Denise Cloyd, The Walking Dead

Denise Cloyd (Merritt Wever)

Denise was introduced in the sixth season of The Walking Dead as a resident of Alexandria Safe-Zone. She was fairly reserved and remained largely to herself, presumably because of her anxiety. After she and Tara meet they grew steadily closer, which lead to them kissing and eventually dating.

After a couple of months of dating Tara told her she loved her and added that she didn’t have to reply. Denise said that she would when Tara came back from her two-week supply run. Denise admitted to other characters that she had chickened out of telling Tara she loved her before she went off on her supply run, wanted to make herself useful by recovering medicine. She was was then accidentally shot through the back of the head by an arrow, while out on her own run, and died.

Variety News Editor Laura Prudom wrote about her death:

“The show may not have punished her for her sexuality, but in killing her, the series still took away a rare TV character who identified as lesbian and was involved in a seemingly functional relationship with another woman.

With the proliferation of straight white dudes currently on the show (most notably Eugene and Abraham, who have felt increasingly expendable all season), it still chafes when the show opts to kill off underrepresented demographics.

[Denise] was literally in the midst of a personal epiphany when she was shot through the eye with Daryl’s crossbow bolt, and to add insult to injury, Dwight then admitted he wasn’t even aiming for Denise, but instead at Daryl in revenge for their previous encounter, making her death seem even more incidental and yet another example of a woman dying to serve as an emotional catalyst for a male character, rather than in service of her own story.”

Appearances:

• 9 episodes.

Female love interests:

• Tara Chambler (Alanna Masterson, lesbian, regular)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

No male love interests

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Regular)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.