From Negan to Alpha, The Walking Dead is famous for its terrifying, despicable villains. You could argue that Pamela Milton’s spoiled, ignorant son Sebastian doesn’t quite measure up, but everyone did hate him. As the heir of the Commonwealth, Sebastian was in a position of power that meant he could strut around the community and do whatever he wanted without consequence.
And if you thought Sebastian was loathed by fans of the TV show, comic readers take the hate to another level. Of course, on the page, Sebastian is best known as the character who ultimately kills Rick Grimes. However, in the latest episode of the show, “A New Deal,” the character suffered a different fate. He was finished off by walkers after humiliating himself during the Commonwealth’s Founder’s Day celebrations.
Looking back on his time as Sebastian, actor Teo Rapp-Olsson says he enjoyed playing someone so easy to hate. “It was so, so much fun,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s one of those things where it sounds silly to say, but you get paid to show up to work and literally scream at somebody like Michael James Shaw, who plays Mercer. And then after a take everyone’s like, ‘Oh, great job!’ You had a good day at the office when that’s what you get to do for a living. So it was the time of my life.”
The Walking Dead actors tries to find a way to sympathize with the loathsome Sebastian
It may seem like Sebastian has no redeeming qualities, but Rapp-Olsson was able to dig a little deeper into his character. “A big thing for me was that this felt to me like a kid who was being over his head,” he said. “I’m not actually sure that Sebastian would’ve gone down this path if he wasn’t born into the Milton legacy. Those are really big shoes to fill.”
"And I think there’s a world where if he just lived in small town America and had a much more natural and easy going life for a young kid, he might have not turned out to be this way."
Sebastian’s death is very gruesome. We see him scream for help while zombies rip into his flesh. Nobody offers to help, and eventually Judith puts him out of his misery. He kills Rick in the comics and is killed in front of a Grimes in the show. It’s almost poetic. “NYU doesn’t teach you how to do a blood curdling scream when you’re getting your neck ripped open,” Rapp-Olsson said.
Even though he was on the show for one season, Sebasian definitely made an impression. After filming his death scene, Rapp-Olsson received a lovely farewell from the cast and crew, especially Ross Marquand, who plays Aaron:
"It’s so bittersweet. But a lot of people showed up. [Ross Marquand] was on set that day and ran up to me. I believe he was the one who lifted me off the ground after we’ve finished shooting. I didn’t even realize he was on set, but he was just there to congratulate me. By all rights and measures, being on for one season, I would be totally understanding if nobody showed up for my ending moment, so to have so many people from the cast be there to lend support was really, really sweet. It was just a ton of hugs."
Makeup artist Greg Nicotero embraced Rapp-Olsson, regardless of the fact he was coated in fake blood (which apparently tastes very sweet). “Greg was willing to hug me in all my blood. It was really sad, but I was so grateful for the whole experience and I just felt so full when we were done.”
Sebastian almost had a different death on The Walking Dead
As it happens, we almost saw Sebastian suffer an altogether different death. The writers always planned for him to meet his demise this season and toyed with several ideas.
“We had a different plan for his death, which I think also would have worked too,” The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang told EW. “We always knew Sebastian had to eat it. He’s just… he’s Jerky McJerkface! And he has to get his due, right?”
The irony of killing Sebastian on Founder’s Day was too good to pass up. “We initially thought it was going to be a different end for him, but as we were going through this, it just started to feel like, wouldn’t it be great for there to really be consequences to everything that’s happening at Founders Day?”
It still disappoints me that Sebastian was killed so soon. He was a great character and I feel he had a lot more to offer the story. That said, the show seems to have made Lance the major villain, as well as introducing variant zombies; there’s simply not enough room in the plot for Sebastian.
The Walking Dead is now in its final stretch of episodes. New episodes air Sundays on AMC. The series finale drops on November 20. You don’t want to miss it!
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels