The Walking Dead’s shocking death fuels concern over LGBTQIA+ representation

The Walking Dead has another character casualty. Given limited LGBTQ representation in media and the show, fans were not pleased with this decision.

Warning: If you haven’t watched The Walking Dead midseason finale yet, you might want to save this article for a later time as we discuss some spoiler-heavy scenes.

This season of The Walking Dead has been more stressful than ironically crafting your perfect survival itinerary for a zombie apocalypse that’s never going to happen in real life. In the last half of the series, Rick and company finally overthrew Negan’s reign, Carl died, and Rick nearly died. That was all before the semi-sentient talking walkers made their debut into the series.

The Walking Dead has a knack for boisterously leading up to a main character’s untimely demise, as well as including some cinema habits that are questionable among fans and critics — like its apparent habit of killing off its sparse LGBTQIA+ characters.

The calm before The Whispers finally arrived last night during The Walking Dead’s midseason finale. However, another beloved character’s death overshadowed Rick’s pseudo-death in episodes prior. We’re talking about Jesus’ death, who was killed by Whisperers amidst Eugene’s rescue mission.

Fans have been mourning the noteworthy character, particularly given the proximity between another major character’s death (Carl). While some viewers lament, others are frustrated with the implications of killing off Jesus.

As the character is gay in the titular comic books, many fans are decrying that the midseason finale has fallen into the bury the gays trope, which the series isn’t unfamiliar with by any means. Before Jesus’ demise, the show killed off two lesbian characters — Alisha and Denise — who were both girlfriends to Tara. The Walking Dead also recently knocked off Eric, who is openly gay in the series.

Despite the controversy, showrunner Angela Kang wants to reassure viewers that more LGBTQIA+ representation is on the way.

“Magna and Yumiko are definitely a couple in the show. [They haven’t been outspoken about it yet] because of their personalities and their sense of safety. You see them leaning on each other and we’ll see them kiss this season,” Kang tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Though more sapphic representation is on the horde-coated horizon, it’s still upsetting that the series did kill of Jesus, who is a canon gay character, as well as in a relationship with Aaron, in the comics. Although Jesus hasn’t been explicitly queer-coded in the series, Jesus and Aaron’s reductive on-screen narrative with each other is symbolic of how the film and television industry minimize LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

Obviously, the series draws a lot of inspiration from the comics, especially now that talking zombies are being integrated on-screen. In fact, Jesus’ death parallels a lot of aspects from the panels, considering as the Whisper who killed him said, “And you are where you do not belong,” a direct quote from the comics.

Photo Credit: The Walking Dead comics. Image Comics.

Even postmortem, speculations about Jesus’ sexuality on the show are circulating. As Insider notes, deleted scenes between Jesus and his boyfriend at Hilltop (not Aaron apparently) imply that his character wasn’t intended to be straight on-screen.

Ending Jesus’ storying arch where he isn’t openly gay, like in the comics, can have different implications than killing another openly gay character. While the series has plans to include more sapphic representation, killing two characters (Eric and Jesus) in the LGBTQIA+ community in such close proximity to new LGBTQIA+ characters’ arrival sends the implicit signal that the show can only house a certain amount of non-straight characters at a given time, and can tokenize that inclusion to some viewers.

Nearly every televised series has their reoccurring themes. However, The Walking Dead might want to refrain from killing LGBTQIA+ characters in the near future. We’d like to see Magna and Yumiko’s relationship grow (and perhaps see Tara finally find happiness too).