The Walking Dead Villains: Who ISN’T The Worst? Part 5

Dr. Edwards

Dr. Edwards is, frankly, another person on this list who isn’t especially evil, certainly not when compared to someone like Gorman, or Martin, or “Deserved it” Dan. To boil it down, Dr. Edwards is a coward, a coward who took the life of an innocent man, a doctor, no less, and tricked Beth into doing it for him.

“And…how does this make him not evil?” You might ask?

Well, for starters, you see this picture on the right? This is Dr. Edwards confronting Gorman (And this will become important later), getting him to leave Beth alone before the lollipop incident could get any worse. The mere fact that Edwards, a man who by all other accounts, was something of a coward, was willing to stand up to Gorman of all people is extremely impressive.

The fact that Dr. Edwards doesn’t turn a blind eye and simply let Gorman get away with what he was intending to do to Beth shows that this is a good man, a man who won’t simply let evil go on if he can do something to stop it. Again, for a relatively cowardly person like him, this is impressive.

What’s makes this most impressive is the fact that he did so under threat of death (And this is how we tie things all together).

That’s right, death. If you recall in my earlier article, I discussed that Gorman had, essentially, created a system which allowed himself to be a rapist with little to no repercussions, part of this was the threat he posed to anyone who opposed him too vigorously.

While he couldn’t afford to do anything to Dr. Edwards prior, the arrival of Dr. Trevitt (Whose job as an oncologist, Gorman seemed to be aware of) gave him the one thing he needed to end Dr. Edwards’ interference: A replacement.

This is why Dr. Edwards killed Dr. Trevitt; He wasn’t acting out of malice, like The Governor, or depravity, like “Deserved it” Dan, or outright callousness, like Martin (THAT GUY!!!), he was trying to keep himself alive. He knew, not thought, knew, that, once Trevitt recovered, Gorman would kill him. Sad as it was, Dr. Edwards saw no other alternative.

As for him using Beth to do it, this is still another means of assuring his survival. He had Beth do it, not to use her as cannon fodder like The Governor did with Martinez’s group, but as a means of masking what he did from Dawn and/or Gorman. He likely reasoned that, if Beth were seen as responsible, it would be chalked up as Beth making a mistake. Dawn wasn’t going to punish Beth by throwing her out or killing her for making a mistake; I don’t think Dr. Edwards was convinced he’d be quite so lucky.

And, much like Father Gabriel, he was man wracked with guilt about what he did, questioning whether his actions had any meaning at all, fearing that, despite ensuring he was the only doctor, he still hadn’t guaranteed his safety from Gorman. For him, the specter of Gorman taking over and killing him anyways loomed over him a like cloud.

So, I suppose the question becomes: Is he redeemable? When you look at what he did, while it was still wrong, it wasn’t done out of malice or evil, but out of a need to survive.

This doesn’t excuse what he did, but it does explain it. His remorse at what he did, and his willingness to stand up for others, even in the face of death, combined with his continuing to try his best to heal the survivors brought in to the hospital, means that he is still a good person. I’m willing to believe that, had Beth dealt with Gorman before Dr. Trevitt came to the hospital, Dr. Edwards would have patched him up like any other patient. Without that threat, I don’t believe he even would have considered doing what he did.

Next: Is This Bad Cop/Good Cop?