Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas is a fictional character from the horror drama television series The Walking Dead, which airs on AMC in the United States and is based on the comic book series of the same name. He was created by series developer Frank Darabont and portrayed by IronE Singleton. The character was first introduced in the first season as a member of the group that series protagonist Rick Grimes encounters in Atlanta. T-Dog was portrayed as a well-intentioned and kindhearted man towards his fellow survivors, although he struggles to prove his worth in the group. The character eventually adapts to the group and becomes one of Rick's right-hand men.
T-Dog is an original character in the television series and has no counterpart in the graphic novels. Singleton made several recurring appearances as the character in the show's first through third seasons. The character was ultimately met with a mixed reception, with the criticisms of professional reviewers claiming that T-Dog lacked character development and dialogue (particularly in the show's second season), while praise was directed towards his increased dialogue in the third season, and the heroic nature of his death.
Fictional character biography
Little background is given about T-Dog prior to the walker epidemic, but Glenn states that he helped a local church, driving its van and helping the elderly members of its congregation.
Season 1
T-Dog is one of the survivors that share the quarry camp outside of Atlanta. When Rick Grimes arrives in Atlanta, he is part of a scavenging group with Glenn, and Merle Dixon, and others hiding in a department store from a walker horde. They rescue Rick and seek shelter on its rooftop. There, Merle speaks in harsh and racist terms trying to assert leadership, but Rick subdues him and handcuffs him to the rooftop piping, giving the key to T-Dog. Rick and Glenn head off to secure vehicles to escape, and when they return, in their haste to leave the rooftop, T-Dog drops the handcuff key in a drain. Despite apologizing, Merle asserts T-Dog did that on purpose. As the last to leave the rooftop, T-Dog secures the rooftop door for Merle.
T-Dog stays with the larger group after they decide to leave the Atlanta area.
Season 2
As Rick's group heads to Fort Benning, they are held up by a blockade of cars. As they scavenge supplies, a horde of walkers nears, and the group takes cover; T-Dog slices open his arm on a doorframe while hiding. After the walkers pass, part of the survivors search for Sophia as she had run off during the horde's passing, but others stay behind, including Dale, who sees that T-Dog has become delirious from blood loss and potential infection, and finds painkillers and doxycycline antibiotics from a stash Merle had had. Eventually, the waiting group learns that Carl had been accidentally shot, and is being cared for by Hershel Greene at his farm, and the others are invited to stay there as they wait for Carl to heal. Once on the farm, Hershel tends to T-Dog's wound. T-Dog helps with tending to the farm during their stay and training the other members of the group in using guns. Eventually, a walker horde overruns the farm, and T-Dog escapes with the survivors of the group.
Season 3
After several months on the road, Rick's group finds a prison, and T-Dog joins Rick and others to clear out the complex of walkers. They come to find a group of five living prisoners, which initially try to claim ownership rights on the prison, but Rick coerces them to share. One prisoner is killed after a walker attack, and two others turn on the group; Rick kills one and the other, Andrew, escapes. T-Dog attempts to convince Rick to let the other two prisoners, Oscar and Axel, who have both sworn loyalty, to be part of the group but Rick remains cautious.
Andrew returns to the prison, leading a horde of walkers through a breach in the fence. As the walkers swarm the courtyard, T-Dog is bitten in the shoulder, but keeps fighting. He and Carol Peletier are separated from the group and forced to escape into the prison tunnels. With walkers approaching from both sides, T-Dog sacrifices himself by barreling in one set of walkers to give room for Carol to escape. After the walkers are dispatched, Rick's group accounts for their losses, including T-Dog, and they give him a proper burial, with Glenn stating that T-Dog was a hero that saved his life a thousand times before.
Development and reception
IronE Singleton, who played T-Dog, recalled: "when I was first cast in the show, I was told that I would do two, maybe three episodes, but I ended up staying on the show for three seasons. How miraculous is that? So, I'm very thankful for that." Singleton found it liberating as an actor to be cast in a role that was not based on a character in the comics, because "you start with a clean slate. There's nothing more liberating about starting with something that is not written. You pretty much create the history of that character and that character's life story. Whatever you do, whatever you come up with, whatever you decide on, you can go with it and, if the director or the execs they like it, then you'll stick with it." Singleton said that he didn't have any conversations with Robert Kirkman, Frank Darabont, or Glen Mazzara on how to develop his character, so "T-Dog basically had my life story. He grew up in the projects, in the city, and he was fortunate enough to get to college through a football scholarship and, eventually, academic scholarships. He majored in speech communications, the same as I did. I also majored in theater, but I did not attach that to T-Dog because it probably would've made him a little more dramatic, and we're already dramatic enough on TV. Then, he graduated from college, but didn't make it to the pros. He came close, but ended up getting a regular blue collar/white collar type of job."
Leonard Pierce of The A.V. Club commented in his review of "Guts" that IronE Singleton was "wildly overacting" and that T-Dog "isn't much more than a clown". IGN's Eric Goldman called T-Dog one of the new additions to the show that were not in the comic books that were "either overdone or completely un-engaging" in the first season.
