The latest episode of The Walking Dead, “Stalker,” could be signaling the end for either Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) or Rosita (Christian Serratos), who may have been marked for death by what appeared to be ominous clues spotted ahead of Season 10B. The couple took the lead when defector Whisperer Mary (Thora Birch) reached Alexandria — in the hopes of helping the Alexandrians rescue Aaron (Ross Marquand) and the other survivors who were trapped in a cave by Alpha (Samantha Morton) — and both stepped up to handle threats outside and within Alexandria, where an intruding Beta (Ryan Hurst) butchered a half-dozen victims in his attempt to capture the Whisperer spy.
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After suffering a nightmare where a masked Whisperer kills baby daughter Coco, Rosita doesn’t pull her punches when Mary shows herself outside Alexandria’s front gate. Using intel from Mary, Gabriel plans two rescue parties to cross into enemy territory and reach the cave, not knowing most of the trapped heroes managed to escape.
The priest is convinced they can “break” more Whisperers, telling council members Laura (Lindsley Register) and Scott (Kenric Green) to “start pulling teeth and taking fingers” to extract information. Laura and Rosita exchange nervous glances over the blood thirsty Gabriel, who already avenged Siddiq (Avi Nash) when he savagely murdered Dante in the blood-stained cell holding Mary.
Rosita prepares to head out with one of the rescue teams, but Gabriel, worried her fears about freezing in the field will come true, asks her to stay back and look over defenses at the gate. Calling him “erratic,” Rosita tells Gabriel he’s “itching for a fight,” something he doesn’t deny. Rosita can feel Coco wondering where her father is, and she doesn’t want her daughter ending up an orphan.
When time comes to head out, Laura takes a walkie talkie call from Echo post, who report a herd made up of at least one hundred walkers is headed towards Alexandria.
“That watchtower is two miles away. We can’t let this next wave bunch up at the gate the way the last one did,” Gabriel says, referring to the 49-hour walker assault Alexandria fought off in 1003, “Ghosts.” When Scott asks why the Whisperers would send a herd now, Gabriel says they’re trying to silence the defector giving up information.
Noticing Rosita is unnerved, Gabriel comes up with a new plan: Rosita and Laura will stay back on gate security with a skeleton crew while Gabriel and Scott lead a squad to the outpost, where they’ll break up the herd before moving on to the cave. Rosita admits she doesn’t trust herself out there — not yet — telling him if she gets them both killed, her worst fears for Coco come true.
At Echo post, Gabriel and Scott discover the lookouts murdered. But there’s no sign of a herd.
It hits Gabriel: they were forced to call before being killed, a ploy to draw most of Alexandria’s fighters away. Back home, Beta’s slaughter almost claims another victim when he nearly kills Rosita, but she’s saved by Mary, who gives herself up as Beta’s prisoner if it means calling off the attack.
When they head back to the Whisperer camp, Beta and Mary are ambushed by Gabriel and his crew, whose gunfire sends Beta scurrying into the woods, just steps ahead of a shotgun blast fired by Gabriel. The next day, the wounded Rosita sets off for Hilltop with Mary, Aaron, and the Grimes children, leaving Coco at home in Gabriel’s care.
It’s a good call: Rosita’s recovery at Hilltop means she’ll be present when the colony is attacked by Whisperers wielding an arsenal of flaming arrows. Whether or not Rosita survives that battle, an otherwise innocuous line may have foreshadowed a particularly grisly death from the comic books.
While it turned out to be a ruse in “Stalker,” Alexandria was threatened by an approaching walker horde at this stage in the comic books. If events unfold similarly, the watchtower mentioned by Gabriel could come into play in the penultimate episode of Season 10, titled “The Tower.”
In the books, Gabriel acts as lookout atop a water tower with orders to alert Alexandria upon spotting a walker army led by Beta. When the massive horde of walkers comes into view, a panicked Gabriel slips, snaps his ankle, and is left helplessly dangling from a ladder, where Beta stabs him in the gut. Gabriel is then devoured by the walker horde, who leave behind nothing but picked over bones.
Could the actions of a bloodthirsty and erratic Gabriel mean he faces his comic book fate? “Stalker” ended with Alpha ready to unleash her walker horde, which ultimately led to the deaths of both Gabriel and Andrea in the comic books.
In a threat that could mean certain doom for one of our major characters, Alpha preached, “I’m no longer weak. I’m stronger than ever. Our horde will butcher and consume them. Screams will be song to me.”
New episodes of The Walking Dead Season 10 premiere Sundays on AMC. For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.
