The Walking Dead: Let’s Talk About Tyreese

Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic book series and co-executive producer of the TV series, is the ultimate troll.  While our cheeks were still wet with the mourning tears of having lost Beth Greene, the powers that be decided that another unexpected blow was in order.  I am, of course, talking about the surprise death of (SPOILER ALERT!) Tyreese, who perished in what was one of the best episodes of the show.

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First joining the Walking Dead in the middle of Season 3, Tyreese used his iconic hammer to fight his way to the prison alongside sister Sasha and a family they’d been traveling with (Allen, Donna and Ben).  Tyreese and his friends nearly joined Rick’s crew right off the bat, offering to do whatever they could to be brought in.  The kinder side of the gentle giant was shown when he turned down Allen’s suggestions of taking the prison by force, based on the fact that they seemed to be good people with a baby to protect.  He then floundered in Woodbury before finally joining the survivors after learning the true nature of the Governor.  Looking back, it’s interesting to see how Ty had no idea that one day he would be rescuing that very baby from that very prison after the Governor’s tank assault.

It wasn’t until Scott Gimple took over as the showrunner of The Walking Dead when the show started to explore the character of Tyreese a little more.  He was able to have brought to life a few of his most memorable scenes from the comic series, such as being completely surrounded by walkers and presumed dead, only to shockingly reemerge later.  He came across as a very strong character who would do what it took to protect the ones he loved, such as Sasha and later Judith, but just refused to let go of his humanity.  In the midst of a character roster that featured enough detached “badasses” like Rick, Michonne and Abraham, it was kind of nice to have something different in Tyreese that made him stand out as a very likeable person that was a great member to have in the group.

Like many characters who have gone before him (I’m looking at you, Merle), I feel that big Ty still had loads of potential.  I actually enjoyed him in his role as Judith’s caretaker and I think a presence like his is needed to keep everyone’s humanity in check.  However, I can also understand why he was given the axe, so to speak.  There are now so many characters in the group that it’s getting harder to keep track of them all, and with keeping up the show’s theme of having a revolving roster, somebody had to take the bite.  I had some suspicions about Tyreese being on the chopping block when he was revealed to have been too weak to kill Martin back at the cabin.  The show likes to stress the point about how those of us who hold onto our humanity the most are not long for this world, and it seems like they really hammered that in again with the double-blow of losing Beth and Tyreese at once.

Credit must be given to actor Chad Coleman for bringing Tyreese to life in such a powerful and convincing way.  Along with last year’s The Grove, Tyreese has been the lead character in two of the absolute best episodes of the TV series.  And as big of a fan as I am of comic Tyreese, in the end, I like TV Tyreese a lot more, which no doubt owes a big part to Coleman’s portrayal.  One of the major differences between the mediums is that Judith doesn’t make it out of the prison in the comics, and, thanks to Tyreese, she’s alive and well on the show.  So I think Rick Grimes and the others are going to love and miss Tyreese even more than I do.

New episodes of The Walking Dead air Sunday nights on AMC at 9/8c.