The mid-season finale of The Walking Dead season nine has arrived, and it was one of the AMC series’s scariest episodes to date.
Just three weeks after losing Rick (Andrew Lincoln), fans now have to deal with the permanent loss of another main character, the identity of whom you can find out below.
Warning: huge spoilers below
The arrival of the Whisperers was heralded by the death of Jesus (Tom Payne), the would-be leader of Hilltop, who gets killed by a person parading as a walker.
Surrounded by a herd of the undead in a misty landscape as he’s helping Eugene (Josh McDermitt) to safety with Aaron (Ross Marquand), Jesus takes matters into his own hands, thinking he’s on relatively safe ground.
He’s wrong. As the long-haired warrior begins dispatching of the walkers one by one, he’s caught off guard as one of them ducks, grabs his sword and turns it on its owner, ending Jesus’s life in front of Aaron and Eugene, as well as Michonne (Danai Gurira) and new arrival Magna (Nadia Hilker).
Jesus’s departure marks a huge move for new showrunner Angela Kang, considering he was the one to introduce the series's original characters to the communities that now shape the show.
Speaking about Jesus’s death on Talking Dead, Payne quipped: “I was texting with my girlfriend – now fiancee – and I was like, ‘Oh, Angela called me. Maybe it’s the call. Ha ha ha.’ And then I called her and it was.”
Payne also went on to share more candid views regarding his departure from the series, revealing he was ready to go due to his “constant frustrations” with Jesus’s lack of screen time in recent seasons.
Payne first appeared in The Walking Dead's sixth season.
The Walking Dead continues in the US on AMC in February with the simulcast airing in the UK at 2am. The episode is also available to watch on NOW TV ahead of its repeat on FOX at 9pm the following evening.
