The Walking Dead season finales were defined by curveballs in the story, action-packed sequences and out-of-the-blue deaths. The series finale of the AMC series was no different. The talking point in the aftermath of The Walking Dead Season 11, Episode 24, “Rest in Peace,” was Rick Grimes and Michonne’s return in the final minutes, confirming their status to set up their spinoff series The Ones Who Live. One moment that got swept under the rug due to the excitement of the former protagonist’s return was Rosita Espinosa’s death.

Played by Christian Serratos, Rosita had been a series regular on The Walking Dead since Season 4, Episode 10, “Inmates.” She was the spitting image of her comic counterpart, standing beside her fellow companions Abraham Ford and Eugene Porter in tiny shorts, crop top and hoop earrings. Her inconvenient wardrobe for the apocalypse was a little bit of a gift for the male gaze, but as time went on, she evolved into a character far more defined than her looks. As far as female characters go, she was among the best, displaying great complexity as a woman who embraced her sexuality, was fully capable of defending herself and was a loving mother to her daughter. Rosita was proof that women can have it all, so it broke fans’ hearts when she died in the final episode.

Rosita Espinosa’s Death on The Walking Dead, Explained

Rosita Died as a Warrior Saving Her Family

In “Rest in Peace,” the group works against Pamela Milton to remove her from her leadership position to install a fair democracy, but to stop a horde overrunning the Commonwealth. The ambulance carrying Rosita’s infant daughter, Coco, and other children crashes in the alley behind the hospital and soon becomes surrounded by walkers. Rosita, Eugene and Gabriel take no time to cut through the walkers and save the children, but the only way out of the remaining horde is by climbing a drainage pipe leading up to a window.

Rosita falls from the pipe with Coco strapped to her, and the pair fall into the horde. But Rosita manages to fight her way out, fooling Gabriel and Eugene to believe that she made it out safely. Later, however, a sickly looking Rosita reveals to Eugene she was bitten by a walker in the fall. Because the bite is on her left shoulder, there’s nothing that can be done to save her. Rosita and Eugene keep the secret until after the defeat of Pamela and the horde, as it can take a few minutes to two days for the infection to fully turn a person into a walker. Rosita dies peacefully in bed surrounded by her loved ones, most of all Eugene, whom she speaks her last words to: “I’m glad it was you in the end.”

Rosita refers to Eugene preventing her from turning into a walker, but also that he was the last person she saw before she passed. The two are each other’s oldest living friends, having lost Abraham in the Season 7 premiere. Eugene’s promise to keep her human even after death makes her proud to see his growth over the years, from a lying coward who couldn’t kill a single walker to a brave companion she was glad to call her best friend. A year later, Eugene names his own daughter “Rosie” after her. Rosita is also honored on a memorial plaque of people who lost their lives in the walker invasion.

How Rosita Died in The Walking Dead Comics

Rosita’s Life Was Cut Short and More Brutally in the Comics

As fitting as it was to end the series that had one of the most kill counts in television history, by killing off such a fan-favorite character, Rosita’s death never seemed to be in the original plan. Serratos was the one who suggested Rosita should die in the finale, and showrunner Angela Kang granted her wish. Serratos told Entertainment Weekly following the finale that there was speculation among the cast that nobody was going to die in the finale, so she took it upon herself to “break [the fans’] hearts one last time:”

“It tugging at your heartstrings was something that I really fell in love with about the show. And I just really wanted people to have that emotional experience in our finale, especially. I think a show that was about possibly losing your loved ones, you want to lose somebody at the end. I know it sounds so dark, but I feel like the show, we owed it to the fans to break their hearts one last time, if that makes sense.”

It’s typically sad for many actors to see their characters die, but Serratos wanted to have closure for her character. After all, there are many Walking Dead characters who are still hanging around because they refuse to die. But if The Walking Dead had faithfully adapted every storyline from the comics down to every last detail, Serratos would never have had a say in Rosita’s death. In fact, Rosita would’ve died in Season 9, Episode 15, “The Calm Before,” when Alpha kills many survivors of the Coalition and puts their heads on spikes to draw a border.

In the TV show, Tara and Henry were the big deaths in the pike scene, but in the comics, it was Rosita and Ezekiel. The infamous event took place in The Walking Dead #144 and Rosita’s death, in particular, was much more awful because she was pregnant. The cruel act marked Alpha as the most bloodthirsty villain of the comics who could never be forgiven. At least in the show, Rosita had time to be with her daughter before her peaceful death, as opposed to the psychologically scarring death she received in the comics.