Top 9 Dumbest Moments of The Walking Dead

Even though The Walking Dead is finally coming to an end, it cannot scrub clean the absolute disasters within its 11 seasons on the small screen.

In order to celebrate both its end and The Geekiary’s 9th anniversary, we’re going to take a look back at what I consider the 9 most ridiculous moments of The Walking Dead.

It’s pretty difficult to narrow down the dumbest moments, plot lines, deaths, and even characters themselves, but after a lengthy discussion with my fellow Bitching Dead webcasters, I managed to secure a pretty decent list. Those that didn’t quite make the listicle have their own honorable mention category below.

Without further ado (and in no particular order), let’s dive in!

1. Glenn’s Dumpster “Death”

Speaking of diving in, the first ridiculous–actually, let’s call it what it is, stupid–moment we’re going to tackle was the very first thing that came to mind. Fans of the comics knew that Glenn was living on borrowed time and that Negan and Lucille could show up potentially at any moment. However, most show watchers who were blissfully unaware of Negan had no idea that Glenn’s days were numbered. 

Regardless of which camp you, dear watcher, fell into, Glenn’s fake out death of having his guts ripped out in front of him by walkers as he lay on the ground made several of my hard-core watcher friends rage quit the show.

It left people furious since it definitely looked and sounded like Glenn was dying–“but Negan is supposed to kill him!” Don’t worry friends! Glenn survived by shimmying under the dumpster while the walkers feasted on Nicholas, who had fallen on top of Glenn after shooting himself.

The Walking Dead thought it was being clever by upping the drama. Ding dong, they were wrong. Couldn’t they just have had another character we were less invested in suffer that bad plot instead? Especially since Glenn ended up bonked, to death, with Lucille in the season 7 premiere. RIP Glenn.

2. Daryl and Leah

Part of Daryl’s character has been his loveless, perma-single state. Honestly, while I liked him with Beth or Connie, I also was okay that Daryl had no ship and that he existed without romance. I was okay with this. Many fans, however, were not. 

Fresh from the disappearance of Rick, Daryl is on the move, unable to sit still, when he finds Dog, his beloved Belgian Malinois. However, Dog belongs to a lady named Leah. He and Leah strike up a friendship and then eventually a relationship. This takes place over a period of about two years, crammed into a single episode. There’s a sex scene out of left field. 

There’s a lot of time jumping, which makes the whole relationship even more stupid and difficult to follow. Out of character, Daryl says he’ll stay with Leah and stop looking for Rick, and that he’ll essentially abandon his family in Alexandria which is clownery from start to finish. 

3. Morgan Trying to Change Carol

If there’s any character who has, at the very least, been consistent on The Walking Dead, it’s Carol. She went from battered wife and mother to killing machine with very little conscience. Personally, I can’t stand wilting flower characters (I’ll get to you at the bottom, Andrea), and Carol came into her own after Ed died… after she put a pick through his brain. 

Morgan’s peaceful ways of killing the dead and sparing the living were never going to fly with Carol. I’m not sure why he spent so much time trying to break her from her habits of murder and mayhem. Carol saved so many lives by going with her instincts and blowing up the gas tank at Terminus, and even killing Lizzie in the show to prevent her from killing Judith. She’s shown herself to be capable of killing and of using her judgment to discern who lives and who dies. I think the writers wanted some kind of drama within the group. However, they executed it poorly by way of Carol and Morgan. 

Out of all the characters Morgan attempted to redeem, Carol was the worst one he could have chosen. The series set her up to be strong after everything she went through, and to have yet another man attempt to dissuade her from who she had become was poor writing. Thank goodness she didn’t listen to him. 

4. Carl’s Death

F**k you Siddiq, Justice for Carl! (Tagline from an episode of The Bitching Dead). 

I never thought in a million years that I actually would like Carl. He has been meme fodder since the first episode of the first season. He’s been the source of Bad Lip Reading music videos. He is Coral. He’s the grubby, whiny, assh**e kid who always nearly dies or gets everyone else killed. I didn’t realize how fond I had grown of Carl until he died in the season 8 finale. Not many deaths on The Walking Dead have upset me to the degree that Carl and Beth’s deaths upset me. It came as a surprise to many viewers since Carl exists in the comics long after he dies in the show.

His death is poignant but didn’t need to happen. Carl gets bitten by a walker while trying to help a traveler, who turns out to be Siddiq, a doctor, get into Alexandria. Instead of telling anybody about it, he goes about his day, making memories with his family until he collapses and goes out on his own terms. 

Siddiq dies a few episodes later! Completely unnecessary! At least they could have given Carl a more heroic death or have him die saving someone more important than Siddiq. I know that it was a contract dispute, but they did my boy so dirty. 

5. Michonne Leaving her Children to Look for Rick

If this moment made a sound, it would just be a giant question mark (and yes, question marks make a sound, don’t argue with me). While I understand that Danai Gurira wanted to spend more time working on her other projects, the way in which Michonne left was quite literally one of the most ridiculous ways. Michonne was, throughout the series, a badass, loyal to her friends and to her chosen family. For her to simply leave RJ and Judith behind in the care of the community is, like many of the other character decisions in the series, wildly out of character for her. 

Michonne would die for her children. Michonne would die for her friends. For her to leave her children behind in order to look for Rick, who may or may not even be alive out there, is something so outrageous that it hit me like a punch in the stomach. Surely she’d be back, I thought as the episode ended. But the series announced Michonne’s permanent departure and now we’re left with two more mouths to feed and one less adult to watch Alexandria’s back. 

