Darkness looms for Ezekiel and Jerry in season 10 of The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead has shown little about the survivors from the Kingdom in season 10 content releases and that should concern fans of King Ezekiel and Jerry.

It’s certainly no secret that King Ezekiel, Jerry, and the Kingdom have suffered tremendous losses over the past couple of seasons of The Walking Dead. When we meet the Kingdom and all its dwellers we see a lively community, full of happy people, topped off with a charismatic royal leader, a stellar right-hand man, and a Tiger of all things!

A small recap of the loss King Ezekiel has endured is the death of 34 Kingdom fighters in an ambush, Shiva, the Kingdom itself, his wife and most importantly his son Henry. Jerry shares and was present for a lot of these losses helping the King along the way with whatever he can. So of all people, we hope would be able to find some sort of happiness it would be Ezekiel and Jerry.

Hopes seemed to continuously get dashed for Kingdom lovers, as small content releases either have none of them in it or if they are included it’s normally small and/or not received well. For example, “the kiss” from the season 10 Comic-Con trailer.

Once again, loyal Kingdom fans felt upset when AMC released character bios on their website. Not only do Ezekiel and Jerry both have overwhelmingly negative bios but their photos are not even updated like other characters are, in fact, the only other characters without updated photos are the villains of our story.

"Ezekiel is a former shadow of himself, having lost his family and the Kingdom. Everything he has built is gone. He has let go of the pretense and presence of being King. He is unsure of his purpose and does not know if he will find hope again. His community is unraveling and looking towards him for help, but is this a weight too great to bear?"

This bio of King Ezekiel makes it seem like this could be the end of him. At least one positive from the bio is that we might get to see him actually grieve everything he lost. Some Ezekiel fans like myself were becoming increasingly worried he would just become a stepping stone only for Carol’s loss and grief to be the one showcased.

While people handle loss in their own way, and every way is 100% valid, it seems odd and unfair that his character is being painted as losing himself, yet the only information we get is NOT about that grief but a potential relationship with another character. Another positive is at least he does still have his best friend, Jerry, though I could see how seeing Jerry happy with his family could pull at the King’s heartstrings and be a painful thing.

"Ezekiel wasn’t the only one who lost the Kingdom, Jerry lost it too. Now Jerry is trying to hold on to Ezekiel, who is disappearing within himself. Without the King, Jerry tries to remain positive, hoping to create a new home at Hilltop for his family and the others displaced from the Kingdom. There is no doubt, Jerry wants his leader to return."

Jerry’s bio is sad not only because of the outlook and tone but it further paints the picture that King Ezekiel has even withdrawn from Jerry, who now with a family has to take on extra responsibility. Even if Ezekiel is down, he likely won’t allow his best friend to be forced to spend any more time away from his family than he has to. Jerry is one truly positive force in The Walking Dead and if we see that light in him flicker out it would be truly devastating.

Now one important thing, that has to be said, is losing a child can cause a person to do things they normally would never do. Unfortunately, it is all too common for that big of a loss to break up a marriage. Which happened in this case. Ezekiel and Carol most likely blame themselves. Ezekiel lashed out at the person trusted to watch his son, Carol decided to break things off because I do not think she was able to cope with seeing the state Ezekiel and her life was in and just needed to get away from everything.

Both of their feelings are valid, regardless of who a person tends to side with. However, the way Ezekiel’s character is being handled just seems to be all over the place. On the surface, it makes his character seem shallow, when he is one of the most passionate characters The Walking Dead has. It causes unnecessary toxicity within the fandom when we should all be united and looking towards the huge war looming over us.

What do you think of the way our Kingdom folks are being shown before season 10 of The Walking Dead starts? Tweet me @mamadeadhead with your thoughts!