Here’s how Gavin the Savior met his maker on The Walking Dead. Played by Jayson Warner Smith, Gavin made his debut on The Walking Dead during the seventh season. He was one of Negan’s high-ranking underlings and – like fellow members of his circle like Simon and Regina – was assigned as leader of one of the Saviors’ several outposts. One of Gavin’s duties as an outpost leader was collecting supplies from Ezekiel and his people which is when Walking Dead fandom was first introduced to him.
Whereas a lot of Saviors were straight-up villains on The Walking Dead, Gavin appeared to be more level-headed than most – at least compared to the likes of Simon, who seemed to relish throwing his weight around. If Simon was a ruthless psycho ready to pop off at a moment’s notice, Gavin was more like an exasperated parent trying to keep both the Saviors and Kingdom community in line so as not to invoke the ire of Negan. His more reasonable side came to the fore through his interactions with Ezekiel’s group during supply pick-ups, especially in his disdain towards how antagonistic his fellow Savior Jared was.
Gavin was particularly disgusted by Jared when he shot young Kingdom resident Benjamin and showed genuine remorse when he later learned the teen had died from his injuries. Remorseful or not, it was Benjamin’s death that inadvertently led to Gavin’s own demise. When Rick led his all-out war against Negan in The Walking Dead’s eighth season, Gavin and a group of Saviors attempted to take over the Kingdom and captured Ezekiel in the process.
Carol and Morgan swooped in to save Ezekiel from the Saviors’ clutches, taking out most of them and shooting Gavin in the leg in the process, a befitting injury considering Benjamin’s fate, before he made a hasty retreat. Unluckily for Gavin, he was soon cornered and – just as it looked like Morgan would be the one to take him out – Benjamin’s younger brother Henry appeared behind him and drove a staff through his neck, killing him instantly.
As one of The Walking Dead’s more reasonable Saviors, it’s debatable whether or not Gavin truly deserved to die. Either way, Gavin was more than a one-note villain so it would’ve been interesting to see how he would’ve fared had he survived and been integrated into other communities the way other former Saviors like Laura, D.J. or Frankie were. Alas, thanks to Gavin’s season 8 death, we’ll never know.