Toby Carlson is a minor antagonist from Season 11 of The Walking Dead. He was a resident of the Commonwealth who worked as a recruiter, though he used to be a CIA agent before the apocalypse. While he initially presents himself as jovial and somewhat foolish, this is merely a facade to hide his true nature as a sadistic, violent psychopath. He appeared in the episodes "Warlords", "The Rotten Core" and posthumously in "Trust".
History[]
After having served as a recruiter for the Commonwealth for years, Carlson was enjoying his retirement before being called into duty once more by Lance Hornsby. The Commonwealth had sent out a shipment of weapons to the communities of the Coalition, but the van disappeared. Hornsby wanted Carlson to lead a team to find the weapons, which were believed to have been stolen by the residents of a neutral community. Although Carlson initially requested that Hornsby find someone else to carry out this task, Hornsby threatened to ruin Carlson's life if he refused. Knowing it was entirely within Hornsby's power to do so, Carlson begrudgingly accepted the mission.
Carlson led a team to Riverbend which included a young man called Jesse and Alexandria residents Gabriel Stokes and Aaron. As far as Gabriel and Aaron knew, they were there to try and persuade Riverbend to join the Commonwealth, but Carlson was set on ransacking the community in order to find the missing weapons. When the group arrived at RIverbend, they were allowed inside the apartment complex after being stripped of their weapons. They then met with Riverbend's leader Ian, who wasn't convinced of the group's good faith. Ian turned out to be right as Carlson snatched his gun and shot his men with it. Later, after questioning him about the missing guns, Carlson shot Ian as well.
As Carlson brought in Commonwealth troops to secure Riverbend, Aaron attacked him and killed one of his men who shot at Jesse who was fleeing on horseback. Aaron escaped while Gabriel was handcuffed, but the pastor would be freed by Negan Smith and his new wife Annie. Meanwhile, Carlson was on the roof questioning several residents on the whereabouts of the missing weapons, but nobody knew what he was talking about. Dissatisfied, Carlson pushed all six captives off the roof to their deaths, one by one. He and his soldiers then began searching the building, ready to kill everyone until they found what they were looking for.
As his people searched the complex, Carlson noticed some footprints in the dust on the floor of one apartment, leading to a secret room where several surviving residents were hiding. Before he could investigate, he heard gunfire coming from nearby. His team spotted Aaron running through a hallway and he followed Aaron up to the roof.
Death[]
Upon arriving at the building's roof, Carlson was ambushed by Elijah, who killed the soldiers flanking him. Maggie and Lydia emerged from the stairwell door and Carlson found himself cornered. As Aaron pointed a gun at him, Carlson began pleading for his life, but Aaron shot him several times. Carlson's body armour stopped the bullets, but the shots caused him to stagger back and he fell off the roof. While Carlson survived the fall, he couldn't move due to breaking several bones. Worse still, the residents he had previously pushed off the roof had reanimated and were dragging themselves towards him. Unable to move, Carlson screamed in terror, and then pain, as his previous victims swarmed and devoured him.
In the episode "Trust", Carlson is seen as a bloodied corpse. Maggie stabs him in the head before he can reanimate.