Owen (portrayed by Benedict Samuel) is an antagonist in the TV series The Walking Dead. He is the leader of the Wolves, a band of apocalypse survivors that prey on other survival groups, taking everything they have for themselves. Cunning, greedy and violent, Owen believes that humanity doesn't belong within the walls of civilization any more and considers murdering survivors as "freeing" them. However, this philosophy is questionable as it appears obvious that Owen enjoys killing.
History[]
Season 5[]
Owen first appears in the episode "Conquer". While Morgan Jones has made camp in the woods and is sitting down to eat, Owen approaches him with a raised gun and sits down opposite him. He engages in conversation for a while before telling Morgan that he intends on taking everything he has, including his life. He signals a companion to come out of hiding, but Morgan is a skilled fighter and manages to knock out the two Wolves before locking them in a broken-down car.
At some point after his encounter with Morgan, Owen returns to a food cannery where he and the Wolves are encamped. They set up traps using the reanimated corpses of people they had killed, traps that Daryl Dixon and Aaron later fall into. While Daryl and Aaron survive the trapped cannery, Aaron drops several photos of the Alexandria Safe-Zone during the escape which the Wolves discover, ultimately leading them to the community.
Season 6[]
While most of Alexandria's able-bodied people are working on herding an enormous horde of walkers away from town, the Wolves spring their attack on the community. They savagely butcher anyone in their sights, but Carol Peletier and Morgan Jones rally the townsfolk into fighting back. As part of their attack plan, the Wolves drive a truck straight into Alexandria's main wall. While Spencer shoots the driver and stops the truck before it totally demolishes the wall, the dead driver slumps against the air-horn switch. The continuous blaring of the air-horn attracts half the walker herd back towards town.
While most of his group are killed, Owen survives and attempts to ambush Morgan inside a house. He fails and is knocked out by Morgan once more who ties his hands and locks him up in a cell, but doesn't inform anyone else. When Owen regains consciousness, Morgan tells him the story of where he was before coming to Alexandria, how he had fallen into utter despair and became a killer before he met Eastman. While Owen seems to enjoy Morgan's story of how he became a better man, he seems disinterested in the idea that he can change too and assures Morgan that he will get free and kill everyone in Alexandria.
Morgan later asks Denise Cloyd for medicine and assistance. He reveals Owen to her and asks her to keep quiet about it, then reveals that Owen is wounded and has an infection. While Denise takes care of his wound, she talks with Owen and tells him that she believes he can change. Later on, however, Carol learns that Morgan had captured Owen and follows him to the cell, knife in hand and ready to kill the Wolf. Morgan tries to dissuade Carol from killing Owen, but Owen takes advantage of the distraction. After Morgan has knocked out Carol, he manages to wrest Morgan's staff from him and knock him out. He then grabs Carol's knife from the floor to cut his bonds.
Rosita, Tara and Eugene arrive at the cell, but Owen takes Denise as a hostage to secure his escape and takes Tara's gun. They make it outside, but at this point Alexandria is now infested with zombies. The pair lie low and keep quiet so as not to attract attention from the undead horde. As night falls and the horde spreads out, the two make haste towards a lookout tower.
Death[]
In the episode "No Way Out", Owen and Denise attempt to run through the undead horde. Denise is attacked, but Owen manages to save her, although he gets bitten on the arm in the process. Denise decides to take Owen to the infirmary so she can amputate Owen's arm and save him, but before they make it, Carol appears on the balcony above the infirmary and shoots Owen. Owen is then swarmed by the zombies and devoured.
Later on, as the Alexandrians rally to take back their town from the undead, Morgan encounters a reanimated Owen and puts him down by stabbing his staff through Owen's head.