‘The Walking Dead’ Fans Are Fired Up Over That Entirely Unexpected Midseason Finale Ending

Spoilers for AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead‘ will be found below.

There were a number of things I might have predicted in this week’s midseason finale of The Walking Dead, “Evolution,” but what happened at the end of the episode never even entered into my thought process until we watched it happen. This was not in the game plan! Not only is Jesus still alive in the comics, he and Aaron are together, and now that will never happen. Granted, Jesus’ role in what’s been written of the comics until the present is fairly minimal and, like Aaron, he’s never been utilized that much on the series, but still! Spiritually, he’s an important member of The Hilltop.

For those who missed it, at the end of this week’s midseason finale, in the first major showdown with The Whisperers — in what was actually a stellar horror-movie scene — Aaron,. Daryl, Jesus, and an injured Eugene are cornered by a herd of zombies. Daryl, Eugene, and Aaron make their way through a fence that Michonne and Magna’s group helped to pry open while Jesus holds off the zombies. He’s making great gains, picking the zombies off with his sword in heroic fashion until one lurching zombie unexpectedly dodges Jesus’ sword and then stabs Jesus through the back, whispering into his ear as Jesus is dying, “You are where you do not belong.” The zombie pulls out his own sword and Jesus falls to his death with Aaron — his would-be boyfriend — yelling, “Nooooooo!”

It’s a killer moment, and an absolute shock. I never saw it coming, and while it is definitely a painful death, it was a hell of a way to go out. Don’t expect a fake death here, either, where they save him when the series returns. Angela Kang wouldn’t burn the audience so soon in her tenure as showrunner, nor would she undo what was one of the most dramatic deaths in the series run.

In any respect, The Walking Dead fandom had a lot of thoughts about Jesus’ death on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/erica_Lynn_S/status/1066890139190857728

https://twitter.com/kennnedy504/status/1066890141178961926

https://twitter.com/imsoawkward84/status/1066890516644560896

https://twitter.com/indimontgomery/status/1066890388252893189

https://twitter.com/Issakickback/status/1066890499947208704

https://twitter.com/EricTheAsss/status/1066891080484995072

RIP Paul “Jesus” Monroe.