4) Hershel
After Dale, Hershel became the second dad of the gang – and met a similarly terrible fate.
To prove a point to Rick that he’s not going to negotiate, The Governor attacks the peace-loving Hershel with Michonne’s Katana – partially decapitating him. When a fight breaks out, the Governor catches up with him and finishes the job. Later on, Michonne finds Hershel’s re-animated head and finally ends him by stabbing it with her katana.
Apart from being queasily graphic, Hershel’s death is particularly horrible as he was the moral centre of the group, always appealing to people’s better angels. He had such an important role in the show that we really didn’t expect him to get the chop (sorry, unfortunate choice of phrase there), yet the show defied our expectations once again.
Just as like Rick says to The Governor before his death, Hershel believed “we all can change.” Unfortunately, he was wrong – the Governor couldn’t.