The Walking Dead Is Already Setting Up Ezekiel's Death

This week's episode of The Walking Dead seemed to reveal the show's intention to kill off Ezekiel, as occurs in the comics. While we have no way of knowing explicitly, we'd put some pickles on his not being around too much longer.

In Issue #145 of the comics, Ezekiel's head is among the 12 others mounted on pikes marking Whisperer territory. As is planned in the show, a fair was held to commemorate the progress made by the communities after the events of All Out War. In the comic, Carl has just returned Lydia to the Whisperers, and their leader, Alpha, insists that she must return with him to the communities so she can learn about his people. Then, in a stunning and depraved move, she infiltrates the fair disguised as a knife vendor and proceeds to quietly murder 12 people.

It's her way of making it very clear to Rick that she is not to be trifled with and that she means it when she says that there will be dire consequences if they don't stay out of Whisperer territory. To help make her point, Alpha shows Rick a massive herd that she and the Whisperers control, and threatens to send it through the communities if he crosses her borders again.

All of this serves to set up Alpha as a far more terrifying villain than Negan and his little baseball stick ever were, something the show started doing two weeks ago in "Adaptation." The Walking Dead has just barely begun to plumb the depths of Alpha's villainy, and if "Bounty" is any indication, Ezekiel's shaping up to be one of her first victims, just as he was in the books. The episode contained several key elements that sadly point to the King's days being numbered.

Everything Was Funny... A Little TOO Funny

Ezekiel's subplot in "Bounty" is centered around his desire to retrieve a new projection bulb so that the upcoming fair can have a snazzy movie night. In a post-apocalyptic riff on Ocean's 11, the King, the Queen, Jerry and Diane all head to a movie theater overrun by walkers to retrieve the precious object. What follows is a lighthearted quest complete with whimsy, optimism and many, many bits.

Zombies crawl out of a popcorn machine, the team uses a boom box playing funk music to lure the walkers away, Diane points out the expiration dates on the popcorn-flavored coconut oil are meaningless. There are laughs around every corner, more than have ever been featured on The Walking Dead in one episode, maybe ever.

That's not a good sign.

One of the lessons the show likes to beat us over the head with is that the apocalypse is bleak. It's a one step forward, two steps and several corpses back situation as the survivors wrestle with the incredible task of creating a new civilization. Showrunner Angela Kang probably doesn't break down her season thinking to herself, "Episode 1: Not Funny, Episode 2: Not Funny, Episode 3: Funny, Episode 4: Epically tragic, remind audience apocalypse is terrible," but it's highly unlikely we're going to get more lighthearted episodes as the conflict with the Whisperers escalates. It makes more sense that the humor in "Bounty" will, at least in part, serve to counter some upcoming tragedy.

Ezekiel Took Yet Another Unnecessary Risk

Look, we're not saying the poor babies of the post-apocalypse generation shouldn't get the chance to see a movie one day, but we can guarantee whatever sex ed videos Ezekiel found in the high school are not worth anyone's life. When Carol points out this very, very obvious fact to him, Ezekiel insists that enjoying survival is just as important to morale as survival itself, and pitches her on a magical movie night capping off the fair and ultimately bringing the communities back together.

He's not wrong, even if it is the height of optimism to think a movie could bring people together (clearly Ezekiel had not encountered #FilmTwitter before the Fall), but his continuous insistence on flights of fancy put him and those around him in repeated danger.

NEXT PAGE: It's Only a Matter of Time Before Ezekiel Gets Himself Killed

Remember during All Out War when he led his entire team onto an open field and assumed that, because there was no immediate fire, they'd nailed a bloodless victory? Yeah, so do we. No one else does, though, because literally all those people are dead.

There were several dangerous moments in "Bounty," despite the King's repeated insistence that they'll be in and out like a "cobra strike." Everyone makes it out alive, precious bulb in tow, but luck had a lot to do with that. Given the odds of survival in a post-apocalyptic world are so low, it's only a matter of time before Ezekiel's quixotic attitude gets him killed. If the camera zooming in on that foreboding red symbol as the team departs for home is any indication, his actions may have already sealed his fate.

There Was an Inordinate Amount of Romance This Week

Ezekiel and Carol are the show's cutest couple (sorry Caryl shippers, feel free to riot), and they more than earned their title this week. Ezekiel adorably tries to lie when Carol asks what he's up to after they finish hunting. Carol makes a bunch of jokes at his expense, but still gamely joins the mission because she's a supportive partner and then there's the smooching.

These two make out a lot this week, and given how not fond Carol is of any public display of affection, we can't help but wonder if this was The Walking Dead gifting these two with one last hurrah before their love is torn asunder.

If Melissa Peletier's role promises to be stepped up a little in Andrew Lincoln's absence, she'll be quite the force to be reckoned with if Alpha kills her man. After finally finding some peace and the ability to connect with people again, Ezekiel's death could potentially turn her into the Commando Carol we all fell in love with back when she blew up Terminus.

Commando Carol can get it, but it would probably take Ezekiel's death to get her to regress into that mindset. Are we horrible people if that makes us kind of want to see him offed?

He Said a Thing He Definitely Shouldn't Have Said

After the team emerges victorious from their battle against the movie theater, Ezekiel has the audacity to utter the words, "Maybe we're done losing for a while." Honestly, you could throw out the rest of this article and just focus on how high the hairs on the back of our neck rose when he said that, and we could still build an impressive case for his impending doom. Six years of peace clearly lulled Ezekiel (and Jerry, if we're being honest) into a false sense of security. We can't imagine why else he would so thoughtlessly jinx himself in this way.

In all seriousness, we don't at all know for certain if Ezekiel will follow his comics counterpart and become one of Alpha's victims. Everyone and their mother thought the only way Rick could leave the show was through death, but The Walking Dead defied all our expectations. Plus, Jerry is funny, beloved and has three young children. By these standards, he's a dead man walking, too.

Given that The Walking Dead so freely diverges from the comics, it's hard to predict how, when or even if it will do so. But, at the end of the day, Ezekiel just got almost an entire episode to himself for the first time in Season 9, and it was an episode that paid lip service to his relationship, allowed him a personal victory and saw him fulfill yet another flight of fancy. It was a romantic quest fit for a king, but that makes us think it'll be his last.