The final three episodes of The Walking Dead ’s just-completed second season were not lacking in fatalities, with Jeffrey DeMunn’s Dale, Jon Bernthal’s Shane, and newcomer Michael Zegen’s Randall among the characters who shuffled off this mortal coil (in some cases twice!).

“Hershel was originally going to be murdered by Randall in episode 12,” says Kirkman. “So we were going to lose Hershel, Randall, and Shane all in one episode, which I felt was really cool. But at the end of the day we had so much story to tell with Hershel, and he had such a central role in the ensemble, and Scott Wilson is such a phenomenal actor that we felt like it was overkill. So [he] got a reprieve.”