SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN SEASON 6 OF THE WALKING DEAD, PLEASE STOP NOW YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

One of my favorite shows is AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” It’s impressive how long it managed to stay consistently good — really good — across multiple seasons. Few series maintain such a high level of writing, production, and acting quality over time. Sure, there are others like “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones” that reached similar heights, but even “Game of Thrones” famously ran out of steam in its final season.

Of course, I’ve already watched every episode, but now I’m revisiting the series with my son and noticing a whole new layer of lessons and morals. These aren’t about technical skills like bow hunting, zombie disposal efficiency, or windmill construction. Instead, they’re more about the soft skills — those subtle, human elements of leadership, cooperation, and organizational resilience — that can be applied directly to the workplace.

In Season 6, Episode 2 we are introduced to a new character, Dana, I mean Denise.

Alt “I’m the doctor now”

Apparently she’s the new doctor. It’s her first day and she is thrust into a very stressful role. She went to med school but decided to go into psychology. Her introduction is so jam packed with information, context and foreshadowing its pretty incredible. In a subtle insight into her personality — she decided to go into psychology because she was having panic attacks and didn’t think she could handle being a surgeon. She seemingly confirms her decision by giving evident that “Pete didn’t want me here”. She holds this up as evidence that she couldn’t possibly be a good doctor and definitely not as good as Pete. Oh ho! The way Denise holds Pete up on a pedastal he must be a pretty swell guy — or at least a badass Doctor.

What do we know about Pete? Well he’s a drunk, wife beating surgeon desperate for alpha male acceptance and confirmation. He seems to be pretty good at his job — which he seems to stay sober enough to perform. He seems to be what I call a “high functioning alchoholic” — you know, kind of like Ulysses S. Grant — no joke. It’s amazing the Republicans won the war. Anyways. I digress. Peter likes to drink and he apparently is a mean drunk and unfortunately for his wife and two sons lives in the Zombie Acopolypse and has to live with the fact that he spend 10 years of his life becoming a badass surgeon only to slum it in a upper middle class cottage run by discount Martha Stewart. In his mind, he’s not living his best life. Sadly, he copes with this by sippin’ the sauce and beating his wife and kids.

The same Pete that foolishly attacked Rick Grimes and drunkenly attended Alexandria’s “Going Away Party for Rick” with a stolen Samarai sword which he used to mortally wound the husband of Alexandria’s Chief Human Resources Officer, discount Martha Stewart.

Alt

I mean, seriously, take the “W” man. They were gonna kick Rick out (or at least try to) —like the other Alexandria residents, I suspect he’s naive enough to believe that Rick will go willingly into the sunset. So why show up with a stolen Samurai sword with some fifth grade level revenge plan to take out your soon to be ex-communicated arch-rival — Rick Grimes? Oh, yeah, he was drunk off his ass Pete not badass stitch-em-up surgeon Pete. Got it.

“Pete didn’t want me here”

So clearly Pete’s got some issues — and apparently these issues were pretty well known by the leadership of the group. Namely, discount Martha Stewart. She even tells Rick as such back in Season 5, Episode 15.

Rick: “We have a problem with Pete.” Discount Martha Stewart sighs disappointedly and responds: “I hoped it would get better.” Rick is shocked: “You knew?” Discount Martha Stewart: “Pete’s a surgeon. He’s saved lives.”

Clearly Discount Martha Stewart has known about this for a long time and its been at the top of her mind. Rick came out blasting with zero context and she was already up to speed.

In Season 5, Episode 4, we saw another doctor at the hospital use Beth to murder one of his patients by telling her the wrong prescription which ultimately led to the death of the patient. It’s all made to look like an accident — the doctor tactfully using Beth’s perceived incompetence with the other members of the group to eliminate a potential rival. You see, we find out later, he knew the patient was a doctor. He assumed that if there was another doctor his status and position would be threatened.

Alt Beth confronting Dr. Edwards about his murderous act

This motive can be described as “eliminating the competition” to protect one’s own professional standing or status. In essence, it’s an act of self-preservation through sabotage, driven by fear that the presence of another qualified individual would undermine the perpetrator’s security and influence.

My theory is that Pete didn’t want Denise around for the same reasons that Dr. Steven Edwards murdered his colleague Dr. Trevitt at St. Ignacious. Pete knew that if there was an up and coming doctor around discount Martha Stewart would be less and less likely to tolerate his crap and he’d soon be packing his bags.

In the Zombie-ridden world of The Walking Dead, where the stakes couldn’t be any higher, withholding critical knowledge or skill sets is often a matter of life and death. Pete’s reluctance to have Denise around and Dr. Edwards’ sabotage of a rival doctor both spring from the same place: fear.

Outside of this setting, the scenario is still applicable. There’s no good reason to avoid sharing expertise or cross-training within an organization. Any refusal isn’t rooted in practicality or benefit; it’s a form of self-preservation through sabotage — a desperate bid to maintain status at the expense of the team’s strength and resilience. Ultimately, this kind of behavior does nothing but weaken the group, leaving everyone more vulnerable when true challenges arise.