Spoilers for the April 8 episode. Poor Dwight on The Walking Dead has tried so hard to do the right thing and escape his past, but it keeps catching up with him. He can't run away from Negan. He can't kill Negan. He can't even double cross him without getting caught — nothing goes right for this once loyal follower of the man with the bat. What's Negan doing to Dwight on The Walking Dead? As of Sunday's penultimate episode, he's in a bit of a tight spot yet again.
It seems clear in the episode that Negan is playing his right hand men off of one another, but not how until Negan reveals who he picked up on the way back to the Sanctuary — Laura, a Savior who now serves as the only witness to Dwight's betrayal and massacre. It's wild that Negan would believe Dwight and continue to take him back after all of these absences and betrayals anyway, so the fact that his kindness was all a ruse makes a lot more sense.
Negan says that he isn't going to kill Dwight. He has something worse planned for him, something that is already in motion. Dwight has inadvertently sent bad information to Rick and the rest of the Alexandria/Kingdom/Hilltop survivors that will lead them right into a trap right in time for the Season 8 finale. For now, Dwight is quarantined in his quarters with armed guards waiting for further instructions.
So... what's the plan for Dwight? What exactly is worse than death, in Negan's eyes? Will Negan turn him in to a walker, like he did with Simon? It's not like Dwight has anything to lose that Negan can leverage over him. Not unless he's somehow found Dwight's wife Sherry in the woods as well. There aren't a lot of ways to get Dwight to betray the others. He's as alone in this world as can be. Negan may just want to infect Dwight and kill him slowly. He's been all murder by disease this season.
Maybe Negan has some kind of plan for Daryl. Even after all they've been through, Dwight has a kind of fascination with him. "I mean, they’re definitely not buddy-buddy," said actor Austin Amelio in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "but I do think that there’s more of an understanding between the two. Daryl was also first there when you meet Dwight and he’s sort of this mirror to his past." He's a good guy in a bad situation, and if the circumstances were different he could easily have ended up becoming Rick Grimes' BFF.
Chances are slim, but it's still possible that Dwight himself has some plans left in play, and can maybe finagle a way out of this mess. Maybe he'll finally have a streak of luck in this apocalypse. He does seem solidly on Team Rick in his heart, at least. "He’s really going to make that big of a move and it’s a huge move," said Amelio in the EW interview about Dwight's efforts to switch sides. "He is really willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of Negan and ultimately get his life back," he said. It's clear that Dwight doesn't care about killing his fellow Saviors to achieve his dreams, so there's hope left.
Unfortunately for Dwight, he's kind of at Negan's mercy in a major way leading in to the Season 8 finale. Hopefully someone over at Rick, Michonne, Maggie, Morgan, Carol, and Ezekiel's camp will figure out that their spy on the inside has been compromised. Whatever happens to Dwight next on The Walking Dead will not be a pleasant cake walk in the park, to mix metaphors up like one of Eugene's college concoctions.
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