Literal and figurative deaths in The Walking Dead "Bury Me Here"

Death on The Walking Dead comes in many forms, and as we look ahead to “The Other Side” let’s take a look at the deaths from last week’s “Bury Me Here.”

As fans of The Walking Dead know, not every episode has a death in it. Some of the best episodes don’t have deaths in them, but death does happen. That said, did anyone die in “Bury Me Here?”

Sadly, yes. There were a few casualties in “Bury Me Here” and we’re going to go through them and what they mean for the show, because some of the deaths were not death itself, but something that might be just as bad for some characters.

SPOILERS FOR “BURY ME HERE” AHEAD!!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

We knew something was going to happen eventually with Richard and Ezekiel and the Saviors. We didn’t know it was going to be like this, though.

Benjamin

Benjamin was the bright-eyed optimist at the Kingdom. He was taking care of his brother Henry while learning about life and combat training. Jared shot him at the drop off because Richard wanted to die, much in the same way Negan didn’t kill Rosita. The Saviors want to hurt you in the biggest way possible. Shooting Benjamin (even though it wasn’t sanctioned by Gavin) was the easiest way to send a powerful message, but when Benjamin ended up dead, Gavin sent Jared away and knew that this was a big problem, bigger than a missing melon. Benjamin’s death just might be like the sinking of the Lusitania. His loss will trigger a big change at the Kingdom.

Richard

Richard had it coming. He was angling for something to trigger a war with the Saviors and for the Kingdom to be involved in that war long before Rick showed up. Richard’s interactions with the Saviors were becoming more and more antagonistic as the days went on, and it’s no surprise that he ended up with a gun in his face.

However, it has always been Richard’s lack of planning and his egregious lack of foresight that has always been his undoing. He didn’t stop to consider that if you can’t trust the Saviors to keep their deals, you certainly can’t trust them to choose the right person to shoot. So when they shot Benjamin, Richard’s plans started to unravel. When Benjamin died, everything fell apart and that’s what led to his death. However, it was Morgan who killed him in the end, which triggered another kind of unraveling.

Carol’s Ignorance

That old expression that “Ignorance is Bliss” worked really well for Carol until the nightmares began. She’s too smart to accept that Daryl and Rick would just randomly show up at the Kingdom without a reason, so when Morgan breaks the news to her about what really happened with Negan, her island of ignorance sank into the ocean. Carol’s ignorance was dead.

Now that she knows the truth, of course Carol is going to fight. That’s who Carol is as a character. She may not return to Alexandria, but she will figure out how she can help everyone she cares about, both in Alexandria and in the Kingdom.

Morgan’s Anti-Killing Policy

A little piece of Morgan died when Benjamin died. Suddenly he had irrefutable evidence that the Saviors are not to be trusted, and that was a world-shattering revelation. Morgan insisted that if Negan could be removed, the Saviors would fall apart, but now it’s clear that the Saviors are Negan, and there are other people who will do heinous things whether Negan is there or not.

Morgan was so overcome by Benjamin’s tragic death that it pushed him to kill Richard and sharpen his staff into a spear. Symbolically, the staff becoming a spear represents his transition from peacemaker to fighter, especially now that he has very intentionally taken a life.

More from Undead Walking

The Walking Dead episode “Bury Me Here” featured two kinds of death: literal and figurative, and while literal death is the worst, a figurative death can be devastating. We’ll see how this plays out over the rest of season 7.

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Literal and figurative deaths in The Walking Dead “Bury Me Here”

By Sarabeth Pollock | Mar 19, 2017