The Walking Dead: 8 Characters Who Died Too Soon

After season one, T-Dog pretty much faded into the background of the show, becoming more of a running joke amongst fans for how little he was given to do rather than developing into an actual three-dimensional character.

In the same season three episode that Oscar stepped up, so, too, did T-Dog, who proved more of his value to the group in a matter of minutes than most of his total appearances in the first two seasons. He put his life on the line to close an open gate to prevent more walkers from entering the prison yard, got bit as a reward, and went on to sacrifice his life so that Carol could live, the show giving such an incredibly underused character an impressively noble sendoff.

That said, while his death may remain memorable, T-Dog himself was a victim of the show telling us about what kind of man he was over showing us. After his death, Glenn lamented to Hershel about how T-Dog had repeatedly saved his life and the good T-Dog had done rescuing people during the outbreak, but it was too late for us as an audience, who could've gotten so much more out of his death had we actually been given the opportunity to spend time with T-Dog the person rather than T-Dog the meme punchline.