The events of The Walking Dead’s haunted house episode may have just doomed Virgil (Kevin Carroll) to an early demise. During the escape from the house where he and Connie (Lauren Ridloff) were holed up, Virgil was stabbed – perhaps fatally – by one of the feral humans.
While it’s too soon to count Virgil as a major character, it did appear that the show was on the way to making him important beyond his role in Michonne’s exit from The Walking Dead. Instead of Virgil just being a one-and-done guest character, the season 10 finale surprisingly brought him back for a brief appearance and paired him with Connie, who had been missing since the cave-in. Virgil and Connie’s efforts to reach Alexandria were finally highlighted in The Walking Dead season 11, episode 6, titled “On the Inside”, which demonstrated that Virgil is already on a better path than the one he was on when he crossed paths with Michonne (Danai Gurira).
Depending on how the series resolves episode 6’s cliffhanger ending, Virgil’s Walking Dead story could end with just his fifth episode. Virgil was stabbed multiple times by one of The Walking Dead season 11's feral people, thus leaving his fate in question. The wounds he received at the hands of his attacker certainly looked foreboding, but it wouldn’t be the first time the show ended an episode with a character seemingly near death, only to save them later. Rather infamously, this stunt was pulled with Glenn (Steven Yuen) in season 6, and was also done as recently as a season 11 episode with Maggie (Lauren Cohan). Virgil’s outlooks isn’t good, but there is a chance that the characters can treat him quickly.
On the surface, bringing Virgil back only to kill him right away may seem pointless, which is why to some, his character may appear safe for the time being. But, it’s at least possible that Virgil’s return to The Walking Dead had nothing to do with adding a new character to the fold. It could be that instead of using Cailey Fleming’s Judith to reveal Michonne’s secret, the plan is for Virgil to be the one who lets the cat out of the bag. If what he told Connie offscreen about Michonne wasn’t a big enough clue, he could somehow reveal it in his final moments. If so, this could be how Alexandria puts the pieces together and figures out that Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is still out there.
Regardless of what role he could end up playing in the battle with Pope’s Reapers or Alexandria’s inevitable brush with the Commonwealth, Virgil’s potential survival has important implications for season 11. After all, Judith made it clear in season 10 that she plans to hide the truth about Rick, so exactly when truth comes out may depend largely on Virgil’s fate. If he survives, The Walking Dead's final season will have an easy way of dropping the big reveal at any time.