The Walking Dead's 10 Best Farewell Episodes
The Walking Dead - the show that's Too Good At Goodbyes.
Over ten seasons, The Walking Dead has given us characters we love, characters we hate, and characters we love to hate. But, like death and taxes in our world, death in a walker-infested universe is almost an inevitability.
Aside from the seemingly immortal fan-favorites, Daryl and Carol, we’ve bid adieu to everyone from the original cast, and heaps of people in subsequent seasons. In fact, according to The Walking Dead Wikipedia (take that with a grain of salt), we’ve said goodbye to 638 souls as of The Tower.
That said, not all farewells are created equally. Some are tense, reflective, emotional, and well thought out tributes to the character, while others provide moments of shock-value rather than emotional resonance. Some set up arcs that reverberate for episodes and seasons to come, while others have a minimal impact on the larger story.
Beware: There are MAJOR SPOILERS ahead, so if you’ve been living under a rock for the last 10 years, now is not the time to come crawling out.
10. Madison Clark - No One’s Gone
Okay, we know, Madison, Matriarch of the Clark clan, is part of Fear the Walking Dead, not the flagship series, but she went out in a literal blaze of glory to save her friends and loved ones, and this heroic sacrifice is one of the franchise’s greatest.
The episode, as well as the entire first half of season four, travels on two tracks. The first follows newcomers Morgan Jones, John Dorie, June, and journalist, Althea. The second, told via flashbacks, centres on Madison’s efforts to build a community in a baseball stadium. These episodes possess a heightened level of tension and mystery because in the present-day plot line, Madison is inconspicuously missing.
Enter No One’s Gone, where the Vultures - a sort of knock-off Saviors group - have encircled the stadium and unleashed a horde of walkers. The surviving community members attempt to flee, but are mauled by walkers, and Nick, Alicia, Luciana, and Strand are trapped in their car. In a last-ditch effort, Madison lights a flare to draw the walkers into the stadium which she sets ablaze, allowing her children and friends to escape.
Not only does this episode serve as a heartfelt farewell to Madison, it marks the reboot of the series in both cast and tone, as Morgan, and his new optimistic worldview, lead Alicia and the new crew east towards Rick’s community in Virginia.