The Walking Dead Season 10: Meet Robert Patrick’s New Character

When The Walking Dead returns in February to air six new episodes extending season 10, it’s with Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Scorpion‘s Robert Patrick in a guest-starring role. Patrick joins the zombie drama with incoming guest stars Okea Eme-Akwari as Elijah, the metal-masked fighter seen with Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Hilarie Burton Morgan as Lucille, the cancer-stricken wife of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and the newly-revealed Lynn Collins as Leah. Some of these series newcomers will join the cast heading into season 11 of The Walking Dead, the 24-episode final season launching later this year and concluding in late 2022 on AMC.

Patrick plays Mays, an original character described as a rough-looking survivor who encounters a semi-drunk Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) in episode 1019, “One More.” The three actors participated in a virtual table read released ahead of the episode’s March 14 premiere.

In the scene set in a warehouse store, Mays confronts Gabriel about his clerical collar. Asked why he still wears it a decade into the apocalypse, Gabriel answers, “Probably for the same reason you keep a room full of bibles. It’s a light in an otherwise very dark world, and a reminder of the goodness still within us. Things like love, mercy, forgiveness.”

The pile of discarded bibles is “toilet paper,” Mays explains. “I like the thin pages, and I can find ’em everywhere.” Taking the slight in stride, Gabriel retorts, “Maybe instead of wiping your ass with it, you should read it.”

“Oh, I’ve read it, cover to cover. That’s why I wipe my ass with it,” Mays says with a smirk. “It must be hard preaching about something you don’t believe in.” When Gabriel insists he is a believer, Mays tells him with world-weariness, “Evil people aren’t the exception to the rule, they are the rule. There’s nothing left in this world but thieves and murderers.”

“There’s still goodness,” Gabriel responds, “if you look for it.”

Mays leans in, pressing him: “Well, who you trying to convince, Father? Me, or you? You’re so close.” Asked to explain what that means, Mays smiles and the scene ends.

In the episode from director Laura Belsey (season 9 episode “The Calm Before”) and writers Erik Mountain & Jim Barnes (season 10 episode “A Certain Doom”), “Gabriel and Aaron search for food and supplies to bring back to Alexandria. Small tragedies lead to bigger tragedies as faith is broken and optimism is fragmented when they are put to the ultimate test.”

Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter for all things TWD. The Walking Dead returns to AMC with new episodes on February 28.