The top 5 Walking Dead deaths of 2020

4) Emile LaRoux

As I’ve been writing this, I’ve noticed that the majority of the “good” deaths across the Walking Dead universe this year were largely for characters that we only knew for one episode. Sure, we saw Amelia in brief flashbacks over a few episodes, but, the bulk of what we know about her was all shown in one episode. It’s like the writers decided to make these “hi-then-die” characters, but, were also determined that, if they were going to be around for a such a short time, that they had to have memorable deaths. Such is the case with the bounty hunter searching for Morgan in the Fear The Walking Dead season six premiere, Emile LaRoux.

Emile was instantly intimidating, mysterious, and badass, being introduced to us sort of how John Dorie was at the beginning of season four, as a lone cowboy sharing a meal with a stranger by his campfire, except, instead of being a good-natured lawman, Emile revealed himself to be a ruthless bounty hunter, by decapitating the stranger he met with a mighty axe, and then, taking on a mission to hunt down our favorite Aikido master, Morgan Jones.

He spent much of that premiere episode chasing Morgan and his new friend, Isaac, before hunting them down in a dry lake bed, intent on decapitating Morgan, and bringing his head back to Virginia (The woman, not the state). When Isaac attempted to stop Emile, the bounty hunter set about killing Isaac, too, but was stopped by Morgan, who, in spite of his grievous injuries, and desire to accept his fate, refused to let a good man die, and fought back against his pursuer, stabbing him with his broken staff and defeating him, before decapitating Emile with his own axe.

Of all the deaths in any Walking Dead show this year, Emile’s was, easily, the most awesome. Emile wasn’t stabbed, or shot, or eaten by walkers, but, was decapitated with an axe after having a grueling fight with Morgan. It was a badass death for a badass character. Anything less would have felt supremely lame by comparison. No death this year was more fitting for the character who received it.

While I’ve spoken before about what makes a character’s death “good”, I feel like I haven’t given enough attention to how important it is that the death fit the character it’s going to. The nature of a character, at least in the Walking Dead universe, should have some role in how their death plays out. I know that it may not always be realistic to how things might actually go in a zombie apocalypse, but, since we’re talking about TV shows, there’s wiggle room for drama.

For example: A violent, badass character like Merle could not go out dying peacefully in his bed, that would have been terrible, similarly, a more heroic character like Abraham dying by getting a crossbow bolt through his head mid-sentence (His death in the comics) would have felt haphazard compared to his death in the show, fearlessly standing up to Negan, even after getting smashed in the head with Lucille.

Sure, you could have a character’s death be some random nonsense on a random episode, but, it’ll leave the audience feeling cheated, or that they never should have bothered investing in the character at all. To do right by the audience and the character, that character’s death needs to fit: It needs to feel like it’s the death that character deserves.

For a character as instantly cool and badass as Emile, anything less than a fight to the death with Morgan, resulting in getting decapitated by his own axe, would have made Emile feel like a chump, and made us feel like chumps for finding him cool in the first place. A death like this is one fans won’t soon forget.