The Walking Dead and FearTWD: Dealing with those who become walkers

This idea isn’t just seen in the main series. During season 2 of Fear, Nick saw firsthand how a different culture embraces the process of becoming undead. At Luciana’s community in Tijuana, those that had been bitten or we’re on the verge of death would essentially sacrifice themselves to the herd of walkers that served as a wall for the compound. By becoming one of the dead, the fallen residents of La Colonia served a greater purpose by protecting the survivors from outsiders. If you look at it from these perspectives, there’s almost a beauty to be seen in reanimating. Walkers obviously pose a danger to those still alive, but some view this as another stage of existence and are able to find peace in their final hours of life as a result.

Knowing what comes after death, we’ve seen dying characters turned into literal weapons. The most epic case of this is Sasha, who knew she would be used to harm her family and instead took her fate into her own hands. By swallowing one of Eugene’s poison pills, Sasha smartly allowed herself to die and turn, thus attacking Negan and the Saviors and giving her Alexandria friends the opportunity to fight back. In this case, Sasha used the rules of this apocalyptic world to her advantage. As sad as her death is, she went out on her own terms and gave her people a fighting chance by becoming what everyone fears the most.

In season 8, the Saviors realized that they could weaponize the walker transformation process. By dipping their weapons in walker gunk and attacking the communities with them, they created all kinds of new chaos. The Battle at the Hilltop was a two-pronged attack by the Saviors that played out even after they retreated. Tobin and several others met an unexpected end when they slipped away from seemingly treatable injuries only to turn in the dead of night and bring forth even more casualties. While alive, Tobin would never hurt his own people. In a matter of a few minutes, Tobin turned from a fighter for the joint communities to a soldier for the Saviors. It’s downright terrifying how being a walker can literally change everything about a person.

We’ve seen in several cases just how haunting the reanimation process can be to those left behind. In season 8, King Ezekiel led his army to battle against the Saviors under the promise that they would all come back home. In just a few seconds, nearly the entire infantry was gunned down with their bodies littering a field. Ezekiel was forced to fight his way through a small herd of his own turned people. Jadis/Anne went through a similar trauma after Simon had the various members of the Junkyard be shot dead, leaving the Heaps leader to solely put down all of her turned followers in a gross meat grinder montage.