(CNN) The following contains spoilers about the Nov. 25 midseason finale of "The Walking Dead."

Three weeks after saying goodbye to Andrew Lincoln, "The Walking Dead" closed out its fall run by apparently saying goodbye to another significant character -- a departure, at this point, the AMC series can ill afford.

"Apparently," it's worth noting, because the series has continued to play fast and loose with deaths, including its latest fake-out, which saw Lincoln's Rick Grimes character seem to die, only to be miraculously saved, in order to revive him in a planned series of movies

What has become crystal clear, since that much-ballyhooed exit, is that AMC's one-time hit is running on fumes -- relying on a small core of established characters while trying to establish a handful of new ones who, thus far, have provided little incentive to tune in.

In the past, "The Walking Dead" stayed fresh -- and unpredictable -- by killing off characters with some regularity, a reminder that this lawless world was one where death represented a part of life.

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