Allen (The Walking Dead)

Allen is a fictional character from the comic book series The Walking Dead and the television series, where he is portrayed by Daniel Thomas May.

Comic book series

Allen was the big-bearded husband of Donna and father of twins Billy and Ben. Before the dead rose, Allen was a shoe salesman gradually falling into debt. After the dead rose, Allen and his family joined the group of survivors encamped on the outer limits of Atlanta. Upon leaving, Allen suffered terribly when Donna was killed by zombies, sending him into a downward emotional spiral that he never truly recovers from. He confides in Rick and the two became close friends. Andrea tried to offer him comfort, due to her similar loss of her sister, but, Allen rejected her sympathy and maintained a bitter relationship with her. With time, he gradually gained a sense of acceptance, but this new-found peace was short-lived; Allen was bitten on the foot by a zombie, while helping the others clear out the remaining areas of the prison the group was staying in. In an effort to contain the infection, Rick made a violent and botched attempt at amputation. After a long struggle for survival against blood loss, and serious infections setting in, Allen died. After being shot in the head by Rick before he could reanimate, his body was buried outside the prison.

Television series

Fictional character biography

Allen is Donna's husband and Ben's father. In the episode "Made to Suffer", Donna has been bitten by a walker, and the three travel to the prison with Tyreese. Donna succumbs to her infection and dies, and Tyreese smashes her skull with his hammer to prevent her from reanimating. In the episode "The Suicide King", Allen proposes to take over the prison and Ben agrees, but Tyreese talks them out of ambushing the other group. Rick later returns, and Tyreese's group leaves the prison when Rick seems to demand for them to get out. Allen survives with them for several days in the forest, and in the episode "I Ain't a Judas", they are discovered by Andrea and Milton, the latter of whom takes them to Woodbury. In the episode "Prey", Allen and his son Ben join The Governor's army. Allen is shown to have dark intentions, in his grudge against Tyreese for making Donna revere him instead of Allen, and ultimately in his willingness to do anything to stay at Woodbury. In the episode "This Sorrowful Life", Allen is shown among other members of the Woodbury army setting up an ambush to attack Rick when he comes to the prison, which is disrupted when Merle makes a surprise attack on them; Ben is among the casualties of the attack. In the episode "Welcome to the Tombs", Allen is among the Woodbury army that attacks the prison; they are defeated by Rick's group, leading them to retreat. When the Woodbury army retreats and abandons their plans for takeover, Allen stands by The Governor's order to return to the prison, wanting to avenge his son's death. An enraged Governor kills the civilian army members, prompting a shocked Allen to draw his gun on The Governor. Allen does not shoot, however, and The Governor shoots Allen in the head, killing him.

In the fourth season episode "Live Bait", Allen's corpse is shown as the Governor and his henchmen leave the scene of the massacre.

Development and reception

Eric Goldman at IGN, in his review of "The Suicide King", contrasted the "very grounded, good-hearted" Tyreese and his sister Sasha with Ben and Allen with their "more nefarious plans".^[1] Zack Handlen, writing his review of "I Ain't a Judas" for The A.V. Club, calls Tyreese and his group ending up at Woodbury one of the episode's big character movements. He notes that these characters "in a quick, not completely forced conversation declare their allegiance to the Governor over crazy man Rick". Handlen does find it "hard to blame them, but it's also hard to get worked up about who they fight with, given how little of a connection they have with the prison folk, and how little we still know of them".^[2] Handlen, in his review of "Prey", felt that it made sense for Tyreese and Sasha to start questioning the Governor's motivations, but felt that the conflict between Tyreese and Allen made less sense because Allen was mostly unfamiliar as yet: "who the hell is Allen? I spent most of their first conversation thinking Tyreese had randomly decided to have a serious talk with a random member of the Governor’s armed guard, before realizing Allen was actually part of Tyreese's group from the beginning. We barely know Tyreese, know Sasha a bit less, and the other two are just warm bodies with names I have to look up online. It's hard to imagine giving a damn if Allen gets over his insecurity issues, even if the show wasn't gearing up to a big ole murder party."^[3] HitFix writer Alan Sepinwall commented in his review of "Welcome to the Tombs" that the Governor killed Allen because Allen, "for reasons passing understanding was too slow on the trigger".^[4] Josh Jackson, writing for Paste, commented that Allen was one of several characters that "have chosen the survival of the body over their souls".^[5]

References