Greg

Time for the second new, disturbing guy met in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, Strangers. When poor Bob Stookey wakes up after being kidnapped, he first sees a man taking care of a campfire: on the fire, he is roasting what once was Bob’s leg, and that now is just a chunk of meat ready to be eaten. That guy is Greg, portrayed by Travis Young. He didn’t have much of a role for now, but it’s positive he’ll be one of the main antagonists at least in the next episodes. He’s one of Gareth‘s followers, a survivor from Terminus who escaped his sanctuary when Carol blew it up and who’s now seeking revenge (and food) from the group of protagonists. In the comics, he has more or less the same role, minus the Terminus story line (he never opens a fake haven for preying on people). Anyway, let’s see together who Greg is.

Again, almost nothing is known about Greg’s life before the zombie apocalypse occurred. It’s likely he used to live in a city, judging from his apparent inexperience with country life; also, it’s possible he had one or more children before everything started. If he had a wife or a mate, she most likely died during the first events of the outbreak, as the dead started hunting for the living. Greg managed to escape his home, and to take shelter with other survivors in an abandoned country house on the road between Atlanta and Washington D.C., thanks to the expedients of Chris, a charismatic man who soon became the leader of the small group. Greg’s big figure and ability with a gun made him one of the most valuable members of the group; however, when the food supplies ended, he as well proved to be a terrible hunter, incapable of catching anything to feed the survivors. Starving to death, the group eventually made a difficult and terrible decision, and killed the weakest members of their group (children, elders, wounded), to eat their flesh and stay alive. Chris convinced everybody of the necessity of such a monstrosity, making parallels with the natural world, and Greg was among the ones who believed him and decided to follow him. When all the children in the group were dead and eaten, the ones who now called themselves the Hunters started preying on the people traveling on the road, targeting the loners and isolating the weakest ones in the smaller groups. Eventually, Greg’s qualities proved to be more than useful also in this kind of new and unexpected situation, and thanks to his strength and his aim he was regarded as one of Chris’ most trusted men.

After some months of good game, however, small groups started running low, and loners almost disappeared: only big and strong groups crossed the Hunter’s territory, and Chris wasn’t sure enough of his team’s strength to attack them. When hunger came back, however, he had to change strategy. When a new, big group arrived in the area, Greg was sent to spy on them along with Charlie: their task was to learn their number, and possibly to spot and identify the easiest preys among them. While they were watching, in the group some unexpected and inexplicable things happened: one of the children killed another, just to be killed in turn by another kid; then, a priest appeared out of nowhere, taking all the group into a church as a shelter. Disoriented and confused, Greg and Charlie decided to act immediately, and as soon as one of the elders of the group fell behind, they intervened and abducted him, taking him to the other Hunters. Before the old man, Dale, woke up, the Hunters had already cut his remaining leg off, cooked it and eaten it: this proved to be not a smart move, as Dale, once he came back to his senses, bluntly informed them that he had been left behind on his request, since he had been bitten by a walker, thus implying that the infection was in them already, since they had consumed his flesh. Chris managed to avoid panic among his ranks, and convinced the group to hunt for the healthy ones, using Dale as a bait to lure them out of the church. The plan succeeded, and one of the other survivors, Glenn, was shot in a leg; the Hunters, however, weren’t able to take any of them away, so they started besieging the church. The situation led the leader of the group, Rick Grimes, to try and negotiate with Chris, but the Hunters’ leader, sure of his position, didn’t agree on any term. Unfortunately, the group was stronger than Chris thought, and immediately after his refusal, a sniper, Andrea, blasted off one of Greg’s ears. It was the beginning of a devastating counterattack.

Greg is a silent and sullen man, who never speaks much, but nevertheless benefits from the trust of Chris and the rest of the Hunters. Physically imposing, he’s the strongest member of the Hunters, and is also the most skilled one with a gun: this makes him the strong arm of the group, a silent but deadly presence always guarding over his teammates, and stalking on the preys before the hunt begins.