Develop or die. It's as simple as that. The Walking Dead has an enormous cast list, and while the start of Season 6 has been tremendous so far, there's a feeling that things could become cramped if some of the fringe characters are left to fester. There are some leading stars who carry the weight of the show, but there are more than plenty who barely get any time in the spotlight to impress fans. Of course, it's not the actors' fault, but it's got to the point where characters need to start being transformed, or face being scribbled out of proceedings by the bloodied pen of the writers. You'd expect a bloodbath would be the quickest way to dispose of the deadwood and Episode 2 certainly provided that, but the only victims were nameless Alexandrians. Bumping off swathes of main characters in one go isn't the the writers' style as they tend to conclude entire, individual character story arcs with death, and like to kill off the most relevant members of the group. That makes it tricky to kill off those who haven't contributed a lot to the show. And also, sometimes the supposed top characters need a transformation to prevent them from stagnating otherwise even the most popular survivors should find themselves six-feet-under very soon...