10 Episodes Of The Walking Dead That Made Viewers Quit The Show

From the episode with Glenn’s gruesome death to the episode with Rick’s contrived departure from the series, some episodes of The Walking Dead were so bad that they made viewers quit the show. There are some truly great Walking Dead episodes that are rightly considered to be masterpieces. The jaw-dropping pilot episode got the series off to a great start. It has the scope and scale of a movie fit for the big screen, and yet the spectacle never overshadows the characters and emotions, and it made Rick a character that audiences wanted to follow right out of the gate.

Season 2’s midseason finale proved with Sophia’s death that there was no line this show wouldn’t cross. Season 4’s final episode saw the characters finally arrive at Terminus, a supposed safe haven, and delivered a shocking twist when they realized what really awaited them there. But for all the great moments that made viewers fall in love with the show, there were plenty of Walking Dead moments that made those same viewers quit the show, too. Some of The Walking Dead’s worst episodes were so bad that they made audiences stop watching the series.

10Last Day On Earth

Season 6, Episode 16

For some Walking Dead fans, the season 6 finale, “Last Day on Earth,” was the final straw. The season as a whole had been quite controversial for its reliance on cheap gimmicks, like Glenn’s fake-out death. After spending the whole season building up to Negan’s debut, the finale delivered the cheapest gimmick of all. When Negan picked out a character to execute and swung his bat to beat them to death, the episode cut to a P.O.V. shot, forcing viewers to wait months to find out who died. Some viewers didn’t bother coming back to see who got the bat.

9What We Become

Season 10, Episode 13

Danai Gurira made her final regular appearance as Michonne in the season 10 episode “What We Become,” and the way she departed felt wildly out of character. After finding some vague evidence that Rick might still be alive, Michonne decides to abandon her kids to go looking for him. As yet another beloved cast member left in yet another baffling and contrived way, a lot of viewers reevaluated their relationship with the show and wondered why they were even still watching when so few of their favorite characters were still around.

8Wrath

Season 8, Episode 16

Once Negan showed up, The Walking Dead basically became torture porn. For two whole seasons, the Saviors relentlessly tormented and terrorized Rick’s group, and they were powerless to stop it. In the season 8 finale, when the all-out war against Negan’s armies culminated in a climactic battle, Rick finally had the chance to kill Negan, but he chose to save his life instead. It made sense for Rick’s arc to spare Negan’s life (it was Carl’s dying wish), but it was pretty disappointing — and it paved the way for Negan’s undeserved redemption, so it was quitting time for some audiences.

7Live Bait

Season 4, Episode 6

Midway through season 4, The Walking Dead reintroduced the Governor, secretly watching Rick’s group at the prison from afar. This seemed like a tantalizing return for a widely hated villain. But the following episode, “Live Bait,” was told entirely from the Governor’s perspective. By the end of the episode, there’s still no sign of getting back to the characters we actually care about — and, sure enough, the whole next episode would stay focused on the Governor — so some viewers noped out. This was the first of many Walking Dead episodes that would bafflingly switch focus to much less interesting characters.

6Swear

Season 7, Episode 6

Right around the time Scott Gimple became the showrunner, The Walking Dead settled into a frustrating structure of rotating between characters to focus on. It meant that when an episode reached a shocking cliffhanger ending, viewers would have to wait a few weeks before the show cycled back around to that storyline. One of the most egregious examples of this was the season 7 episode “Swear.” Right after Carl was revealed to be sneaking into the Saviors’ community, the show spent an entire episode with Tara just wandering around on her own. Some viewers were understandably irritated by this.

5How It's Gotta Be

Season 8, Episode 8

Season 8’s midseason finale, “How It’s Gotta Be,” is technically a very eventful episode, with real stakes and consequences, but it’s so slow-paced that it just comes off as boring. It ignores the established rules of zombie infection for a bit of cloying melodrama. After Carl is bitten, he has hours and hours to say his goodbyes to all the people he cares about. The episode handled Carl’s death terribly — Rick has a very underwhelming reaction to his son’s demise — so a lot of viewers who’d been with the Grimes family since season 1 gave up after this episode.

4Diverged

Season 10, Episode 21

Season 10 featured a handful of bonus episodes filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which featured contained stories, far fewer action sequences, and only a couple of cast members apiece. The most tedious of these filler episodes, “Diverged,” explores the strain on Carol and Daryl’s friendship following Carol’s reckless decision to run into a cave full of walkers. “Diverged” is widely considered to be The Walking Dead’s worst episode, and it made a lot of viewers wonder why they were even still watching when this once-riveting show was spending so much time treading water.

3The Grove

Season 4, Episode 14

Season 4’s “The Grove” is considered to be one of The Walking Dead’s strongest episodes, but it was just too dark for some viewers. It’s a standalone psychological thriller in which Carol and Tyreese struggle to keep Lizzie, Mika, and Judith safe as Lizzie quickly loses her mind. After Lizzie stabs and kills her own sister, Carol has no choice but to kill Lizzie. She takes her out into the wilderness and guns her down like Lennie in Of Mice and Men. It’s an incredible hour of television, with really powerful performances, but it was too grim for some audiences.

2What Comes After

Season 9, Episode 5

Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead after the season 9 episode “What Comes After,” in which Rick struggles to divert a horde of the undead away from his friends. To stop the horde from going to Alexandria, he blows up the bridge the communities built as a symbol of unity and seemingly dies. But then, he’s magically taken away by a helicopter to star in his own spinoff. Rick was the reason viewers fell in love with this show, so a lot of them stopped watching after his departure (especially since he departed in such a silly, unbelievable way).

1The Day Will Come When You Won't Be

Season 7, Episode 1

The episode that made the most viewers quit the show — so many that it had a significant impact on the ratings — was The Walking Dead’s season 7 premiere, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” After the season 6 finale’s cliffhanger, the season 7 opener revealed that the character Negan killed was Abraham. But the torture didn’t end there. Negan also killed a second person, Glenn, threw Rick into a horde of zombies for the fun of watching him fight for his life, and almost forced him to cut off Carl’s hand as a show of loyalty.

The Walking Dead suffered a massive dip in viewership between this episode and the next one, because it was just too grueling and gratuitously gory. There’s a sustained shot of a blood-drenched Glenn with his eyeball hanging out (which was much more palatable as a black-and-white drawing in the comic book). The Walking Dead wasn’t fun to watch anymore, so a lot of people just stopped watching.