The INSIDER Summary:Heath has been missing for awhile on "The Walking Dead," and no one seems to care.No one has gone searching for him on the show or has asked about his location.That may be because actor Corey Hawkins has been working on other TV shows and movies.Still, the series has done a poor job adapting thebig comic character for the small screen.Heath has only appeared in five episodes since his introduction on season six of the zombie show and has been reduced to a glorified background character.If you've been watching "The Walking Dead," the second half of season seven has been doing a fine job of moving the plot along andavoiding the messy fan backlashthat results from cliffhangers gone wrong. The series has been tying up loose ends and resolving mysteries quickly after doling them out.But there's at least onebig mystery whichhas been bafflingly ignored.It seems the show has turned a blind eye to one of its big comic-book characters, Heath.You do remember Heath, right' This guy:Because everyone else ' Rick, Michonne, his old buddy Tara, and the entire "Walking Dead" television series ' has seemed to forget he exists.Heathwent missing in season seven, episode sixafter he and Tara were separated by a group of zombies.Since then,Tara has made her wayback to Alexandria and there hasn't been a search party sent for Heath. It's absurd.At the time, a bunch of other people had recently been killedon the show' the Alexandrians lost Spencer and Olivia, but, come on, those were C-level comic-book characters at best. Tara also lost her girlfriend, Denise. And while Iknow Rick's crew was hit with a few more unexpected losses from Negan, if one of the major players ' like Daryl, Rick, Michonne, or Carl ' went missing like Heath, you know every effort would be made to find them. People went afterDaryl at the end of season six in "East" when he leftAlexandria on his own terms to hunt downDwight. An episode later, Carol runs off, not wantingto be found, and Rick sendsMorgan after her.It's pretty frustrating. It's almost as ifthe show has forgotten Heath was with them at all.No one has even bothered asking where hehas been for the past several episodes.At the end of last Sunday's episode, "Say Yes," Tara approachesRick with something to tell him. When Rick asks what she wants to discuss,it's apparent she's probably going to reveal the whereabouts of Oceanside, a group that has an arsenal of weapons and ammunition. It's a decision she's been grappling with all episode. But Tara, how about mentioning how you got separated from one of your fellow comrades and you have no idea where he is' That may be important.Tara's also been holding onto a cardthat seemed to be some sort of clue to Heath's whereaboutsand hasn't bothered looking at it again since then.What's the deal' Did "The Walking Dead" quietly kill off Heath or did it decide to leave his story open-ended'We're leaning towards the latter. While "The Walking Dead" hasn't done much with Corey Hawkins' character, the actor behind Heath has been blowing up on television and in movies.Where's Heath' Everywhere but "The Walking Dead"Since starting on "The Walking Dead" in 2015, he has starredin "Straight Outta Compton" in the lead role of Dr. Dre and he took on the lead in Fox's "24: Legacy" series.That's not all. If you head out to see the new King Kong movie "Kong: Skull Island" this weekend, you'll catch Hawkins in a significant role in the film as a geologist working for a group studying the beast.He clearly doesn't need "The Walking Dead" right now. If anything, AMC may want Hawkins back on the small screen, especially since Heath continues to be such a big part of the comics.Heath's storyline in the comicsHeath has been in the comics since issue #69 and has several big moments in the graphic novelsthat have been changed up in the television show.It was him, not Tara, who had a relationship with Denise until she died. In the show, we seeCarl hold a Savior at gunpoint when Negan comes to raid Alexandria. In the comics, Denise is holding the gun up to a Savior and Heath brings Rick to the rescue. Heath also gets propositioned by Michonne to hookup, but turns her down. Now that she's with Rick, there's zero chance of that happening.Heath was also pretty good friends with Glenn, who was recently killed off in the show. Though they were friendly in the show, it never came across as much more than that. In fact, in the comics, Heath's pretty much on good terms with everyone. Next to Aaron, he's one of the original new members from Alexandria who is seen most in the comics.Heathbecomes so important in the graphic novelsthat he's basically in Rick's inner circle (think Michonne, Maggie, Daryl). Aaron has seemed to take on more of that role on the show.The show, on the other hand, hasn't given Heath much to do, and that's unfortunatebecause he looks like a dead ringer for his comic-book character.When you give a closer look at how Heath has been adapted on the TV show after knowing his importance in the comics, it's cringeworthy.Heath has appeared in five out of the 29episodes aired since his brief introduction in the season six premiere of "The Walking Dead." In one of those five episodes, "No Way Out," he's just there to show up to kill some zombies in a giant montage with pretty meaningless dialogue. In the others, he comes off as a completely different version of his comic character. Heath becomes reduced to a critical skeptic of Rick's way of life in the zombie apocalypse instead of a close ally and friend.In hissecond appearance (season six, episode three's "Thank You"), Heath becomes somewhathostile towards the group. He overhears a discussion where Rick essentially tells Michonne and Glenn to save themselves if the going gets rough out in the wild with a random group of Alexandrians, insinuating some of the unknown Alexandrians are expendable. (It's not a total lie. They're C-level characters, and,later in the episode, most of them die!)Heath warms up to Michonne and the group a bit, fighting alongside them several episodes later against a herd and again to help take down some Saviors, but he becomes more of a glorified background character than a homage to his comic character.The final time we see Heath, we see him become even more hardened and jaded after they kill a bunch of Negan's unarmed men while they'resleeping one night. Later, out on a two-week supply run with Tara, he's ready to give up and turn back. Tara tells him they have people counting on them. Instead of complying, he says something distressing."I'm not sure that means much to me anymore," says Heath."I get it now. If itwas you or someone else, you choose you. You take what you can, you take out who you haveto, and you get to keep going. Nobody's in this together. Not anymore."While it's refreshing to have Heath callout Rick's group for losing their humanity in the zombie apocalypse ' and perhaps not being all too different from Negan's Saviorswhen you pull back a bit ' the whole speech he gives to Tara is strangefor his character to say if you know him in the comics. Heath is one of the most giving people who puts others ahead of his own life. Thisis not who Heath's character is. He lived for his community.The show may be slowly phasing him out sinceHawkins has been moving on to bigger and better things. However, the only reason the series has probably refused to blatantly kill off his character is in the event Hawkins' schedule frees back up and he is available to return. I won't spoil future potential show points, but Heath is still very much alive in the comics, so there's much more to his story.Even if Heath does come back, at this point it could be too late to make him a big enough character to get invested in. The show has done a poor job of making such a valued fan favorite truly memorable on television.There's a scene in season six, episode threeafter HeathoverhearsRick tell Michonne and Glenn to look out for themselveswhere he challengesMichonne about Rick's group and their intentions. He speficially questionswhether they're team players or if they solely care about themselves."Things are gonna get worse and then we'll see," he says.You could play that entire scene back now and it perfectly encapsulates how Heath's character and the other Alexandrians ' Olivia, Nicholas, Deanna, and others ' have become expendable toRick's group in the name of surviving. It turns out Heath wasright all along.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Here's how "The Walking Dead" cast looks in the TV show vs the comics
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