The Prisoners (The Walking Dead)

Inmates and guards surviving the apocalypse inside a prison.

The Prisoners are fictional characters appearing in both the comic book series The Walking Dead and its television adaptation. They consist of inmates and guards who managed to survive the initial zombie outbreak while trapped inside a prison.

In the comic book series, news broadcasts gave the prisoners and guards a basic awareness of the outbreak while Rick Grimes was in a coma. Most guards eventually abandoned the facility, leaving the inmates to fend for themselves. Around the same time, walkers breached the prison and began killing inmates. Some guards freed the prisoners, and together they fought their way out, suffering heavy losses. By the time Rick’s group arrived, only four survivors remained, locked in the cafeteria.

Conflict arose when one prisoner, Thomas Richards, murdered Rachel and Susie Greene, Hershel Greene’s twin daughters. Another prisoner, Dexter, was wrongly accused because he was the only inmate arrested for murder (though Thomas had also been convicted of murder, having lied about being jailed for tax fraud). Thomas later attempted to kill Andrea and Patricia. Andrea survived with a missing earlobe and two scars, and Rick saved her, allowing Andrea to beat Thomas severely. Maggie stopped Thomas’s second attack on Patricia by emptying her firearm into him. At Hershel’s request, Thomas’s body was thrown to the walkers outside, where it was devoured. Later, a walker tripped on Thomas’s skeleton.

After Thomas’s death, Dexter and Andrew tried to force Rick’s group out, causing walkers to flood the courtyard. Rick shot Dexter, claiming it was friendly fire, and Andrew surrendered before fleeing outside the gates to die. The only prisoner who sided with Rick, Axel, became a trusted member until he was killed during Woodbury’s second assault on the prison. In The Fall of the Governor, Andrew was found as a zombie and killed by Lilly Caul.

In the Telltale Series video game, a police officer tells Lee Everett that he once transported Thomas Richards to prison after Thomas was convicted of murdering his wife. The officer recalled Thomas pleading innocence but described him as one of the worst transports, noting the police caught him cutting up his wife’s body.

In the television series, the prisoners first appear in “Sick,” witnessing Rick amputating Hershel’s leg after a walker bite. Rick offered to clear a cell block in exchange for half their food. Tomas killed Big Tiny after a walker scratch, then twice tried to assassinate Rick during the cell clearing. Rick killed Tomas with a machete and chased Andrew, locking him in a walker-filled courtyard.

Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog then held Axel and Oscar at gunpoint. Axel begged for his life; Oscar refused to beg. Rick’s group allowed them to stay in another block, but the two found it disturbing and begged to join the main group. T-Dog sympathized, but Rick held to their original deal.

Later, a walker horde entered the courtyard, killing T-Dog and Lori. When alarms sounded, Oscar explained the backup generators were powering them and led Rick to shut them down. Andrew, having survived, had let the walkers in and turned on the alarms. He attacked Rick in the generator room and tried to convince Oscar to kill Rick, but Oscar killed Andrew instead.

Axel and Oscar were then allowed to stay. They helped dig graves. Axel volunteered to go to Woodbury but stayed to protect the prison; Oscar went instead. During a rescue mission for Glenn and Maggie, Oscar was shot dead by a Woodbury soldier.

Axel tried to win the group’s favor, flirting with Beth and Carol, and was saddened by Oscar’s death. He helped fortify the prison and became friendly with Carol, revealing he was sentenced for trying to rob a convenience store with a toy gun, though police found his brother’s real gun and assumed it was his. The Governor killed Axel with a shot to the head during a surprise attack.

In The Walking Dead: Destinies, Daryl and Carol find Andrew while clearing the prison. The player can choose to kick him out or let him join. Regardless, Andrew later betrays the group and tries to take the prison. Depending on the player’s choice, Andrew either kills Carol directly or causes Lori’s death in childbirth. In a final duel in the generator room, Andrew is killed by Rick or Shane.

For the television series, Lew Temple portrayed Axel.

Quick Facts

Series

The Walking Dead

First

Comic:
"Issue #13" (2004)
Television:
"Seed" (2012)

Portrayed by

Lew Temple (Axel)
Vincent M. Ward (Oscar)
Markice Moore (Andrew)
Theodus Crane (Big Tiny)
Nick Gomez (Tomas)

Adapted by

Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead)

Facts from the source article.

Casting and television series reception

Andrew was portrayed by actor and rapper Markice Moore. He had originally auditioned for the pilot episode for the role of T-Dog, which went to IronE Singleton. Moore was later cast on season 3 as Andrew through his agency. He said production was very hush hush about season 3 and he did not know he booked it officially until a week before shooting.

He was elated and could not believe it when his manager, Gail Tassell, called to tell him the good news. Per Glen Mazzara, Andrew is really Tomas' right-hand man, and these guys are the ones who have been intimidating Axel and Oscar. Lew Temple was cast as Axel. He described Axel as a gregarious Southern redneck-biker type with a big heart and a sense of compassion for his fellow man, but not as meek as he might appear.

Axel had to survive with four other hardened criminals, sans Oscar, and this brave new world was entirely different for him. He wanted to associate and assimilate into the group of survivors, to the point of trying too hard to be accepted, and had a wry sense of humor and ironic quick wit. Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club, wrote that things become sort of uncomfortable in the scene in Sick where Rick chases Andrew into a courtyard full of zombies and locks the door, noting that while Rick does not actually kill Andrew, it is a cold, cruel move indicating a growing chill in Rick's character.

Lesley Goldberg of The Hollywood Reporter noted that in Killer Within, Rick's decision to lock Andrew out amid a sea of walkers came back to bite the group in a major way. Glen Mazzara felt that this decision would haunt Rick, as Rick believed he was committing an act of murder to save the group and that murder led to deaths within his own group and forced his own son to put down his mother. Laura Hudson of the Los Angeles Times considered the identity of the mysterious figure breaking open the lock on the prison gates to be not that much of a mystery if you consider how many black guys there are running around outside the prison with vendettas against Rick.

Ted Pigeon of Slant Magazine described the episode's opening sequence as having a dreamlike, foggy setting and a conspicuously waist-down perspective of the saboteur, with a peculiar sense of disconnect underlining the implications of what is being depicted, ending with a single close-up of a heart placed on the cold cement.