The Walking Dead star Seth Gilliam breaks down Father Gabriel’s surprising The Ones Who Live return

We knew more The Walking Dead characters would be popping up on spinoff The Ones Who Live, so it wasn’t a surprise when a hooded figure shuffled out of the darkness at the beginning of this week’s fifth episode, titled “Become.” However, who it was, was a surprise: Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam), who hasn’t been seen since the Walking Dead series finale last year.

It’s a surprise return made only more poignant by the structure of the episode. Spoilers past this point, but the hour follows two timelines. In one, following directly up on the end of last week’s episode, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) think they’ve escaped from the CRM (Civic Republic Military), only to discover they’re being pursued by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). And despite it looking touch and go for a moment there, Jadis dies after getting bit on the neck by a walker.

Meanwhile, we’re jumping back three years (to start) as Jadis and Gabriel – who had a brief romance on The Walking Dead – reconnect one day each year. Gabriel doesn’t know about the CRM, and tries to offer her advice as her loyalty to the organization grows stronger. They share a kiss. And by the end, we loop back to the present as Gabriel waits for her to show up… But she never does.

“I thought that it was a beautiful nod to Same Time, Next Year, that they would get together once a year and he could be her confessor in a sense, and still maintain the relationship,” Gilliam told Bam Smack Pow. “Because I thought their relationship was short-lived on The Walking Dead, but it was very intense and had a profound impact on Father Gabriel, so it was exciting to be able to come back and explore that.”

To find out more about Gilliam’s return, putting together the episode, and whether he’ll be back again as Father Gabriel, read on.

I'm curious about the real world timeline here. So you finished Walking Dead in 2022, The Ones Who Live began shooting in 2023. So when did you know you were returning as Gabriel? When did you find out?

Maybe… Two weeks before I shot it?

So what was your reaction then, when you found out that they wanted you to come back as Gabriel?

I was pretty excited. I was especially excited about the opportunity to work with Pollyanna again and to revisit that relationship between Father Gabriel and– I don't know what to call her actually, I'm torn. I'm going to go with Jadis because– Well, no, Anne… With her. I was very excited to work with her again, and I thought that it was a beautiful nod to Same Time, Next Year, that they would get together once a year and he could be her confessor in a sense, and still maintain the relationship. Because I thought their relationship was short-lived on The Walking Dead, but it was very intense and had a profound impact on Father Gabriel, so it was exciting to be able to come back and explore that.

When you got back on set, what was it like hopping back into the costume? Did it feel like putting a second skin back on again, or was there any trepidation there since you had put the role behind you for a while at this point?

No, I was pretty excited. It took a while for me to see the character as I was reading the script, but once I got to the wardrobe and the fitting and the contact lens fitting as well, out in Jersey at the sound stages that they had set up, it was like putting on an old suit that had been dry-cleaned and was ready to go for you.

Did you find any differences between filming The Ones Who Live and the main Walking Dead show, other than obviously only working with one cast member? Or at this point a set a set for you?

The only difference was the weather really, was the temperature. It was colder than the world of The Walking Dead was for me out in Georgia, being in New Jersey in March. But aside from that, the exuberance from the crew was pretty much the same. The commitment level, the intensity level was very much the same, and it was a smaller crew and we were out in the woods. They made it happen then. They turn night to day, day to night, they make it happen. I'm amazed at the ability of crews on pretty much on all the shows that I've done to make the magic happen all around the actors.

Not to spend too much time on this, but I visited the set down in Georgia and I know how hot it can get. Was it nice not to be sweating your butt off shooting this?

[Laughs] Yeah, it was very nice. I had tricked myself into believing that that was part of the character, that he was always uncomfortable. You don't have to always be uncomfortable.

There feels like a high level of difficulty here because you're playing him on individual days over the course of three or so years. How do you keep all that straight on set, particularly when it comes to the emotional arc of Gabriel? Somebody who I believe in this time period, it's already set because it's taking place semi-concurrently with The Walking Dead.

