'The Walking Dead' Had Many Brutal Deaths, but This Specific One Really Hurt for a Different Reason

The Walking Dead has had its fair share of brutal deaths over the years, with minds understandably going to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who bashed in the heads of Glenn (

Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) in that infamous introductory scene. However, not all deaths on the show need to be physically painful in order to have a lasting impact on the audience.

Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), a firefighter-turned-apocalypse-survivor, was fierce and pragmatic, even though she harbored her own scars after the countless losses during the apocalypse. In Season 7, it was her death scene that made Sasha iconic, wrapped in such quiet devastation and brutality

 that it lingered on our minds far past her final appearance.

Sasha Had a Quietly Brutal Death in 'The Walking Dead'

Sasha died in Season 7 after being captured by Negan and held at the Sanctuary. At this point in the show, Eugene (

Josh McDermitt) was on Negan's side in an effort for survival, creating bullets for the formidable tyrant. She tries to appeal to Eugene as a former comrade and convince him to get her access to a weapon, but instead, he gives her a suicide pill. The next day, Negan was planning to put on a show of brutality in Alexandria, using Sasha as a bargaining chip against them so they would execute one of their own. Instead, on the way there, Sasha lies in a casket, listens to music, and takes the pill, dying peacefully, so Negan loses his leverage. The plan was for her to reanimate and take Negan by surprise (and ideally attack him), thwarting his efforts.

When you think of Walking Dead deaths, they are usually memorable because they are a provocative, bloody gorefest that takes you by surprise. They certainly aren't take-a-pill-and-listen-to-music kind of deaths, but that's what makes Sasha's so devastating.

 There's a quiet and unassuming brutality to her fate. To the audience, it simply looks like she falls asleep, enjoying the music, until Negan opens the casket only to find a re-animated Sasha trying to chomp at his neck. The stark contrast between these two scenes holds its own staggering impact. Also, this was the first major character death since the over-the-top cruelty of Glenn and Abraham's murders, making it even more jarring and sinister.

'The Walking Dead' Makes Sasha's Death More Devastating Through Sacrifice

By no means was Sasha's death in The Walking Dead entirely on her own volition; it was the result of a series of unfortunate events, including being captured by Negan, given the pill by Eugene, and Negan's plans to use her. But compared to many deaths of the survivors, which were usually inflicted by walker bites or outright murder, Sasha's death had a very strong sense of sacrifice to it. She chose to swallow the bitter pill to save her companions from facing an awful decision (she could've chosen to join Negan like Eugene or just played along with the villain's plan to potentially survive), 

giving her quiet sacrifice, all alone, that no one actually witnesses, an even bigger gut-punch.

During the previous season, Sasha was slowly developing a relationship with Abraham, but it was cut short for two reasons. The first being his death in the finale. The second was their values: 

they both believed they were soldiers meant to protect the survivors to ensure the future of humanity. In one particularly harrowing conversation that is revealed as a flashback when Sasha is in the casket, she talks about how Maggie (Lauren Cohan), who was pregnant at the time, was the future, and she and Abraham needed to part ways to protect it. They shared one searing kiss before it was over. So, her sacrifice proved that she was willing to stand by her claims until her very last breath, making the moment even more devastating.

Sonequa Martin-Green Delivers a Devastating Death Scene in 'The Walking Dead'

What cinches the quiet rawness in Sasha's death scene is Martin-Green's performance. She is not at all overdramatic in playing Sasha's death and simply accepts it with the pragmatism we are used to in the character. In fact, 

she actually dampens her usual fierceness and accepts her fate with a quiet simplicity that crushes our hearts more than any screaming ever would. It both embodies the muted brutality of the scene and the sentiment of sacrifice, as if Sasha is giving herself over to something larger and more important than her. She's a soldier upholding her creed, and that's that.

Between the poetic eeriness of the casket and Martin-Green's solemn performance, Sasha's death is one that is hard to shake off after watching her walker-body emerge from the darkness. It was also one of the final shocking deaths in the flagship show

, as the series became riddled with exits from major characters and lost momentum, so it's a death that still resonates strongly. And giving one of the final deaths a sense of quiet morbidity and sacrifice makes it all the more devastating in the The Walking Dead franchise.