Spoilers for The Walking Dead season 3 and mention of character deaths

AMC’s The Walking Dead brilliantly showcased how brutal the world can become when ravaged by the onset of a worldwide zombie apocalypse. Not only is the constant threat of its “walkers” enough to send most people over the edge, but there’s also the issue of just simply surviving when everything has been taken away. Of course, it’s not just the mindless zombies that the show’s characters needed to keep an eye on as The Walking Dead‘s biggest enemy was always humans and knowing who to trust.

As many fans saw throughout its 11 seasons, Rick and the gang had to make some hard choices about who they could let into the group and who needed to survive alone. In season 3, episode 6, the beloved character Michonne shows up at the prison carrying baby formula after Maggie and Glenn were kidnapped by Merle Dixon and dropped the supplies. Although it took Rick a long time to finally trust Michonne, she became an incredible addition to the team. However, things could have gone very differently for Michonne if Rick had decided to follow the same method he did in one brutal scene from season 3 that many fans have had to “skip” over due to how cruel it was.

Walking Dead Fans ‘Skip’ the Brutal Hitchhiker Scene From Season 3

In The Walking Dead‘s season 3, episode 12, titled Clear, Rick, Carl and Michonne head out on the road after coming to terms that they don’t have nearly as many weapons to take on the Governor’s heavily armed forces. While driving down a long stretch of road, the group notices a survivor hitchhiking along the side of the highway. Spotting the car, he yells for their help, but is ignored and continues to try and run after Rick’s car, but stops and falls to his knees, realizing they aren’t stopping for him. Later on in the episode, as the group makes their way back again, the helpless hitchhiker can be seen dead after zombies got him and all that’s left is his orange backpack.

In a post on The Walking Dead‘s Reddit page, user The-She-Creature revealed how much this particular scene got to them while showcasing 3 different scenes from that savage moment. The post saw a wave of other Walking Dead fans coming to comment about how they too hated this part, calling it “disheartening”, “cruel” and “annoying” that Rick couldn’t stop to help him in some way. One commenter even said that they have to “skip it” when rewatching the series because of what a “horrid way” for someone to go who seemingly needed support.

“People are important. That guy could’ve been a doctor, a dentist a mechanic, or an engineer. It always bothered me that they just ignored him. He might’ve been the most useful person they ever came across.”

One user stated that if Rick hadn’t eventually trusted Michonne, the group would have been worse off as she helped save members quite a few times, even Rick himself, so he should have given the man a chance, at the very least. However, after everything he and the others had just been through, trusting people was almost a death sentence, and Rick didn’t want that to happen again, so he did everything he could to keep them safe, which came at a high price.

The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 2 and Daryl Dixon Season 3 are set to air in the spring of 2025.