Dale Horvath

*"Don't you see that if we do this, the people that we were, the world that we knew is dead? And this new world is **ugly**, it's **harsh**, it's survival of the fittest! **And that's a world I don't want to live in**."*
―Dale to the group about executing Randall.[src]
**Dale Horvath** was a survivor of the apocalypse and an original member of the Atlanta camp. Before the outbreak, Dale had planned to travel the country in his RV in honor of his late wife, Irma. During the downfall of Atlanta at the start of the apocalypse, Dale saved sisters Andrea and Amy, and looked after them. Sometime later, the three eventually found and joined a group of survivors at a camp outside the city.

Following Amy's death in a walker attack, Dale became very overprotective of Andrea, even forcefully preventing her from committing suicide in the CDC explosion, which strained their friendship. Even though Dale believed he saved her life, she claimed he took her choice away. After tense moments, Dale apologized, acknowledging it was not his decision to make.

Shortly after noticing a growing friendship between Andrea and Shane during the group's stay at the Greene farm, Dale finally confronted him about his erratic behavior and told him to leave the group. Dale also attempted to hide the guns from him but was unfortunately discovered in the process. Worried about Shane's actions, Dale warned his other companions to be careful of his lies, only to be received with skepticism.

When the group debated over the fate of a prisoner, Dale found himself at odds with everyone in arguing to spare his life. Dale was devastated by everyone's lack of humanity that he had declared that the group was broken. That night while walking through the field, Dale was unfortunately attacked by a walker and left mortally wounded on the ground. His friends surrounded him helplessly and Daryl mercifully put him down.

## **Pre-Apocalypse**

Dale was married to a woman named Irma for years. Early in their marriage, they had attempted to have a baby, but it ultimately miscarried, which led them to not try again. At some point later, Irma had developed cancer. Despite Dale bringing her to several doctors, she had already accepted her disease, much to his dismay.

Once he retired from his job, Dale planned to take his wife traveling with him across the country in a new RV he bought, but she died before that could happen. Her death brought Dale into a great depression and he found himself not caring about anyone around him. Eventually, Dale decided to take his RV and do the trip alone.

## **Post-Apocalypse**

When the outbreak happened around the world, Dale encountered Andrea and Amy in Atlanta and saved them as the city was overrun. Sometime later, they encountered and joined a campsite of survivors on the outskirts of the city. During their stay, Dale cared increasingly for the sisters and used his RV as a command post for the group.

* Season 1

## Death

Killed By
* Carl Grimes *(Indirectly Caused)*
* Zombie *(Caused)*

Dale was patrolling around the farm at night when he found a partially devoured cow. After hearing something behind him, Dale was ambushed by a walker that had freed itself from the swamp, after Carl had provoked it earlier that day. Although Dale prevented himself from being bitten, the walker ripped open his stomach.

* Daryl Dixon *(Out of Mercy)*

Hearing his cries for help, Daryl put down the walker as the rest of the group reached the dying Dale, who was bleeding from his wounds. Rick demanded him to be moved to the house to operate on him, but Hershel informed him that it was too late due to the magnitude of his wounds. With Rick being unable to put him out of his misery, Daryl took his gun, pointed it at Dale and apologized, before shooting him.

## Appearances

TV Series
Season 1
* "Days Gone Bye"
* "Guts"
* "Tell It to the Frogs"
* "Vatos"
* "Wildfire"
* "TS-19"

Season 2
* "What Lies Ahead"
* "Bloodletting"
* "Save the Last One"
* "Cherokee Rose"
* "Chupacabra"
* "Secrets"
* "Pretty Much Dead Already"
* "Nebraska"
* "Triggerfinger"
* "Judge, Jury, Executioner"

Season 9
* "What Comes After"  (Dream, Corpse)

## Trivia

* Dale is the first main character in the series to die.
	+ The character's death during the second season is because Jeffrey DeMunn decided to quit the show after original showrunner Frank Darabont was fired. However, the actor had a change of heart, but it was too late since they couldn't reshoot his death scene due to the budget.
* Ironically, Dale once stated that everyone has wanted to shoot Daryl. Later on, when Dale gets mutilated by a walker, Daryl was the one to mercifully kill him by shooting him.
	+ Dale was also Daryl's first human kill.
* Dale's death has a coincidental poetic quality to it. He dies right after protesting the killing of Randall Culver, insisting that they should give him a fair shot like any civilized society would do. After his death, the group begins to shed any semblance of old norms and societal conditioning, committing more and more morally questionable acts. For the Atlanta group, Dale's death truly was the death of reason and civilization.
	+ Dale is one of the only main characters from the Atlanta group to have never killed a living person.
* The titles of the final five episodes of Season 5 are all references to Dale's campfire story from Season 1.

## References

1. ↑ Secrets
2. ↑ Wildfire
3. ↑ Wildfire
4. ↑ http://tvline.com/2011/11/22/walking-dead-quit-season-2/