The Walking Dead Villains: Who ISN’T The Worst, Part 7

Dwight

When we first met Dwight in season six of The Walking Dead, what we saw was a good man. He, his wife, and his sister-in-law were attempting to escape the clutches of what we now know to be The Saviors.

It was the fact he seemed so good that made his betrayal of Daryl, and everything after that, so much more heinous.

But, as the old saying goes: “You can’t keep a good man down.”

Throughout the better part of this season, we saw Dwight as the loyal henchman of Negan, doing whatever he asked.

It’s tough to see any of the Dwight we first met in that man. When you see things like him killing his old friend, Gordon, and serving as Daryl’s jailer, the idea of Dwight ever being good seems remote.

But, if you look closely, you can see that Dwight, the good Dwight, is still inside. He’s simply fighting against the suffocating environment he now finds himself in.

Let’s look at him killing Gordon for a second, and I’ll show you.

On the face of it, Dwight shot his friend in the back, and returned him to The Sanctuary to serve as part of its walker barricade. However, when you look at the circumstances of that, it’s not so black and white.

Gordon was a man at the end of his rope. His wife was gone, and he found himself little more than a slave to a tyrant. What’s worse, he knew that neither he, nor anyone else, needed to live like that. He remembered a time before Negan, a state that he was sure would never return. For him, his life looked like either a never ending slavery, or becoming a thug for the very man who made him a slave.

For Gordon, there was no life to go back to at The Sanctuary. In fact, when Dwight caught up to him, he begged Dwight to kill him.

In Gordon’s eyes, being brought back to The Sanctuary (And likely punished) wasn’t worth going back to. He also knew that if anyone else from The Saviors found him, they wouldn’t even listen to his request. Dwight was the only person he could count on to rescue him from his Hell.

When you realize this, suddenly, Dwight shooting Gordon in the back isn’t an act of malice, but of mercy. Dwight realized that Gordon was right; He would go back to The Sanctuary, either be thrown in solitary like Daryl, or burned like Dwight. His only hope would be to become a henchman of Negan’s and do to other people what Negan had to him.

And here, we see why Dwight killed Gordon: He didn’t want Gordon ending up like him.

Now, while this explains Dwight killing Gordon, it doesn’t excuse his other actions, and while we get no excuses, we do get an explanation.

Along with Dwight, we discover that Sherry is still at The Sanctuary, but, at a terrible price: Having to become one of Negan’s “wives” to spare Dwight.

With this revelation, we learn that, the reason Dwight has thrown himself so fully into becoming one of Negan’s goons is for Sherry.

After being punished, Dwight realized that he couldn’t afford to be disobedient to Negan anymore. He realized that, even if he managed to get away, Sherry would take whatever punishment was meant for him. Whether Dwight admitted it or not, he still loved Sherry; He couldn’t bring himself to do things that would make her situation worse, so, for her sake, he accepted “becoming Negan”.

Again, this doesn’t excuse the things he did, like killing Denise, but, it explains why he did it. However, as the season ended, Sherry had fled, presumably to somewhere far beyond Negan’s reach. With that development, we learned just how dependent on Sherry’s presence Dwight’s loyalty to Negan was. Within only a few days of her escape, Dwight was at Alexandria, offering to help Rick to bring Negan down.

Simply offering to stand against Negan doesn’t absolve Dwight of his actions, but, if he can help end Negan’s tyranny, it can go long way to redeeming him. There is good in Dwight, and it’s almost time for it to shine through.

Next: A Coward's Redemption