The Walking Dead: Who Is Tyler Davis?
Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday's "New Haunts" episode of The Walking Dead. Remember Tyler Davis? When Princess (Paola Lazaro) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) recognize a familiar face, it's one we've seen before on The Walking Dead. "That guy looks so familiar," Yumiko says of a waiter working tables at the extravagant Halloween masquerade ball hosted by Governor Pamela Milton (Laila Robins). Princess remembers kicking his ass in a train car when the white-armored soldiers of the Commonwealth Army arrested them with Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and King Ezekiel (Khary Payton), putting the group through "processing" prison before admitting them into the Commonwealth.
After the group arrives at a West Virginia train yard to rendezvous with Stephanie — the voice on Eugene's radio — they're taken into custody by the Commonwealth military in "A Certain Doom." In the Season 10 bonus episode "Splinter," Princess ambushes and disarms a trooper who faces a dishonorable discharge for screwing up protocols: Trooper Tyler Davis (Cameron Roberts).
"One mistake and I lost everything," Davis tells a crowd of onlookers when confronting Governor Milton in "New Haunts." Protesting inequality and the Commonwealth's class divide, Davis holds Max (Margot Bingham) hostage before he's arrested by Trooper Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus). Marched away, Davis chants a movement mantra: "Resist the Commonwealth! Visibility for workers! Equality for all!"
"As we were talking about this character Tyler Davis, who we met in the episode 'Splinter' in the season 10 extension, we were like, 'Well, what's his experience after 'Splinter' happened?'" showrunner Angela Kang explained on The Walking Dead: Episode Insider. "He's a very complex character because I don't feel particularly sorry for him all the time, 'cause I'm like, 'Man, he did take this person hostage, he clearly doesn't have the coping skills,' right? He is an imperfect messenger, and I think that's what makes it easy to discount him."
As investigative journalist Connie (Lauren Ridloff) digs up dirt on the rotten core of the Commonwealth, Trooper Rosita Espinosa's (Christian Serratos) own investigation uncovers evidence of a brewing revolution.
"I think in any society there's always an underbelly, there's always people who are gonna be pushing against it, for better or for worse," Kang said. "But how much of the truth is he telling, are there thousands of people that are part of this? Is this something that he is imagining is gonna happen? We wanted to leave that question hanging."
New episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season air Sundays on AMC and AMC+. Follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter and @NewsOfTheDead for TWD Universe coverage all season long.