I pretty much relied mostly on [showrunner] Scott [M. Gimple] and [EP] Denise [Huth] to keep me abreast of where we were timeline wise and where Father Gabriel may have been psychologically speaking. Emotionally speaking, he's a reactive character. He doesn't lead with his heart. The emotions are what he comes to rely on lastly, so I didn't need much guidance in that regard, but I did need some help and understanding where we were time-wise in relation to The Walking Dead. And mostly that's a trust game that you have to play with the people who are creating the story and the character, that they've done that thinking on it. And Scott, to his credit, always does, so every question that I had, he had an answer for it and he wasn't reaching for it. He knew, so that was very helpful.

Just because I was trying to figure it out while I was watching, does all of this take place during the season nine time jump? Or is there some overlap with the episodes either before or after that?

I took it to be that there was some overlap, but that just made it more exciting for me personally. I'm not sure how that actually comes across.

No, I think it works. You can definitely get the intensity and the literal and figurative hunger that's coming through in the scenes. You mentioned this earlier, but we only got to see a little bit of Jadis and Gabriel, their relationship on TWD. What do you think it is that draws these two very disparate characters together?

They're both wounded in a way, and they have very different ways of dealing with healing those wounds, but they recognize it in one another, in each other. Father Gabriel is one of the strongest characters I've ever played because of his ability to overcome what are deep emotional and psychological wounds.

And you touched on this a little bit before as well, but working opposite Pollyanna Mcintosh again, even though both characters have grown exponentially, not just over the course of these days, but the scenes, what was that like revisiting that acting relationship?

It was great. I love working with Pollyanna. I love her energy. I love her creativity. I love her playfulness. I love her willingness and her bravery. And mostly [I love to] just sit back and watch, because I know that on any given take, you're going to get at least 12 different things that you can play off of. It's not going to be repetitious, it's going to be fresh, it's going to be new, and it's going to make sense for the characters that we're play.

Pivoting off of the word play, I love in this episode that with a small exception, we get one walker wandering in towards the end, it's really just two people talking, having a conversation over time and growing. What was it like rehearsing that? Was it more like a play or was it still on that TV schedule?

No, we had the time, we took the time, it was out in the woods in New Jersey and the smaller crew, so we took the time. It did play out like a play in terms of the rehearsals and how we were going to shoot it, what angles and all that stuff. [Director] Michael Satrazemis has a great eye for framing simple conversations.

I've watched every episode of all of these shows, but I'll admit I was suckered into thinking they were just bringing you back to kill you off in this episode.

[Laughs] Yeah.

Did you have the same reaction reading the script?

No. No. I knew beforehand that Scott wasn't asking me to come back just to play one and done, and so I didn't fear for the character's demise, but I did think that it was a great moment, particularly for Pollyanna to play.

In the final scene we see Gabriel alone sitting there waiting for Jadis, getting darker over time. Do you think at this point, does he know she's dead? Or what's going through his head? What's going through your head when you're playing that scene?

I was playing it like I believe that Father Gabriel would've showed up the next year at the same time and the year after that at the same time. I believe he's a character who's a great deal of hope and belief, and I think that it counterbalances his inner sadness.

A very general question for you, not having to do with the episode necessarily, but the last time I talked to you was towards the middle of the final season of TWD. What has it been like for you, this journey in terms of putting The Walking Dead to rest, saying goodbye to the show, taking a little time and then coming back here?

It was interesting for me because I don't really kill off characters that I've played in my head. I keep them in the recesses of my mind somewhere. And I didn't get the sense that Father Gabriel was done in The Walking Dead Universe because he was still alive at the end of the original show, The Walking Dead, and so I thought that there's always a possibility that he could come back in some capacity, somewhere in a dream or a flashback or whatever it may be. But you have to move on in order to take on new roles. You can't keep them all with you. I guess I call putting them in stasis somewhere and calling upon them if I have to make an appearance somewhere.

Maybe I'm reading too much into you saying you were coming back, not to just be a done and one… Is there more Father Gabriel in our future?

I don't know. I don't know. That's a question for Scott Gimple I imagine. The character's still alive, so anything's possible.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC and AMC+.