Season 5 of “The Walking Dead” has been painfully dull — but all that could change with a bloodbath of a season finale.
The teasers for Sunday’s episode don’t offer much — Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) fate at Alexandria is up in the air after his fistfight with alcoholic, wife-beating Pete (Corey Brill) in last week’s episode, and it seems as though Deanna’s (Tovah Feldshuh) decision is the only major plot point.
But this season has also been heavily teasing the arrival of a new group — and judging by the fact that they carve the letter “W” into the foreheads of the people they kill, they’re probably not very nice. This group may be the same group who turned the Terminus survivors into cannibals and who destroyed Noah’s (Tyler James Williams) hometown.
So if there really is something big planned for the 90-minute finale, here are the five characters we hope bite the dust before the episode ends.
1. Pete
He may be the only doctor in Alexandria, but in this case the cons outweigh the pros. A known wife beater, his presence is a risk to his wife and two sons — and killing him off would open the way for Rick and Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) to begin a relationship.
2. Nicholas
Two weeks ago, we saw firsthand what kind of man Nicholas (Michael Traynor) is: He’s a coward. He snapped the second walkers came upon his group, fled the scene, put the group at risk and then couldn’t even abide by Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) basic instructions, resulting in Noah’s gruesome death. Do everyone who remains a favor, and give this guy exactly what he deserves.
3. Gabriel
Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) hasn’t been right from the moment Rick’s group ran into him in the middle of the woods. He remains stuck in some fantasy world where God will rescue the “good” people, and he’s actively campaigning to have Rick and his followers kicked out of Alexandria. He provides no help in terms of physical or emotional strength, and has forged no connections with any group members. Would anyone even notice his death?
4. Rosita
In all honestly, we didn’t even notice her in the last episode now that she doesn’t wear camo-print booty shorts anymore. Since that’s really all Rosita (Christian Serratos) was bringing to the show — and since someone from the Rosita/Eugene (Josh McDermitt)/Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) trio has to go based on the law of averages — adios, señorita.
5. Reg
He’s a nice guy and all, but hear us out: Even after their son Aiden (Daniel Bonjour) was killed two weeks ago, Reg (Steve Coulter) and his wife, Deanna, the leader of Alexandria, seemed convinced that they don’t need to be weary of violent outside forces. They prevent the residents of Alexandria from carrying weapons, and they seem uninterested in building their community’s strengths and resources. If Reg were killed, perhaps Deanna would finally wise up — and definitely wouldn’t kick out Rick, whom they will find themselves depending on for survival if some psychopaths really do turn up in Sunday night’s episode.