The Walking Dead Presents the Good and Evil Choice at Death

The Walking Dead pulls no punches when it comes to killing off our favorite characters and Sunday night was no different.  This time we said goodbye to Tyreese.  However, unlike our former characters who have died, we were given a glimpse of what Tyreese hallucinated, saw, thought he saw, or perhaps he actually had a vision of those in the afterlife.  The entire death scene presented the major possibility that Tyreese was actually being pulled two different directions.  Good and evil was bidding for him to join their way of thinking during his last minutes alive.

Now set aside all theology and all thoughts of various religions as we believe them to be and remember those old cartoons.  Remember when the good angel would sit on one shoulder and the bad angel would sit on the other should and encourage the person in the middle?  It was the ultimate wrestle of the conscience and usually one or the other won out depending on the comic needs of the show.  Sunday night was no different.  We have Beth, Bob, Miki and Lizzie acting as the "good" side trying to encourage Tyreese by telling him "It's better now."  We have to assume that they are trying to help Tyreese to the other side.  It was interesting to note that Hershel was nowhere to be seen.  Maybe he had some other stuff to do....you know, being all closer to God than most characters who have died seemed to be.  Anyway, on the other side we have Martin and the Governor trying to pull rage, anger and even admitting that he owes the Governor something out of Tyreese.  It's as if they want him to be angry and join them.  

The pivotal moment comes when Tyreese tells the Governor off.  You can almost imagine that he's telling the Devil himself to get away.  Once that is done we are given some glimpse of other scenes before we find Tyreese seeing all his "good" friends again in the Suburban.

Tyreese is dying at this point.  After all, most of us in Twitter land had already noted that he was looking a "little green" there.  While Rick and company try to drive to the others and save Tyreese - not sure why they didn't maybe decide to make a fire where they were and save him, but hey, that's TV for you.  Anyway, everyone in the Suburban turns into someone dead from Tyreese's past.  He doesn't ever see some of the people he knew- which besides wondering about Hershel also leaves us wondering about Karen - but Miki, Lizzie, Bob and Beth all encourage him as they ride along that things are going to be okay.  There's a moment when everyone watching has to stop and think, "Wow, Beth get your eyes back on the road or we're all going to get killed," but I guess when you're riding that final ride to Heaven, you don't need to see the road to get there.

So, once again the Walking Dead has found a way to bring some former characters back.  Rick had to spend some time with his dead wife and hear other lost characters on the phone, and now Tyreese has allowed us to see some favorites one more time.  I'm left thinking a couple of things.  First, the "Bring Beth Back" campaign must have done some good since "Whoop, there she was!" and two the writers must want us to believe in the afterlife and that good and evil continue to struggle....besides, did Tyreese ever see the Governor with a hole in his head?  I thought this was done after everyone left the prison, but sure enough you can see the hole and blood right there on the left side of the Governor's head.  Since Tyreese couldn't have known that, maybe it's a hint that these good and evil people do come back to carry the dying across to that great unknown.  Whatever the case may be, we can gain comfort knowing that Tyreese chose the right side and rode off into the sunset with Bob, Beth, Miki and....oh yeah, one crazy little Lizze who must have been healed of her mental issues once she passed over to the other side as a member of the "Hole in the head" club.