouting for Penny to "Look at me!" so that he can see some humanity in her (which does not exist). He goes into a complete breakdown after Michonne kills Penny and then stabs him in the eye with a shard of glass.]]
  • He gets even worse in the Season 3 Finale, massacring half his own town for next to no reason when the prison attack fails and the people go Screw This, I'm Outta Here
• Would Hit a Girl: After Michonne puts a sword through his undead-daughter's head, he gets in a knock-down-drag-out-fight with her and holds nothing back.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Merle failed to kill Michonne, then lied about it. Understandably, the Governor is not amused, and turns Woodbury's citizens against him by accusing him of treason.
  • Later he guns down most of the Woodbury Militia after they retreat from the prison and refuse to return.
• You "Killed" My Daughter: Towards Michonne.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: In response to murdering his men, Allen holds him at gun point to stop. The Governor takes a slight pause almost daring him, then shoots him in the head in disappointment.
• Zombie Advocate: Zig Zagged. He kept his undead daughter Penny locked away in hopes that Milton will find a "cure." However, he also kept other walkers for staged fights, stating that it teaches the Woodbury residents not to be afraid of them. Another reason he kept them is for assaulting other groups if necessary.