I can’t think of anything that might soften the blow of Michonne leaving, even if she returns in the very end of the series with Rick in tow. It’s too easy and too much of a cop-out. And now that Danai is filming Black Panther 2, it’s unlikely that she’ll be returning the zombie series that is 6 seasons past its expiration date. 

6. Jesus’ Death

Like many of the deaths on The Walking Dead, Jesus’ death didn’t serve a purpose. It didn’t further the plot. It didn’t even provide much angst for the characters. Tom Payne, the actor who played Jesus, simply just outgrew the role and became bored with it. So he didn’t renew his contract. The only reason it makes this list is the way in which Jesus died. He’s an untouchable character and like Michonne, a badass. And yet, a Whisperer stabbed him suddenly in a fight and he seemed to fade from the characters’ memories much like another character (Beth) did. 

7. Andrea

You know it’s bad when a single character gets an entire number to themselves. Once again, I’m not a comic book reader, but according to Tara, The Bitching Dead co-host, Andrea was a strong female lead in the comics. She built a meaningful relationship with Dale and became the Michonne of the comics.

Many of Michonne’s moments in the series (such as the ship with Rick) originally belonged to Andrea. So it left many comic lovers scratching their heads when their fave became a whiny, sniveling piece of work. Her relationship with the Governor and her belief in him (despite everything she had been through) ultimately became her downfall. 

Not to mention Andrea became a target for snide commentary and misogyny within the series. She encouraged Beth to slit her own wrists. She deviated so far from the character in the comics and her death in the show is laughable. She’s bitten off screen after failing to pick up a set of pliers in order to kill walkerfied Milton. 

Sorry, Andrea. Let’s pour one out for a real one. 

8. Rick Saving Negan

Negan served as the big bad for two seasons until he’s defeated by Rick in a big showdown between the Saviors and the Safe Zone folks. Even though Negan’s threat is eliminated, more or less, he still exists as a prisoner in Alexandria for many years. The folks there don’t trust him. While several of my comic-reading friends quit when Glenn fake-died (see number 1), the rest of them stopped watching the show after Rick failed to kill Negan. Instead, he spared him in order to honor Carl’s memory. Negan lives as a prisoner but is eventually released to help Maggie and Daryl with the Reaper problem. 

Currently, he’s taken off on his own but I’m sure he’ll be back because The Walking Dead has turned him into some kind of stupid antihero when he should have died when Rick cut his throat. Why cut someone’s throat if you’re not going to kill them anyway? Maggie should have had the honor, and if he comes back, I hope she finally gets to be the one to put him down. 

9. Zombies Using Rocks and Rattling Doorknobs

It’s been said that the walkers of season 1 of The Walking Dead were an homage to zombie king George Romero’s zombies. In his movies and especially in his Living Dead film series, the zombies seem have memories of their lives before dying. They have the ability to learn. They mimic behaviors from when they were alive. George Romero turned down the offer to direct episodes of The Walking Dead because the first season’s script had already been written and that didn’t vibe with how Romero did things. 

Aside from the alleged homage, the walkers in season 1 don’t appear again. In Season 1, they pick up rocks and smash windows in the department store in which the original Georgia survivors are hiding. They are able to play with and turn doorknobs as Morgan’s wife does at their house when they first pick up Rick. She seems to know where she used to live, some thoughts left in her dead eyes. 

But where do these Romero zombies go? Do the neurons in their already dead brains stop firing? Did they forget about them in the writers’ room? Did they decide they just didn’t work because the survivors are idiots and they needed to level the playing field? Who knows. We certainly don’t. I’ll miss you, rock zombies. 

Honorable Mentions

1. Alpha and Negan Sex

I don’t think I have to explain this one. While not technically stupid, it wasn’t necessary to the plot. Two dirty wriggling bodies on my screen is not how I wanted to spend that episode hate-watching. It’s mostly just a complaint. I don’t even think I understand why they included it. It’s quite literally the last thing I wanted to see. I guarantee you they were throwing darts at a board or picking names and situations out of a hat.

2. Oh Right, I Have a Sister

Anybody who knows me, or who watches The Bitching Dead at least, knows that I’m obsessed with Beth Greene. Her death broke me, probably because I identified with her as she struggled through the zombie apocalypse, trying to find herself. 

The gang spent a decent amount of time searching for Beth during most of the first half of season 5 after she was kidnapped, only to have her die in the mid-season finale. The grief was palpable, especially from Daryl who had formed a special bond with Beth during their time on the run from the Governor. However, something was conspicuously absent…

Maggie Greene only mourned Beth for one episode and only mentioned her again later in the series one time. Hello? Maggie? It’s like she forgot she had a sister or something. I’m not talking about current Maggie who’s ready to set everything and everyone on fire. But if you lose your sister you might talk about her every now and then, but Maggie doesn’t. It’s like Beth doesn’t exist. 

3. Lawnmower Zombies

I debated whether or not to put this one on the list so it has to be an honorable mention. Anybody who lives in the Southeastern United States, where The Walking Dead both takes place and is filmed, knows that the grass here grows like crazy. Somehow, though, the grass is always more or less tidy in the series. Maybe there have been a few fields with tall grass and tall weeds. If left unchecked, though, blackberries and kudzu will cover the world. They seem to have zombie landscapers coming in to cut back the kudzu every now and then–or maybe what started the zombie virus is also what killed the kudzu. 

Thank you so much for supporting The Geekiary for 9 wonderful years and for supporting The Bitching Dead! Join Bekah, Farid, and Tara on Monday, March 7 at 8 PM EST for the next episode of The Bitching Dead. 

Author: Bekah

Bekah has a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from Anderson University and is the Executive Assistant at Saga Event Planning. She is a frequent convention attendee and cosplayer and co-hosts The Geekiary webcast “The Bitching Dead”.

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