Little background is given about T-Dog prior to the walker epidemic, but in the episode "
Say the Word"
Glenn states that T-Dog helped a local church, driving its van and helping the elderly members of its congregation.
Season 1 Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas is a muscular and well-intentioned man, yet somewhat clumsy. In the episode "
Guts", T-Dog is one of a number of survivors who have come to
Atlanta to scavenge for supplies. On the roof of the department store in which they have holed up,
Merle Dixon, a virulent racist, attempts to assert his leadership over the group and beats T-Dog.
Rick Grimes subdues Merle and handcuffs him to a pipe, leaving him under the watch of T-Dog while the rest of the group look for a way out. Rick and
Glenn obtain a box truck, which Rick drives to one of the store's cargo doors. In the rush to escape, T-Dog accidentally drops the key to the handcuffs down a drainpipe, leaving Merle trapped on the roof. T-Dog tries to apologize to Merle but Merle insists that T-Dog did it on purpose. T-Dog does, however, in an attempt to keep walkers from killing him, padlock a heavy chain to the roof access door. The entire group (other than Merle) is able to escape the city in the box truck. In the episode "
Tell It to the Frogs", T-Dog and the group return to the camp, where Merle's brother
Daryl becomes enraged to hear that his brother was abandoned. Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog return to Atlanta to save Merle at Daryl's insistence, but find that Merle is gone, leaving his amputated hand behind. In the episode "
Vatos", the four of them search for Merle and the bag of guns that Rick dropped, and Glenn is captured by another group of survivors, along with the bag of guns. Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog confront the other group, and after recovering Glenn they return to camp just outside of Atlanta. That evening, at dinner, the camp is overrun by a walker horde. In the episode "
Wildfire", T-Dog helps the group clean up after the attack, and the group agrees to seek shelter at the
CDC. In the episode "
TS-19", the group reaches the CDC facility and are allowed in by the only remaining scientist, Edwin Jenner. Jenner eventually reveals that the building will soon self-destruct; when it explodes, T-Dog barely manages to escape with the others.
Season 2 In the season premiere "
What Lies Ahead", T-Dog and the remaining survivors begin travelling to
Fort Benning when they encounter a blockade of abandoned vehicles, and
Dale's RV breaks down. When a large herd of walkers approaches, T-Dog slices his arm on a car door, while some of the walkers chase after
Sophia, who goes missing. In the episode "
Bloodletting", he shows concern about being the only
African-American member of the group and asks Dale to run away with him. Dale believes that T-Dog has contracted a blood infection from his wound, and Daryl later gives Dale some painkillers and
doxycycline antibiotics that Merle had been carrying around. In the episode "
Save the Last One", Glenn and T-Dog journey to
Hershel's farm, where T-Dog receives medical treatment for blood poisoning. In the episode "
Cherokee Rose", the group is allowed to stay at the farm while they search for Sophia. T-Dog helps extract a walker from one of the farm's wells, but when the walker bursts open it contaminates the water, and T-Dog kills it with an axe. In the episode "
Chupacabra", when Daryl returns to camp after searching for Sophia, Andrea spots him in the distance but confuses him for a walker and shoots him. T-Dog finds Daryl wounded, and discovers that he had found Sophia's doll. In the episode "
Secrets", T-Dog helps give firearm training to some of the others at the farm. In the episode "
Pretty Much Dead Already",
Shane Walsh breaks open Hershel's barn, where he had been sheltering walkers who had been his family, friends, and neighbors, and T-Dog helps shoot the walkers as they come out of the barn. In the episode "
Nebraska", T-Dog helps burn the walker bodies. In the episode "
Triggerfinger", T-Dog is seen with the group when Shane reveals that
Lori is pregnant, and later when the group discusses what to do with
Randall, who was captured some of the others after his group attacked them. In the episode "
Judge, Jury, Executioner", T-Dog is seen attending the group debate over Randall's fate, and later witnesses Daryl mercy killing Dale after he had been ripped open by a walker. In the episode "
Better Angels", Hershel allows the group to stay at his farm indefinitely following Dale's death. T-Dog helps the group move into Hershel's home, and he later notices that Randall is no longer in the barn where he was being held. In the season finale "
Beside the Dying Fire", walkers overrun the farm, and he escapes with a few other survivors. He is keen on moving on and escaping, but Lori convinces him to turn back to get Rick and the others.
Season 3 In the season premiere "
Seed", after several months on the road, the group discovers a prison complex and they clear out all the walkers there so they can settle in and make it their new home. T-Dog joins some others on a scouting mission to other parts of the prison, where they encounter a group of five surviving inmates. In the episode "
Sick", Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog confront the prisoners, who claim rights to the prison because they were there first. Rick and his group argue that they cleared out the walkers, so they earned the prison. They initially compromise to share the prison, but when Tomas, one of the prisoners, tries to assassinate Rick, the group fights them; one inmate (
Andrew) escapes, and only two are left alive,
Oscar and
Axel. They surrender and Rick spares their lives but locks them in another cell block. In the episode "
Killer Within", Oscar and Axel plead to be part of the group, but Rick declines. T-Dog tries to convince Rick and Daryl to let the two surviving prisoners join their group, but he is overruled. Later, a horde of walkers somehow invades the prison courtyard, and T-Dog is bitten on the shoulder by a walker while securing the gate, and is then killed while sacrificing his life to allow
Carol to escape when they run out of ammunition. Later in the episode, it is revealed that the escaped Andrew let the walkers in. ==Development and reception==