The Elijah Detail That Bothers The Walking Dead Fans

Watching TV and movies requires that we suspend our disbelief, but the problem is the line between "believable" and "distractingly fake" is subjective, and everyone's taste is different. Walking this line is especially difficult for a show like The Walking Dead; on the one hand, it's a horror show that relies on memorable characters. But it's also a post-apocalyptic story that invites the viewer to consider how they would react to life in a zombie apocalypse. So, whenever a new character shows up with a cool new outfit, some fans are bound to point out its limitations for the undead armageddon.

Fans first met Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) in the sixteenth episode of season 10, "A Certain Doom." This was originally supposed to be the season 10 finale before the COVID-19 pandemic forced post-production to hit pause, and AMC was forced to push its release date from April 12 to October 4. But to make up for it, AMC added six "bonus episodes" to the tenth season, which began airing on February 21, 2021. So fans have been waiting for over four months to learn more about the mysterious Elijah. The character made a strong first impression back in October, but not always for the right reasons. While many fans enjoyed meeting The Walking Dead's latest post-apocalyptic badass, some were hung up on his outfit.

Fans first meet Elijah when he shows up out of nowhere to save Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), Aaron (Ross Marquand), and Alden (Caleb McAuffle). He's the latest cool character to use a martial arts weapon; in his case, two Japanese sickles called kama. He's loyal to Alexandria survivor Maggie (Lauren Cohan), and he's adept at taking down both Whisperers and zombies. But Reddit user greatness101 couldn't get past the mask. "It's just so impractical to wear out like that while trying to be alert for enemies as well as the walkers," they wrote in a reddit thread discussing the episode. "It hinders your vision, hearing and smell for no reason at all except for the cool factor." Other redditors pointed out how impractical it would be to wear a mask and sweats in the Virginia summer. 

User greatness101 had tried to give the show the benefit of the doubt. "I thought he wore it because maybe his face was disfigured somehow and he was self-conscious about it. That I could understand. But he removed it and nothing was wrong, so I just don't get why he's wearing it." All valid points. Of course, asking questions about Elijah's wardrobe choices only leads to a slippery slope of more questions like, "Why does Negan also wear a leather jacket in the Virginia summer?" or "Wouldn't Michonne's samurai sword break after a while?" or "Why are dead bodies coming back to life and eating the living, generally speaking?" Some questions just don't want to be answered.