Why is Father Gabriel even still on this show? They had the perfect chance to kill him off before the mid-season break, when he freaks out about his church being chopped up to fortify it better and stumbled into the woods, where he nearly got devoured by like a dozen zombies before he saw the crucifix around his neck and managed to escape thanks to some sort of divine intervention. Not only was that a missed opportunity, it was also really, really stupid. There probably is an interesting story to be told about a man of the cloth losing his faith in the face of the zombie apocalypse, but The Walking Dead hasn't opted for that. They've opted for Generic Hysterical Priest #1, the character spending most of the episodes since the mid-season finale in the background, which is where he belongs. Because he's not really a character, not a real member of the cast. He's a walking plot device, and the only reason he gets deployed during this episode's opening (where he tears pages out of The Bible because, as previously discussed, symbolism has to be bash-you-over-the-head-obvious to stand a chance in this show) and at the end is to further the divide between Rick's group and Deanna, rabbiting on about how they've all done terrible things for some reason. Nobody cares about Father Gabriel because The Walking Dead has never tried to make him into an actual character. Now he's become integral to the part, it's difficult to care about that by association.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
