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Season 10 - Siddiq's Shocking Discovery
Jace Downs/AMC
Alexandria's PTSD-plagued doctor Siddiq (Avi Nash) finally figured out the source of the mystery illness, discovering the water supply was being poisoned by a Whisperer deep-cover double agent: Dante (Juan Javier Cardenas). Unfortunately, before Siddiq can actually do anything about it, Dante strangles him to death in yet another "Walking Dead" death that nobody saw coming.
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Season 9 - A Shocking Death
Photo: The Walking Dead /AMC
This season’s mid-season finale was nothing short of shocking, as the death of Jesus (Tom Payne) rocked the “Walking Dead” fan base (as his character remains alive in the comics.)
However, Jesus’ passing brings up a new storyline: the arrival of the Whisperers (a.k.a. talking zombies), who took the life of the series regular.
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Season 9 - Meet Judith Grimes
AMC/GIPHY
"You got names?"
Almost immediately following the death of her father, "The Walking Dead" introduces us to the aged up Judith, played by Cailey Fleming in one of the best character introductions we've seen on the show in a long time.
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Season 9 - Rick's Explosive 'Goodbye'
Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
Always the protector of his family, Rick Grimes said his "goodbyes" to "The Walking Dead" in an explosive episode.
Blowing up the very bridge he was dedicated to building, sparing his family and friends in Alexandria from a massive herd of the undead, Rick goes out the hero we all knew him to be...
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Season 9 - But Wait, Rick's Still Alive?!
Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
...but Rick isn't done yet. Just like Michonne says to him in one of his hallucinations, Grimes is a fighter and it seems he's got a little bit of luck on his side.
As his family and friends watch in horror as Rick appears to die in the fire, he actually ends up in the river, taken downstream where he is found by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) and picked up mysterious helicopter to where? Only time will tell.
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Season 8 - Carl Says 'Goodbye'
Gene Page/AMC
You'd think that having an entire midseason break would be able to ease us into the loss of Carl, but nope, "The Walking Dead" has done it again.
Even though we all saw the bite-mark and knew what it meant, Carl's suicide gunshot from the destroyed church was shocking enough to stop the flood of tears from his emotional goodbye to on-screen family, Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira.
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Season 8 - Eric Dies, #BuryYourGays Trope Lives On
AMC
Mortally wounded during a shootout with the saviors, Eric was left by his boyfriend, Aaron (played by Ross Marquand) who had to continue his mission.
After an emotional goodbye, Aaron returned to the tree, but found Eric as a walker, shuffling away, and was unable to put him down.
Eric is the third gay character to die on "The Walking Dead," following in the unfortunate footsteps of Alisha & Denise.
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Season 5 - Dawn Goes Under The Knife
One of the series' most beloved characters came to a shocking end in the midseason finale of season 5 when creepy officer Dawn Lerner slashes her throat in the midst of a showdown with Rick's group.
While it seemed unlikely she survived (she didn't), that didn't prevent distraught fans from setting up a Change.org petition urging producers to figure out a way to bring her back.
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Season 5 - Eugene Comes Clean
Mullet-headed Eugene gave everyone hope, declaring to have a cure for the virus and claiming to know what caused it.
But things took a rough turn for Eugene when he revealed he'd been lying the whole time — and there's no cure that he knows of — leaving fan favourite Abraham to go into a tailspin of despair.
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Season 5 - Bob Becomes BBQ
Bob has been abducted by the survivors of Terminus after Rick and the crew escape and trash the place, and is privy to watching them chow down on some barbecue.
As the camera pans out, we come to the horrifying realization that Bob's missing a leg, which is spit-roasting over an open fire.
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Season 4 - Lizzie Loses It
Carol discovers it was little Lizzie who was feeding rats to the zombies, and is disturbed to learn the reason: Lizzie thinks walkers aren't bad, just misunderstood.
To prove it, she murders her own sister, just to prove that she'll come back as the sweetest zombie ever.
Realizing the kid has completely lost her marbles and threatens to endanger everyone, Carol takes her out into woods and releases the little girl from the horrors of the present day.
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Season 4 - Terminus Lives Up To Its Name
When the gang finally makes it to Terminus, they soon come to the horrific conclusion that the residents of this survivor's community have turned to cannibalism — and they're on the menu.
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Season 4 - The Governor Gets Ahead
Viewers may have thought that Hershel, held prisoner by the Governor, would be saved in a last-ditch rescue, but that was not to be.
Instead, the country doctor and constant voice of reason was decapitated by the Governor by — adding insult to injury — Michonne's sword.
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Season 3 - Death Finally Finds Andrea
After The Governor learns of her duplicity, Andrea is locked in a room with newly zombified Milton (Dallas Roberts), who chomps into her shoulder.
When Rick and the others find her later, they realize she's been infected and reunite her with her sister (who died in season 1).
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Season 3 - The Return Of Merle
After being murdered by the Governor after a failed last-ditch shot at redemption, Merle comes back as a walker.
This leads to the horrifying moment when it's up to Darryl to put his undead brother down for good.
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Season 3 - The Governor Is Weirder Than We Thought
To the citizens of Woodbury, the Governor (David Morrissey) is their charismatic leader, who's kept their heavily fortified town safe from walkers.
But viewers soon found out the dude has some serious issues — like keeping his zombie daughter locked in the closet and lovingly ogling the collection of decapitated zombie heads he stores in the world's creepiest aquarium.
When Michonne destroyed the Governor's undead daughter and drove a shard of glass deep into his eye, we saw the true depth of his madness — which became far deeper.
