AMC
On The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 5, there’s a scene with Ezekiel and Siddiq where Ezekiel finally reveals what’s wrong with him and why he’s been coughing so much. In case you didn’t quite understand what happened in that scene, we have an explanation here.
This article has spoilers for Season 10 Episode 5.
Ezekiel Is Coughing A Lot & His Diagnosis Is Not Good
Early on in Season 10 Episode 5, Ezekiel keeps coughing and it looks like he’s sick. You might think that he has the flu.
Sadly, Ezekiel has thyroid cancer and believes he’s going to die. He told Siddiq that he’s had multiple very close relatives who had thyroid cancer, so he always knew it was likely that he would end up with it too.
Ezekiel was right when he said that thyroid cancer typically has a 98 percent cure rate. His own family survived it. The cancer is slow growing and people with thyroid cancer typically have a thyroidectomy to remove their thyroid, radioactive iodine, and then must take thyroid medication for the rest of their lives since they no longer have a thyroid. But it’s very manageable and typically caught far early enough to be cured.
But in the apocalypse, it’s not that easy. Without having thyroid medication available, a thyroidectomy can be a serious issue and likely is not survivable. It’s not clear why Siddiq was suggesting acupuncture and hypnosis as possible alternatives. Ezekiel is obviously very aware of how this cancer would work in the apocalypse. His thyroid cancer has grown enough to cause a lump and be visible. He probably also has swollen lymph nodes in other parts of his neck from the cancer.
He knows that with a thyroidectomy, survival in the apocalypse isn’t likely. Back in January, writer Tiffany Antone wrote a story on Medium about how she was worried about surviving an apocalypse after her thyroidectomy from Grave’s disease. She wrote, “When the zombie apocalypse happens, I’m only going to last as long as Big Pharma’s stockpile of Levothyroxine does.”
Ezekiel seems pretty certain that the thyroid cancer is going to ultimately kill him.
What Happened to Ezekiel in the Comics?
This part of the article has spoilers for the comics.
So what happened to Ezekiel in the comics? Well, he and Michonne had an actual relationship for a while (which his and Carol’s seems to have replaced.) He did not get thyroid cancer in the comics, but he also didn’t live in the comics.
Ezekiel was killed by Alpha and his head was put on a pike. He was killed off-panel, and his death wasn’t shown in the comics. Andrea (still alive at this point in the comics) was the one who killed his zombified head.
Because of this and how different the plots are, we can’t use the comics as a clue about whether Ezekiel really has thyroid cancer and is going to die. But it seems likely that he knows what’s happening to him based on his family’s history and, at this point, the cancer has probably already spread.