‘The Walking Dead’s Seth Gilliam Discusses Father Gabriel’s “Dark” Journey

On this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, our post-apocalyptic heroes make a surprising decision in their fight against The Reapers. Spoilers past this point, but Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) convinces Maggie (Lauren Cohan) that they should dress in zombie-skin masks, a la former enemies The Whisperers, in order to summon a herd against The Reapers. And for those who lived through The Whisperer War like Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), the prospect isn’t exactly savory.

“He feels like it’s a viable plan and one that could work, but it’s also extremely unsettling to him to try to look at the world through the Whisperers eyes,” Gilliam told Decider.

To find out more from Gilliam, including his hopes for how Gabriel ends the series, read on.

Decider: I know you all are often as in the dark, or maybe not quite as in the dark, as the rest of us out there in the viewing audience, but did Angela Kang and company lay out any of the broad strokes for you all?

Seth Gilliam: Angela laid out the broad strokes of essentially the first eight episodes to me. At that point, when we spoke, they hadn’t finished. They had a few different ideas for where the rest of the season would go for each character, but she hadn’t made any hard line decisions.

Well, given that Gabriel has survived and arguably thrived for way longer than many fans expected, given what happens to him in the comics… Have you been able to give any input into his overall and potentially final arc?

It’s not really something that I do as an actor. I’m a little old school, I believe that the writers write, the actors try to breathe life into the words that the writers have written, and the director shapes the story and the images. What if Gabriel did this, and what if Gabriel did that, is not really something that I concern myself with. I think it’s hard enough to try to make things come off the page and be real for the audience and impactful. I just try to do what I can with the material that I’m given.

Well, entering Season 11 then, where do you see him at, what’s his core mission at the point? It seems from my perspective that he’s at a very dark place right now.

Yes. I believe he is in a very dark place. I think at this point, his mission is to protect his family, his extended family, at all costs. I think it’s led him into dark territories and I’m hopeful that he’ll find a path to lightness, but I don’t know. Also, honestly it’s kind of fun playing a really dark, conflicted character.

We have the group versus The Reapers that definitely throw an interesting wrinkle here in terms of the scarcity mission that they’re trying to figure out. What, at this point do you think Gabriel’s view is on The Reapers?

I believe he thinks that they’re bad people that they’re driven by evil intentions, that they’re greedy beyond their need, and the world doesn’t need more people like them.

There was this pretty ominous line a few episodes back, something like, “God isn’t here anymore,” right before he killed that Reaper. Why does this, in particular, challenge his faith so much? Or is it potentially something that was broken all the way back to his incident with Mays in Season 10?

He’s been broken by the effect of the impact of the Whisperer War. Seeing what people had become and what they were capable of doing has really shocked and challenged him, and kind of broken his faith in humanity in a way.

Well, given that then, and this is jumping into this week’s episode, Negan hatched this whole plan essentially using the Whisperer’s techniques. We don’t get to see a lot of Gabriel’s view on that. Do you have a thought about how he feels about this Whisperer plan?

He feels like it’s a viable plan and one that could work, but it’s also extremely unsettling to him to try to look at the world through the Whisperers eyes.

How does he see his place in this mini group with Maggie, Negan and Elijah?

He sees himself as a warrior, and a soldier who is being called upon to be strong, even when he doesn’t feel it.

How about how Gabriel views Maggie at this point?

Father Gabriel sees Maggie as a survivor, who’s deserving of the utmost respect and belief. He sees her as a really viable leader because she’s survived in so many different ways in this ever changing world that they’re in.

What about Negan then?

Father Gabriel believes in Negan. He feels that there’s been a reclamation project for him over the years… He’s had some success with him, and he can trust that Negan will do what is necessary for the group, that he’s no longer just out for himself and doing what he wants to survive, and what he needs to survive. But he’s actually a very capable member of the group who can be reliable.

We get that great scene of Gabriel hiding in the bushes as some sort of man of faith on the Reaper side prays near him. What can you tell us about filming that scene, and also, if anything, about the potential upcoming priest battle?

[Laughs] The priest battle. A priest battle sounds like it would be really cool. Gabriel was taken aback that somebody can still have the fervor for God that he apparently sees in this opposing priest, and it’s somewhat confusing for him.

Broad strokes, what can you talk about with the emotional thrust of where we’ll see Gabriel go over the course of the season?

We’ll continue to see him be challenged by his apparent loss or lack of faith and trying to recapture a bit of the humanity that he’s lost from the war with the Whisperers.

What about Gabriel and Rosita? Is that doomed, or is there any hope for them going forward?

It’s hard to say whether it’s doomed or not, they’re at this point where there’s so few people left in the world and it’s like, you want to hold onto the people that you have. But then again, Rosita doesn’t have the greatest history with being a one woman, one man cat.

Before I let you go, I asked Ross Marquand about this a couple of weeks ago. Very surprisingly, he didn’t really answer specifically at all, but I’ll try with you as well. How does The Walking Dead end?

Angela didn’t share with me the overall storylines, we only really discussed up until about episode eight, because at that point the rest of the story had yet to be written or really called out of the many ideas that they had. I would hope that The Walking Dead ends with a closeup of Father Gabriel and his eyes happy.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC, and streams a week early on AMC+.

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