Gabriel Stokes

Did You Know?

• Gilliam was initially reported to have joined the cast in an unknown role in May 2014.
• During the series' San Diego Comic-Con panel it was revealed that Gilliam would be playing the pivotal comic role of Father Gabriel.

Appearances

Before the dead rose, Gabriel was a priest at St. Sarah's Episcopal Church. When the outbreak began, he locked himself inside his parish, living on canned goods from the food pantry and hiding from the undead. He was a widower, and it is likely his wife died in the plague. To survive alone for months, he turned away his own congregation and other civilians when the attacks started, which spared him from internal conflict but left him drowning in guilt.

Rick's group first meets Gabriel after escaping Terminus. They are suspicious of his story, but he leads them to his church, where they stay. Gabriel blends in easily because the group is distracted by Ben killing Billy. He lets them remain while they search for the missing Dale. In the comic series, Beta kills Gabriel during the war with the Whisperers in issue 158.

In the television show, Gabriel appears in season five's "Strangers." Rick's group hears him screaming for help and finds him on top of a boulder, surrounded by three walkers. After they kill the creatures, he climbs down, vomits, and thanks them. They search him, he answers Rick's questions, and then leads them to his church.

He claims he has been alone since the outbreak began, surviving on food from a nearby town. When he admits he never raided the local food bank because it was overrun, Rick forces him to join a supply run there with Michonne, Bob, and Sasha. In the flooded basement, Gabriel panics after recognizing one of the walkers, and Rick saves him from being killed. Rick makes it clear he does not trust the priest, though Carl thinks Rick is too harsh.

Rick's suspicion grows when Gabriel confesses to having sinned in the past, and Carl finds scratch marks on the church's exterior walls, along with the words "You'll burn for this" carved into the wood. In "Four Walls and a Roof," Sasha accuses Gabriel of being responsible for Bob, Carol, and Daryl going missing, prompting Rick to grab him and demand a confession.