In The Walking Dead, we’ve gotten to explore so many amazing storylines. Some lasted just long enough. Others, a little too long (*cough* the Saviors *cough*). But others felt cut so short that we barely got to explore them.
Here are five we wish had lasted longer, since they were starting to get interesting.
The beginning (season 1)
I think most The Walking Dead fans agree the first season was one of the best. It had a tightly woven story that introduced characters we all loved, some of which even made it to the final season (and now have spinoffs).
But something about that first season felt so… humane. Later, we met so many characters who were either outrageously bad or comically crazy that the first season's groundedness felt like it was ages away. The first season really introduced us to the world of The Walking Dead and how average survivors, just like anyone, struggle to survive.
I think a lot of people like that kind of storyline, where we slowly see humanity decay, and people do anything to survive. I think we got some of that with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) in season 2, but otherwise, it was pretty much the only time we saw ordinary people trying to learn to kill walkers.
The two communities at the prison (season 4)
I love seeing two different kinds of communities fighting. We got that in Dead City season 3, where Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) used a Rick callback to deal with two different sides of an issue. Opposing ideas and ways of living always cause conflict.
We really only got a hint of this in season 3 when the people of Woodbury were taken to the prison after it burned down and the Governor (David Morrissey) went on the run. I really wanted to see these two groups interact way more because of the bad blood between them. We got some head-butting in season 3 with the arrival of other Woodbury characters, like Michonne (Danai Gurira) and other survivors. But in season 4 we got, like, a several-month time jump. So I guess that didn’t matter.
The illness arc (season 4)
Speaking of season 4, the first half tried to cram so many storylines in that we only got to the tip of the iceberg with the illness storyline. Things were tense in that prison, and people were doing whatever they could to survive. Watching the gang try not to get sick and die from this highly infectious disease was terrifying.
And let’s not forget that one person literally started burning bodies to prevent the sickness from spreading. That’s right, Carol (Melissa McBride) was doing it, and she was banished from the prison at one point for it. Like, full stop, she was low-key crazy here, but… I mean, she did save some lives, so I can’t be that mad. This season 4 change for her was the beginning of her truly becoming a badass character.
Terminus and the cannibals (season 5)
I will never forgive the fact that Terminus was only, like, three episodes in season 5. I would have loved to see more of this storyline, especially since the whole point of the second half of season 4 was that everyone in this group saw signs of Terminus and was heading there.
Then, eventually, we see them get locked up in the season 4 finale, and they take everyone out in one episode? What? It was only because Carol was able to spot that propane tank and blow it up with a sniper rifle that they were truly able to escape. Cannibals in The Walking Dead are so rare, but any time they are on screen, the story is twenty times more interesting than just slow zombies. It started great and fell apart and would have been so much better if it had just lasted.
The actual zombie horde of No Way Out (season 6)
This. Entirely this. When the “No Way Out” arc began in season 6, it felt like the show was finally returning to its biggest threat — zombies — after ages of fighting villains and bad people. However, in the first half of season 6, it was a mix of the walkers and the Wolves, and then we only really saw the herd for about an episode or two before they were taken out.
I don’t understand how you can hype up this giant horde for half a season and then somehow have almost all your main characters survive it. Carl even got shot in the eye, and he made it out. I would have loved to see more of these walkers and how the people of Alexandria would have dealt with them, but I’ll never get that chance now.
You can stream all 11 seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix.
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