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Season 3 - T-Dog No More
During the same prison melee, T-Dog (Iron E Singleton) courageously sacrifices himself to allow Carol to escape a zombie attack, the first time "The Walking Dead" has killed off two beloved characters in the same episode.
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Season 3 - Born To Blossom, Bloom To Fade
When pregnant Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) inconveniently goes into labour right in the middle of a zombie prison riot, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) is forced to perform an emergency C-section to save the baby's life. The baby survives but Lori doesn't, dying soon after childbirth.
But the shocking moment comes when it's up to Carl to man up and put a bullet in his mom's brain to prevent her from rising from the dead.
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Season 3 - Rick Downs Tomas
Rick doesn't have the warm fuzzies about Tomas, leader of the prison survivors, but his spidey sense really starts tingling when a prisoner gets a deep zombie scratch and Tomas mercilessly murders the guy without a moment's hesitation.
When Tomas becomes increasingly belligerent towards Rick — even shoving a walker at him during a zombie melee — Rick realizes Tomas may be more dangerous than any walker. After the last walker is killed, Tomas tries to justify what he did by shrugging his shoulders and saying, "s**t happens." Rick's response is rapid and lethal when he cleaves Tomas's skull with a machete, a WTF moment if there ever was one.
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Season 3 - Hershel Doesn't Have A Leg To Stand On
As the group tries to take over the walker-infested prison in the season-three premiere, Hershel sustains a zombie bite to the leg. Thanks to some quick thinking and a sharp blade, they're able to hack off the bitten leg before the infection manages to infest the rest of his body.
Given how many characters had already been killed off, the most shocking thing of all was that Hershel survived.
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Season 2 - Heeere's Michonne!
In the final moments of the season-two finale, viewers got their first glimpse of a hooded, sword-wielding mystery figure trailed by a pair of armless zombies on chains that follow her like dogs.
Viewers' collective response to the introduction of Michonne: "Holy crap!"
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Season 2 - Sacrificing Shane
After Dale's funeral, Shane coldbloodedly kills Randall, leading Rick to deduce that he's next on Shane's twisted hit list.
When Rick confronts his former best friend, he tries to reason with him but Shane is too far gone. They scuffle, and Rick stabs Shane in the heart. As if that weren't shocking enough, the zombified Shane later rises from the dead and shambles after Carl, who shoots undead Shane in the brain.
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Season 2 - Sophia Is Found
One of the most annoying storylines in season two was the disappearance of young Sophia (Madison Lintz), which led to various members running around hither and yon searching for her — even though common sense would dictate she was a goner.
This storyline paid off when Shane forcefully opened Hershel's barn doors to show the group what their host was up to, and among the walkers to emerge was snarling Sophia.
While Daryl holds back Carol (Melissa McBride) as she tearfully tries to rush toward her undead daughter, Rick takes aim and shoots zombie Sophia in the head.
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Season 2 - A Sad Goodbye To Dale
Occasionally veering toward preachiness, Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) was the conscience of the group, a voice of reason when tempers flared and a calming influence on everyone.
In fact, it was Dale's keen sense of justice that led to his demise, when he vehemently disagreed with Rick's decision to murder a dodgy outsider named Randall. Angry and pacing in the dark all by his lonesome, Dale is attacked by a stray walker (the same one that Carl inadvertently freed from the mud!) and disemboweled.
Near death when he's discovered, Dale nods his silent assent when Daryl puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. For fans of the comics, this moment represents a significant departure from the original storyline, in which Dale stuck around a lot longer, and made viewers realize that if Dale could be killed off, anybody could.
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Season 2 - Hershel's Barn Full 'O Zombies
Hershel had been quite adamant about keeping Rick and his group away from his barn, and Shane discovered why: the country doctor had been capturing walkers and storing them in his barn in hopes a cure would be found that would restore the mindless zombies to their former selves.
Hershel kept them locked up, feeding them the occasional chicken — what could possibly go wrong with this ironclad plan?
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Season 2 - Zombie Boo Boo
When the gang goes to get some fresh water from Hershel's well, they discover, well, this.
Just when you think no creature could be more disgusting, the corpulent walker splits in two as they haul it up with a rope, both pudgy pieces writhing around like giant split maggot.
We're still having nightmares.
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Season 2 - Cowardice And Betrayal
While scouring the walker-infested town in search of antibiotics to prevent Carl's gunshot wound from getting infected, Shane (Jon Bernthal) and Otis are overtaken by a small army of the undead.
Shane shows his true colours when he cold-bloodedly shoots Otis, leaving him as a diversion for the hungry walkers while he makes a getaway. This is the moment when Shane crosses a line that takes him down a very dark path.
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Season 2 - The Deerhunter
In the season-two premiere, young Carl (Chandler Riggs) is unexpectedly felled by a bullet. The shooting was an accident, caused when Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) was out hunting and fired at a deer, not realizing Carl was there. The silver lining of this near-fatal mishap: thanks to Otis's poor aim, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the survivors hooked up with Hershel (Scott Wilson) on his fortified farm.
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Season 1 - Andrea Says Goodbye To Amy
Our first hint that not everybody on "The Walking Dead" was going to make it out alive came in the first season when Andrea's (Laurie Holden) sister, Amy (Emma Bell), is bitten in the neck during a zombie attack.
Hysterical Andrea cries and hugs her sister's lifeless corpse until the corpse suddenly isn't so lifeless anymore, forcing Andrea to put a bullet in zombie Amy's brain.