Walt "Coyote" Murphy¶

Walt "Coyote" Murphy is a veteran ranch hand and gate guard on Robert Bigelow's research staff at Sherman Ranch near Ballard, Utah, who guides the task force on night patrols and joins the final battle of The Walkers in Skin.


Type	NPC
Aliases	Walt; Coyote; Yote; Walter
Affiliation	Bigelow's research operation
Status	Alive, unconscious in an APC at the end of Walkers 09
First appearance	Walkers 02
Played by	Andre

Description¶

Walt is a Native American man, fairly muscular, friendly and slightly rattled, who is divorced. The cold open of Walkers 02 shows a Native American man in a big cowboy hat patrolling the ranch with a shotgun; he fits Walt's description, but the episode never names him. In-fiction, he tells the party he served in the Gulf War and got home about a year ago; the Salt Lake City agents call him a former Army Ranger. For six months in the summer of 1986 he tried to get people to call him "Coyote." He drives a Jeep, rides an ATV, and asks that guns not be fired near him unless his earplugs are in: "There's been enough of that for one lifetime" (Walkers 02, Walkers 04).

History¶

The barn snooper and the goose¶

Walt is the gate guard for Bigelow. He is the "former Army Ranger" of the field office's rundown, who fired on a snooper by the barn and claimed to have hit him, though no evidence was found. He tells the team that he gave a warning before firing and that the figure came at him "at pretty high speed", and Bigelow says he has "total faith in Walt's judgment". He is at constant war with Nancy the goose; the goose bites him, and he vows, "One of these days I am gonna eat that thing" (Walkers 02). In Walkers 03 he says he wasn't kidding about the goose being his biggest problem in life, offers the party brownies and cold soup, and arranges the night-patrol ride-along.

Patrol and skepticism¶

On the patrol in Walkers 04 he falls in love with Kurt Larson's P90 ("It's like a space gun or something"), complains about city council meetings that are ninety-five percent Mormon, and takes the party to a burned crow, which he thinks might be ball lightning. During about thirty minutes of UFO talk in the car, his opinion of Howard shifts significantly. He is the skeptic and prefers mundane explanations for the vanished car (a big cargo plane and a skyhook, or a helicopter lowering a cable), as the party debates in the vanishing car incident. He recognizes the teenager Harrison from childhood and says he shot at a guy not two months ago. Of the party he says, "You guys are the weirdest fucking cops I've ever met" (Walkers 04).

The night of the light¶

In Walkers 05 he is exhausted, makes coffee, apple cider and hot chocolate, and drives the party to Roosevelt the next morning. Kurt calls him "Yote."

The naked intruder¶

In Walkers 07 he arrives by Jeep at 11:15 p.m., squints at the restrained naked intruder ("Is that... you?"), and responds to the party's account of the man's behavior with "pick a fucking lane." He drives the catatonic man to the small emergency room in Roosevelt and returns at about 5 a.m. to report that the man died on the operating table, after going downhill during the drive until Walt was doing CPR while driving. See the naked intruder.

The finale¶

In Walkers 09 Coyote volunteers for the substation sabotage and pulls out his "illegal-ass" rocket-propelled grenade. He and two National Guardsmen with a box of grenades take an APC back toward the substation. Afterward the party finds the APC on its side among dead bodies and burned-out station wagons, with the substation blown apart by grenades. Coyote, inside, calls out, "your friend was naked and running for ya"; Rita (as Andrew) thanks him for not shooting her when they met. The party tips the APC over to free them, and Coyote and the Guardsmen crawl out of a shot-out window, then lose consciousness from the dust stirred up. The party hauls them into their vehicle. See the substation.

Memorable quotes¶

Quote

"You guys are the weirdest fucking cops I've ever met." (Andre as Walt, Walkers 04)