Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 1, episode 2
A missing story from The Walking Dead’s comic ending is finally being told in The Walking Dead: Dead City. Various elements from the final chapters of Robert Kirkman’s comic series were adapted in The Walking Dead’s closing episodes. However, due to differences in the progression of the two stories, not everything from the comic made it into the show.
The Walking Dead ended on a happy note for the majority of its main characters, who are looking toward bright futures in the series finale’s last scenes. In this sense, it was true to the source material, but some things were left out. Rick Grimes didn’t die, nor did anyone else receive his comic death in his place. His murderer in the comics, Sebastian Milton, met his end prior to the finale. There’s also the matter of Pamela Milton, who didn’t wind up putting aside her differences with the main characters like she did in the comics. Since the franchise has moved on from the main series, many of these untold stories won’t have a second chance of happening.
Hershel Rhee Is Finally Awful In The Walking Dead's TV Universe
A development in The Walking Dead: Dead City episode 2 goes to show that one particular character arc from the comic’s ending hasn’t been completely abandoned. In the episode, a flashback sequence sheds light on the relationship Maggie shares with her son, Herschel Rhee. He was characterized as a normal, sweet kid in the main show, but Dead City succeeds in destroying that image. In the episode, Maggie tried to talk to her child about him skipping weapons training. This resulted in an angry outburst from Herschel, who made it abundantly clear that he has no interest in such things. What’s more, he rebuffed Maggie’s attempts to be understanding toward him, and crumpled up a drawing as soon as she expressed an interest in his artwork.
This cruel and disrespectful side of Herschel is new for the show, but is actually reminiscent of the comic character’s portrayal. In The Walking Dead comics, adult Herschel was depicted as an unlikeable and selfish jerk. Having grown up in a safe environment, Herschel enjoyed a privileged life, which affected the way he treated the people around him. He was also proven to be a manipulative liar. Thanks to Dead City, his TV counterpart is starting to share some of these attributes, such as his mean-spirited demeanor and lack of appreciation for just how dangerous zombies are in the apocalypse.
Hershel's Walking Dead Comic Ending Can Still Happen On TV
ittedly, Dead City’s Herschel is still a long way away from becoming the despicable character that he is in the comics. But, the show has put him on that path. After all, it’s important to note that Herschel is still a teenager and is therefore significantly younger than Maggie’s son in the source material. His behavior could always change for the better, of course, but that may not be the case. If Dead City is a multi-season show, it’ll have an opportunity to continue Herschel’s story, and perhaps bring him even closer in line with the comics’ approach to him. That does seem plausible, especially in light of how he’s been used in the spinoff so far.
Most importantly, he already possesses the quality that turned him into the jerk he was shown to be in the final issue. Partially because he didn’t experience the harrowing, early years of the zombie apocalypse, he was a very self-entitled character, not unlike Sebastian Milton in Walking Dead season 11. If this aspect of the TV version of Maggie’s son worsens with time, he could devolve into one of the franchise’s most hated characters.
What Hershel Being Awful In The Walking Dead Really Means
Undoubtedly, Maggie watching her son turn out to be such a disappointing scoundrel would be a sad way for their stories to develop in The Walking Dead franchise. But it wouldn’t be an ending without its merits. What happened with Herschel represented one of the unavoidable consequences of the main characters finding a safe haven in the zombie apocalypse. With children growing up sheltered from the zombie threat, there was no way around at least some of the kids forming these mindsets and failing to understand just how great their lives really are. In his own way, Herschel is a reflection of that problem.
A downward spiral for Herschel would also be an unpleasant reminder that not every kid of a Walking Dead hero is fated to follow in their parents’ footsteps. As things stand, The Walking Dead is building a world where the children of the franchise’s biggest characters (i.e. the daughters of Rick and Morgan) are proving to be heroes in their own rights, demonstrating bravery and kindness despite their youths. Herschel becoming a thorn in Maggie’s side in The Walking Dead: Dead City would underscore this idea that being the son of two Walking Dead heroes shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee that he’ll go down the same road.
The Walking Dead: Dead City continues on Sunday on AMC.