IronE Singleton reprised his role as T-Dog in the second season premiere, "What Lies Ahead", and was promoted to the recurring cast. The Hollywood Reporter writer Tim Goodman commented on T-Dog in the episode as feeling "antsy and vulnerable", a feeling which is "a key underlying element to The Walking Dead, because the group of human stragglers begins to run into ever larger packs of zombies. That feeling of being outnumbered, of struggling with futility, is ever-present." Paste's Josh Jackson felt that the side-plot of T-Dog's injury takes a backseat to the events with Rick's family at the farmhouse in "Bloodletting". Ology writer Josh Harrison commented that T-Dog finds the news that he might die of blood poisoning "morbidly funny", and Nate Rowlings of Time added that "in a moment of meta-realization, he muses on how he’s the only black guy in the groupâ€"which typically means imminent death in most horror movies".
Starlee Kine of New York commented in her review of "Secrets" that with the mid-season finale as the next episode, there was "One episode to go and T-Dog has barely spoken all season". With "Pretty Much Dead Already", more reviewers began to comment on T-Dog not having a very prominent role on the show: Mark Maurer of The Star-Ledger noted that all the characters have "slim chances, even slimmer than T-Dog’s role this season"; Zack Halden of The A.V. Club quipped, "Oh hey, T-Dog is on this show! I forgot about him, much as the writers apparently did"; Time journalist Nate Rawlings said that he would "like to see T-Dog play a more active role in the next half season and perhaps learn a little bit about his past"; and Starlee Kine hoped that new writing staff on the show would bring "perhaps even a sentence or two for T-Dogg" [sic]. Nate Rawlings, in his review of "Judge, Jury, Executioner", added: "Until the writers give T-Dog something interesting to say, we’re going to track how long it’s been since he’s had anything but a throw away line. As of last night, the count stands at 7 episodes. The last time T-Dog said anything that remotely added to the plot was Episode 4 of this season, "Cherokee Rose" when he helped pull the disgustingly bloated walker out of the well." Digital Spy's Morgan Jeffrey noted in his review of the season finale "Beside the Dying Fire" that each of the major characters "gets their moment to shine - even T-Dog (Irone Singleton), who's barely said a word for the past six weeks".
Zack Handlen commented in his review of the third season premiere "Seed" that "T-Dog has lines, folks", and in his review of the next episode "Sick" Handlen said that T-Dog "still is just "the black guy with that name," but at least he's getting more lines". "Killer Within" signified the final appearance of IronE Singleton as a regular. Singleton was informed about his character's fate before production of the third season began, and received word of his character's imminent demise only a few weeks before filming his final episode, so he had to avoid arousing any suspicion from the public, particularly T-Dog's fans. T-Dog's death was heroic by design and reflected his personal life; Glen Mazzara stated that T-Dog's stint as a football player became evident as "he just heroically acts as a linebacker and just clotheslines these walkers, even at his own expense." Robert Kirkman commented that he and Mazzara decided to kill T-Dog because they "really wanted to put Rick and the group back on their heels. T-Dog had become a central part of Rick's strike team, so to speak. So, to have him go out in such a heroic way also shows the audience just how important and essential he was. Now they've lost this other key piece of their group. We really wanted to be coming out of this episode completely spent and unsure as to how to move forward. Losing T-Dog definitely helps that along. Plus: We definitely wanted to lose two people in this episode. We felt that having T-Dog die would make the audience think, "Oh my gosh, this is a crazy episode. We totally lost T-Dog!" It makes the death of Lori that much more unexpected." Singleton said about his character's "heroic" death: "When I read [the script], I was thankful that he would go out as a hero. It made me feel really appreciated."
The fate of T-Dog garnered favorable reviews from television commentators. Erik Kain from Forbes magazine found Lori's death especially difficult to watch, and was shocked by T-Dog's "sudden" death despite the fact that he "was never as prominent a figure" on the program. "As hard as these deaths were to watch," Kain wrote, "they also give me faith in the show." Even though he stated that T-Dog died "a hero's death", Michael Rapoport of the Wall Street Journal concluded that Lori's "gut-churning" demise was the more memorable. Ted Pigeon of Slant Magazine felt that the episode's "strong emotional undercurrents" were "a result of the sacrifice in both T-Dog's (IronE Singleton) final stand and Lori's decision to give birth despite the certainty that she won't survive the delivery". Time's Nate Rawlings called T-Dog's death "the most grusome [sic] human death in quite some time", after noting that "the only one willing to give the two inmates a chance was T-Dog. His character has been a frustrating part of the story. Last season, during the height of the languid days on the farm, T-Dog went entire episodes without speaking a line. He’s more than proven his worth as a loyal soldier, and he’s the only one who stands up to Rick and encourages him to bring the two inmates into the group.
Some reviewers presented more negative critiques. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club in his review felt the episode "stumble[d]" in how T-Dog and Lori were eliminated and in how the Woodbury storyline repeated what was already known. Halden commented in his review that "killing T-Dog and Lori earned the show an immediate thrill, but it also meant crossing off two potential sources of drama, people who had a history on the series, however thin or poorly developed that history might have been." According to HitFix writer Alan Sepinwall, T-Dog's sacrifice for Carol "didn't remotely have the same resonance as Lori's for the baby, because T-Dog has never been a character the writers have even pretended they wanted us to care about. When he started objecting to Rick's plans about the two remaining prisoners, it was shocking to simply hear him expressing an opinion of any kind." The Washington Post entertainment journalist Jen Chaney commented on his death by saying, "T-Dog, we hardly knew ye. No. Really. We hardly, hardly did. And that makes your death a real shame", and Bex Schwartz said farewell in her review for Rolling Stone magazine: "So long, T-dog. You were a good guy even if they forgot to write dialogue for you for the first two seasons."
References
