The single most important news event or development is the death of Lori Grimes. Headline: Lori Grimes Dies in Childbirth on Walking Dead Show.

If there's one thing that kept "The Walking Dead" going as long as it did, it was perhaps the morbid desire among fans to see how the characters they loved would inevitably die. With the surprising death of Sophia Peletier in Season 2, the hit AMC series made it clear that no one was safe from the inescapable dangers of its zombie apocalypse.

Season 1-2: The Early Deaths

Over the course of its first two seasons, Dale became the group's moral center, arguing for them to spare a captured enemy in one of his final acts before his death. He was gutted, metaphorically speaking, when Rick and the rest of the group chose execution — and was later gutted literally by a walker while patrolling at night.

Daryl Dixon shoots him in the head before he turns, poetically preserving his humanity in the same way Dale wanted the group to preserve theirs.

Season 2-3: The Rise of Shane and Lori

In the episode after Dale's death, Rick decides that the captive should be spared to honor his memory. Shane Walsh disagrees. He murders the man and attempts to make it look like he escaped, further driving a wedge between him and Rick.

When Shane brings his old friend into the woods to stage a similar 'accident,' Rick realizes it's a setup for murder. Shane believes killing Rick will allow him to reunite with Rick's wife, Lori. She's pregnant, and, as is TV law, one of them is the father.

Season 3-5: The Governor and Merle

Speaking of Lori Grimes and her inconvenient post-apocalypse pregnancy, the series grants her no mercy throughout the entirety of the process. She eventually winds up going into labor while the group is separated in a prison and attempting to survive a horde of walkers.

The same episode also claims the life of IronE Singleton's T-Dog.

And if that weren't agonizing enough, complications during the improvised delivery force Lori to undergo an emergency, unmedicated C-section, courtesy of Maggie Greene. Baby Judith survives — Lori does not, succumbing to blood loss.

Season 5-11: The Final Acts

After being left to die in Atlanta by the group at the beginning of Season 1, Michael Rooker's Merle Dixon returned to "The Walking Dead" in Season 3 with a chip on his shoulder and a blade for a hand.

He was a real sonuva under the leadership of the Governor, but had a last-minute change of heart thanks to Danai Gurira's Michonne. On his way to deliver her to his psychopathic boss, he realizes how far he'sa been led astray and lets her go.

He then attempts to kill the Governor himself, only to be caught by the Woodbury soldiers during his assault. The Governor shoots him in the chest, leaving him to turn into a walker that his brother, Daryl, must tragically kill.