The Walking Dead's crossover has been deemed a failure by many, but Dwight was one of its biggest victims. With struggling ratings, Fear The Walking Dead performed a soft-reset for its fourth season, as Lennie James' Morgan moved from the original series to the spinoff, gluing together FTWD veterans such as Alicia Clark and Victor Strand with the infinitely likable John Dorie and other newbies. The experiment had mixed results, both in terms of viewership and critical reaction, but if AMC were hoping the added star power would boost FTWD's fortunes, that certainly hasn't been the case, and although much has been said about Morgan's character development since the switch, it's arguably Dwight that comes off worse.
A pivotal character in The Walking Dead's "All Out War" storyline, Dwight is a downtrodden member of Negan's Saviors who is forced to obey Jeffrey Dean Morgan's baseball bat-swinging narcissist, even though the villain stole his wife and burned off half his face. Understandably annoyed by such treatment, Dwight sells Negan out to Rick and thus helps turn the tide of the war in Alexandria's favor. In the comic books, Dwight becomes a valued member of Rick's community but, in the TV adaptation, he is exiled by Daryl. With nowhere else to turn, Dwight heads out to find his wife, who had already escaped Negan's clutches, and it's here Fear The Walking Dead picks up Dwight's story.
Putting aside the implausibility of Dwight and Morgan reuniting, Fear The Walking Dead's introduction of Dwight begins promisingly enough. In a western-themed episode, Dorie and June find Dwight in trouble and desperately hunting clues that'll lead him to his missing wife. After a year of struggle with no reward, Dwight is contemplating suicide, but his new friends convince him to stay hopeful. In isolation, this single episode might've worked as a crossover that sent Dwight back on his way. Instead, Dwight's story arc rapidly begins to unravel.
Dorie discovers that Sherry no longer wants Dwight looking for her. After dragging the reveal out for a few weeks, Dwight finds this out for himself, but accepts the situation and opts to travel with Morgan's group instead to atone for past sins, hoping that he'll bump into Sherry again if that is indeed their fate. Unfortunately, this comes off as a fairly shallow attempt to retcon Dwight's character so that he'll stick around on the show. Dwight's quest for Sherry is central to his character; she inspired his betrayal and hatred of Negan and finding Sherry again gave Dwight a purpose after being shown the door by Daryl. The fact that Sherry decides to move on from Dwight (via letter too, classy!) doesn't fit with their relationship as seen in The Walking Dead, and Dwight's willful understanding of her rejection is even stranger, especially since he was suicidal only episodes previously.
While having Dwight and Sherry move on from each other is disappointing enough after investing in their The Walking Dead story, the spinoff's transparent motivations make this character reset even worse. If Dwight had remained doggedly determined to pursue Sherry, it would've been impossible to integrate him with the main Fear The Walking Dead cast and, in order to make Dwight one of the gang, the plot demanded he abandon his wife-finding mission.
The end of Dwight and Sherry's story was never likely to be finalized on The Walking Dead once "All Out War" concluded, and FTWD had a prime opportunity to fill that narrative gap - to reunite Dwight and Sherry and complete their tale. Instead, it chose to cast Dwight's established arc by the wayside in favor of something that suited its own purpose. In fairness, there remains a strong likelihood that Dwight and Sherry will be reunited on FTWD at some point in a future season, but seemingly only when the spinoff finds a convenient spot to do so. Season 5's hitting the pause button on the Dwight and Sherry storyline will inevitably lessen the impact of their eventual meeting, doing both characters, Austin Amelio's in particular, a disservice.
The Walking Dead season 10 continues February 23rd on AMC.
Fear The Walking Dead season 6 premieres in 2020 on AMC.