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Trooper Sanborn (first name unknown) is an antagonist and a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's The Walking Dead. He is a resident of the Commonwealth who serves as a soldier for the Commonwealth Army. He served as the secondary antagonist of the episode "Faith".
Overview[]
Sanborn appears to be among the cruelest and most heartless soldiers of the Commonwealth Army. He is quick to resort to violence to keep the prisoners in line, such as when Negan is trying to cut a deal with Roberts, Sanborn quickly hits Negan with the butt of his gun and beats him. Notably, Roberts initially seemed to try to get Negan to back off through conversation alone and only got violent when Sanborn stepped in escalated things. When Annie tries to intervene, he has no qualms hurting her as well, despite her being pregnant. He appears to have a rather condescending and arrogant tone, believing he can do whatever he wants due to his higher status and constantly tells the prisoners to know their place. During Negan's execution, when the prisoners' rebel against them, Sanborn is the only one who seemed to have no qualms putting them all down, even sadistically smiling over it, and was also the only one to not turn on the Warden. When Roberts aims at the Warden, Sanborn steps in to try to stop him, however his loyalties towards the Warden ends up getting himself killed.
Pre-Apocalypse[]
Location Unknown[]
Nothing is known about Sanborn's life prior to or as the outbreak began.
Post-Apocalypse[]
Ohio[]
At some point during the outbreak, Sanborn joined a community in Ohio.
Season 11[]
"Faith"[]
While working at the railroad tracks outside of Alexandria, Negan spots Annie nearby and, ignoring Ezekiel, approaches Roberts and offers to pick up a couple of extra shifts so that his wife can have her workload loosened. Negan appeals to Roberts personally who appears to consider it before they are interrupted by Sanborn. After being told that Negan is mouthing off, Sanborn decides that they need to show him his place and hits Negan with the butt of his rifle. Negan attacks Sanborn, but he is knocked to the ground by Roberts and kicked in the gut. Seeing her husband's predicament, Annie rushes in to intervene and shoved to the ground by Sanborn and is dragged away with him after a brief scuffle as Roberts keeps Negan from intervening at gunpoint. Hidden in the bushes nearby, a worried Daryl and Carol observe these proceedings.
As Negan and Ezekiel talk with Tyler Davis, Roberts and Sanborn enter and drag Negan to his feet when he refuses to go with them until they tell Negan where his wife is and leave with him.
As the prisoners lay in their bunks that night, Sanborn and several other soldiers burst in, yelling for everyone to get outside immediately. The prisoners are all led to the windmill where the soldiers shine spotlights on them and the Warden, standing in front of Ezekiel and looking at him, announces that there's a traitor in their midst, someone who thinks that he's above the rules. Roberts and another soldier lead out Negan who has admitted to spearheading a rebellion, although any co-conspirators will be given the benefit of the doubt as the Warden trusts that they were not acting of their own free will. As such, only Negan will be punished, but they all need to see and remember. Annie breaks free and runs towards her husband, sobbing, but she is restrained, and Negan reassures his wife that it's alright. The Warden has Negan put on his knees in front of the windmill to be executed by a firing squad while the prisoners murmur to themselves about how they knew that Negan couldn't be trusted and was a liar and Annie pleads for her husband's life to no avail. However, before the Warden can give the order to fire, he notices Negan smirking and, unwilling to let Negan martyr himself, grabs Annie and adds her to the execution. Negan desperately pleads for the Warden to leave Annie alone and take only him, but the sadistic man is determined to make Negan feel this punishment. Ezekiel is conflicted watching this while Negan pleads with Roberts, who has a family, not to do this, causing a moment of hesitation before he proceeds.
Unwilling to allow Negan to be executed, Ezekiel moves in between the firing squad and Negan and Annie, standing in their way. A number of the other prisoners quickly follow Ezekiel's lead, including Magna, Kelly, Princess, Tyler, and Nabila, creating a human wall between the soldiers and Negan and Annie. The Warden admits that he admires their bravery, but he nevertheless orders his men to shoot them all. Noticing most of the soldiers hesitating at being ordered to murder so many people, Ezekiel pleads with them that "you don't have to do this! This world is broken, but we don't have to be." Realizing that Ezekiel is right, Roberts lowers his gun and turns to the rest of the soldiers who follow his lead. Roberts turns his gun on the Warden, but Sanborn aims at him in return, causing Roberts to shoot him dead. The Warden grabs Kelly and tries to escape by using her as a hostage as Roberts and the prisoners try to stop him. However, Daryl and Connie come up from behind the Warden and Daryl stabs the Warden in the back, incapacitating him and retaking Alexandria from the Commonwealth.
Negan prepares to kill the Warden with a rock, but he's stopped by Rosita. Rosita demands to know where her daughter is, but the Warden refuses to answer. Seeing Sanborn reanimate, Rosita grabs him and holds the walker over the Warden's face, once again demanding to know where her daughter is. With a smile, the Warden sadistically tells Rosita that she will lose everything, and Rosita furiously shoves the zombified Sanborn into the Warden's face which Sanborn begins devouring, killing the Warden. Rosita walks away, leaving Sanborn to eat the Warden as her friends, the soldiers and former prisoners watch in shock and horror at the brutal death.
Sanborn is subsequently put down by Daryl, Carol, Maggie, Rosita, Gabriel or Connie.
"Family"[]
Rosita walks past the corpses of Sanborn and the Warden which are lying in front of the Alexandria windmill. As she passes Sanborn, Rosita grabs an extra clip for her stolen AR-15 off of his belt.
Death[]
- Killed By
- Himself (Caused)
- Roberts (Alive)
After Sanborn refuses to stand down, he is shot dead by Roberts. He reanimates shortly thereafter.
- Rosita Espinosa (Zombified)
- Daryl Dixon (Zombified)
- Connie (Zombified)
- Carol Peletier (Zombified)
- Gabriel Stokes (Zombified)
- Maggie Rhee (Zombified)
Sanborn is later put down by Rosita, Daryl, Connie, Carol, Gabriel or Maggie.
Killed Victims[]
This list shows the victims Sanborn has killed:
- Himself (Caused)
- The Warden (Infected)
- Possibly numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people
Relationships[]
Allies[]
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Enemies[]
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Appearances[]
TV Series[]
Season 11[]
Trivia[]
- Sanborn's fate at the end of "Faith" is ironic: he is shot and killed while trying to defend the Warden, having been the only soldier to try and do so, and ends up devouring and killing the Warden while zombified.
- Also, he is shot and killed by Roberts, the same person who helped him beat Negan to remind him of his place.
- Sanborn is possibly the last named kill for Daryl Dixon, Rosita Espinosa, Carol Peletier, or Gabriel Stokes in the TV Series, as it is possible one of them put him down after reanimation.
- Phil Armijo confirmed that he had been auditioning for the Walking Dead for 11 years, meaning mostly likely since Season 1.[1]