The Walking Dead Just Killed Off Someone In A Way No One Saw Coming – Forbes

The Walking Dead (no it's not Daryl)

Last nights episode of The Walking Dead seemed like it was going to be a psychological study of Siddiq dealing with the trauma of seeing all his friends die in front of him at the hands of Alpha and the Whisperers.

And while it was that, it turned into something more, something that not even comic readers saw coming because of how wild a departure it was from the source material.

Spoilers follow.

Siddiq did in fact process what had happened in that barn all throughout this episode, though that took on a new meaning in the last moments right before he died.

Ill admit, I was caught off guard. Even as Dante was creeping in Siddiqs room at the end of the episode, my first thought was are they gonna kiss? It seems like theyre gonna kiss.

They did not kiss.

Rather, it was revealed that Dante has been a Whisperer spy this entire time. He strangles Siddiq to death and yes, I said to death. I know people getting choked out on TV usually leads to some ambiguity about their fate, but I think they very clearly left his eyes open to confirm his death, and I think Dante killed him that way in order to stage a fake suicide so he can maintain his cover, rather than hacking him to death with a nearby axe or something more gruesome. (Update: The trailer for next week makes it look like hes found out and imprisoned)

Dante has always been a weird character this season in that he sort of justsprang into existence out of nowhere. In the comics, Dante was indeed a character, someone who is a resident from the Hilltop from the start, and ends up getting an increasingly large role into that blossoms into a full-on romance with Maggie.

The Walking Dead

He is not a Whisperer spy, in any capacity. This scene with Siddiq never happens, and both he and Siddiq are not killed for the rest of the entire lifespan of the comics.

Clearly, we are going in a wild new direction here, but something that raises a whole hell of a lot of questions.

Things it stands to reason Dante has probably done:

- Corrupt the water supply so people are getting sick

- Make sure the sick people arent getting better by treating them wrong/not at all

- Killed the imprisoned Whisperer and blamed it on Siddiq who is too messed up to refute it

But what doesnt make sense is how Dante got this role in the first place. It was weird for the show to introduce him the way they did withno introduction after the brief time skip after the initial Whisperer conflict, but that had to have been when he arrived at the community. So did some random guy simply walk up to the gate and they accepted him in the middle of the Whisperer fight? That seemsill advised.

Past that, I dont understand his role with Alpha and Lydia. Lydia would presumably recognize him if he was a Whisperer. And he would recognize Lydia, and if he was reporting back to Alpha and the other somehow, he would know she was still alive when Alpha said she wasnt.

The Walking Dead

Though maybe he hasnt been reporting back at all and has just been embedded there to sabotage them for months now. I also can believe a theory that maybe he was sent there initially to do harm, and then ended up liking the community so much that he stayed and actually tried to be a part of it, losing his mission objectives in the process. Maybe he was really trying to help, but when Siddiq figured it out he had to kill him to keep his cover. I also dont really understand how hes so normal when all other Whisperers either act like Jason Voorhees or Gollum.

Another good nod in this episode was Siddiq saying he felt bad whenever Dante was around because it made him think of Enid. Though not just because he took on her role, it turns out, but because he was the one who forced him to watch her and the others die. These are the trick plays The Walking Dead is running under Angela Kang now, and I love it.

Its a bold, drastic, surprising move, and yet I think its one that is going to need a whole lot more explanation. I think were going to need a Dante-only episode where we see how he joined the Whisperers, how he was sent to the community and what he has done since. Otherwise, little of this holds up to much initial scrutiny, as surprising as it was. I think there are probably answers that make this work, we just havent seen any of them yet.

I liked this turn, because it felt like something done specifically to mess with comic readers where Dante is an entirely different character, and while I will miss Siddiq, I think this was a decent way for a character to go out, if they do have to go out. I am very, very curious to see next weeks episode after this, thats for sure, and I think unlike past seasons, The Walking Dead is getting better at its twists and turns as well.

Follow meon Twitter,FacebookandInstagram. Pre-order my new sci-fi novelHerokiller, and read my first series,The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also onaudiobook.

More:
The Walking Dead Just Killed Off Someone In A Way No One Saw Coming - Forbes

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero