As soon as they start to spend more time on a minor character you know they're not long for the world. It's pretty rare that we're surprised anymore. It's kind of a running audience joke when you start to see someone getting a lot more screen time and development than they typically do.
Yeah it's been a big issue with the show since.. I'd say.. Alexandria. We "get to know" a random ass character with a bunch of forced development, they share their story, then die, usually brutally. I will say though, this time was one of the best in terms of "random person we don't care about dying", as it's usually someone we've never even seen before or maybe seen in a brief moment in a previous episode. I thought the dude (I think his name is Richard?) who died at the hands of Morgan was a pretty bad actor though and was cringing through some of his more emotional moments. Still, they get kudos for using him to give development to Morgan, so at least his death/slight development wasn't for nothing, as it usually is.
They're doing things in reverse, though. First, you build the DEVELOPMENT, over time, so when they die, we care.. even if it's a just little bit. I've lost count of how many people who've died in the last two seasons who I don't give two shits about or was actually rooting for their demise. But this episode was at least a decent improvement in the typical formula.
