The Walking Dead Season 4: 5 Things That Should Not Happen Next

2. Main Characters Always Survive

By this point, The Walking Dead is infamous for killing off main characters. For a heavily serialized show only in its fourth season, it's pretty surprising that just five members remain of the expansive original cast. Still, ever since the bloodbath of early Season 3, the show has become a whole lot safer for any actor in the main credits. Granted, we've lost Andrea and Hershel, but each of those losses came as the necessary Big Moment of a finale. Throughout the first seven installments of this season, we saw main characters and fan-favorites fall into almost certainly fatal situations, only to make it out alive against all odds. That's okay. Nobody wants a character to die a meaningless death. It would have all been fine if it were not for the fact that the background characters were dying in droves. The protagonists surviving is one thing. We don't go into every episode expecting Andrew Lincoln or Chad Coleman to fall victim to a zombie horde. The protagonists surviving an ordeal while others don their red shirts to unceremoniously meet their deaths from the same threat is a whole other matter. Glenn, for example, was on the verge of death in the fifth episode of the season after contracting the indiscriminate disease that was ravaging the prison. Sasha was no better. Hershel was exposed, and with the added vulnerability of his advanced age. The three even spent the entire hour selflessly exerting themselves to try to save others...most of whom died anyway. Meanwhile, Glenn, Sasha, and Hershel all miraculously survived. In past seasons, this might had been a cause for celebration. This season? Their survival was almost disappointing. Now, the midseason finale has raised the stakes, destroying the prison and decapitating poor Hershel. Unless the show wants to entirely run out of momentum before the need for another season-ending Big Moment, the characters in the most dangerous situations need to stop being the ones to always survive.