The communities, led by Ezekiel, Maggie at the Hilltop, and Rick at Alexandria, team up in an all-out war against the Saviors and their leader, Negan.

The opportunity Ezekiel is waiting for finally comes when Jesus brings Rick Grimes to meet him and passes on the information they have regarding the Saviors' strength and the location of their main base of operations.

Ezekiel brings Morgan and Benjamin to a secret meeting with the Saviors, who are given the walker-fed pigs, now slaughtered, as part of their tribute from the Kingdom.

In the mid-season premiere "Rock in the Road", Ezekiel is shown to be friends with Hilltop scout Paul Rovia, aka "Jesus".

Ezekiel takes the night to ponder his decision, but ultimately decides against open conflict with the Saviors as he refuses to endanger his people's lives.

In the episode "Bury Me Here", Ezekiel, Morgan, Ben, Richard and several others find a roadblock en route to their meeting with the Saviors.

In the season finale, "First Day of the Rest of Your Life", Ezekiel leads Carol and a group of Kingdom fighters to Alexandria to accept Rick's alliance.

The episode ends with Ezekiel standing beside Rick and Maggie Greene as the Kingdom, Hilltop and Alexandria pledge to aid each other.

In the following episode, "The Damned", Ezekiel, alongside Carol, leads forces of Kingdom soldiers, clearing out all but one Savior at a stronghold.

The solitary Savior escapes, but Ezekiel orders his group to give chase, fearing he will warn a nearby stronghold.

In the episode "Monsters", since they are close to another stronghold but still undetected, Ezekiel decides to launch an attack, despite not being in Rick's plan and against Carol's caution.

In the episode "Some Guy", Ezekiel crawls out from the pile of corpses with a limp foot, aghast at the bodies around him that are starting to reanimate.

In the mid-season finale "How It's Gotta Be", when his community is invaded by the Saviors and they demand to know where Ezekiel is hiding, he allows himself to be caught soon afterwards, so his people may escape.

The battle begins, and the rescuers succeed in lethally wounding several members of the militia with weapons contaminated with the blood of a walker.

Mayhem erupts at dawn inside the Barrington house in Hilltop, as many wounded succumb to the infection and die, because of the Saviors' contaminated weapons, begin to revive as walkers and attack.

Ezekiel falls in the last crossing as the glass floor is broken, but they are tied together with ropes, and Carol and others rescue him quickly from certain death.

In the second half of the season, Ezekiel struggles to reunite the fractured communities with a trade fair, while the Kingdom begins to fall apart from old age and disrepair.

Though Michonne has developed a more isolationist mindset, she allows Alexandria to send a delegation, convinced by Judith Grimes to mend relationships with her old friends.

However, the trade fair takes an ominous turn when it is infiltrated by Alpha, leader of the Whisperers, who Ezekiel unknowingly encounters and talks with.

In "The Storm," the Kingdom finally falls due to disrepair and disaster and Ezekiel and the other residents are forced to relocate to Hilltop during a severe blizzard.

Ezekiel eventually reveals a large lump on his neck to Siddiq, knowing that it is thyroid cancer which his family has a history of.

While his father and grandmother successfully fought it off, Ezekiel is convinced that his condition is terminal in the current world which lacks modern medicine.

After Siddiq is murdered by Dante, Ezekiel attends the funeral and is reunited with Carol, whom he considers telling about his condition but still can't go through with it.

Following the destruction of Hilltop, Ezekiel agrees to join Eugene's mission to meet Stephanie despite his deteriorating condition, wanting to do something good with what's left of his life.

Ezekiel undergoes the surgery which is performed by Yumiko's long-lost brother Tomi who was a thoracic surgeon before the world ended.

Ezekiel joins the effort to expose the Milton family's corruption and refuses to leave when the communities go their separate ways, wanting to try to save another Kingdom before it inevitably falls.

Negan approaches Ezekiel for help in leading a revolution against the sadistic Warden, aided by the fact that the camp that they've been sent to is at a Commonwealth-occupied Alexandria.

Ezekiel succeeds in convincing most of the Commonwealth soldiers to stand down while the Warden is subdued by Daryl, allowing the Coalition to retake Alexandria.

As everyone heads to the Commonwealth to take down Pamela, Ezekiel makes peace with Negan, recounting his various near-death experiences and deciding to let go of his bitterness.

[6][7] Noel Murray of Rolling Stone ranked King Ezekiel 9th in a list of 30 best Walking Dead characters, saying, "Thanks to Khary Payton's theatrical flair, the general congeniality of "The Kingdom," and one seriously awesome pet tiger, this new leader offered a reminder that violence and selfishness aren't the only way to survive.