The Walking Dead Midseason Finale: Side-By-Side Comparison With the Comics

It’s been clear for a while now that the midseason finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead this year would be a loose adaptation of the conflict between Rick’s survivors and the Governor’s forces from Woodbury.Last season’s finale, which had the actual Woodbury community go up against Rick’s group, ended in a kind of bizarre twist when Rick’s group managed to trick them all into running away and then The Governor took out his own people en masse. Ever since, it’s been pretty clear that The Governor was aimed like a bullet at this  year’s midseason finale, and as Robert Kirkman and others started saying that the second half of the fourth season would follow the comics more closely than the series ever has, it seemed clear that the “Made to Suffer” story arc, arguably the most popular and best-known story in the comic’s history, would play heavily into the year’s back half.So…how closely did the two track? We’ll do a quick rundown first, and then go a little more in-depth if you’re into that kind of thing. And, obviously, SPOILERS.The basics:Hershel dies either way–and so do a lot of nameless folks. Judith’s fate on TV is up in the air, whereas in the comics she was most definitively dead, crushed under the fallen body of Lori, who had been shot to death.In the comics, Tyreese was used as leverage; The Governor demanded that Rick let him in, and Tyreese told Rick not to–that he was willing to die to save the rest of the group. He died the same way Hershel did here–with Michonne’s sword, which one of The Governor’s lieutenants had confiscated when she was briefly in their custody. Hershel seemed to have more closure than Tyreese; while Tyreese told Rick to let him die, Hershel actually seemed at peace.In the comics, Hershel died when his son was killed; he lost his will to keep on fighting, surrendered and then asked The Governor to kill him (the Governor obliged).The details:The deathsThe Walking Dead Volume 8: Made To Suffer, which collects issues #43-48 of the ongoing comic book series, featured a number of high-profile deaths among the book’s principal cast, as well as at least ten “extras,” mostly The Governor’s Woodbury soldiers, making it the highest kill-count of any trade paperback collection in the series–at least 23, although that includes one “presumed dead” and one that was told in flashback, according to The Walking Dead Wiki.Who didn’t make it out of this fight in the comics?Lori Grimes Judith Grimes Tyreese Hershel Greene Billy Greene Patricia Alice Axel Brian Blake (The Governor) Bruce Allan Cooper (Flashback) Gabe Eric Jim Daniel Matthew (Assumed) Many unnamed Woodbury Soldiers.Now, we can immediate exclude the following people from consideration for the following reasons:Lori Grimes – Died in season three. Billy Greene – Doesn’t exist in the TV series. Patricia – Died in season two. Alice – Doesn’t exist in the TV series. Axel – Died in season three. Bruce Allan Cooper (Flashback) – Well, yeah. We probably won’t get any flashbacks this week. Gabe – Doesn’t exist in the TV series. A loyal soldier to The Governor, he was likely replaced by Martinez on TV, who died last week. Eric – Doesn’t exist in the TV series, unless one of The Governor’s unnamed soldiers is given the name Eric this week. Jim- Doesn’t exist in the TV series, unless one of The Governor’s unnamed soldiers is given the name Eric this week. Daniel – Doesn’t exist in the TV series, unless one of The Governor’s unnamed soldiers is given the name Eric this week. Matthew (Assumed) – Doesn’t exist in the TV series, unless one of The Governor’s unnamed soldiers is given the name Eric this week.That leaves the following list for potential deaths:Judith Grimes Tyreese Hershel Greene Brian Blake Many unnamed Woodbury Soldiers – if you replace “Woodbury” with “of The Governor’s.”Already, the stakes are somewhat lower in the TV series, unless they diverge from the comics and put some other people on the chopping block. There are plenty of new faces in Rick’s prison (taken, ironically, from Woodbury, among other places), most of whom will almost certainly perish in the attack. Even if the showrunners have a hard time selling the network on killing the baby, for instance, you could have the implication of an off-camera destruction of the whole day care center and all the kids besides Carl and Judith.That’s not how it went, though; this was a pretty tight adaptation of the original source material, except that Hershel died another way and Tyreese made it out okay (more on that below). We still lost Judith (as far as we can tell), The Governor and a dozen or so of his footsoldiers along the way.